Marquette University Athletics
Column: Dwyane Wade Gives Miami Hope
6/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
June 14, 2006
By BRIAN MAHONEY
AP Basketball Writer
MIAMI (AP) - The front cover of Miami's media guide is a picture of Dwyane Wade standing next to Shaquille O'Neal, pointing as if to show the way.
Typical Heat, counting on Wade to lead them.
And the only reason there is still hope in Miami is because Wade found a way to pull it off -- just as Pat Riley said he would.
"He's been doing that all season," Heat reserve James Posey said. "He likes that moment like that late in the game. He put us on his back and carried us."
Wade was sensational Tuesday night in Game 3 of the NBA finals. Down 2-0 to the Dallas Mavericks coming into this game, the Heat couldn't have settled for anything less.
Wade scored 42 points, matching his playoff career high, and grabbed 13 rebounds in Miami's 98-96 victory. The game had all but gotten away from the Heat early in the fourth quarter before Wade did a little of everything to lead them back.
He also kept them from falling into the one place from which no NBA team has ever recovered -- a 3-0 deficit.
"At that moment, looking up at the score thinking, 'Nah, ain't going down like this,'" Wade said of his fourth-quarter thoughts.
Wade had received an e-mail from LeBron James, who told his friend and fellow superstar from the class of 2003 to "to lead my troops."
And Wade didn't stop doing that until he had knocked away Dallas' last-hope inbounds pass as time was set to expire.
Just a few minutes earlier, it seemed that Miami's championship hopes were about to do the same.
Wade wouldn't allow it.
"Basically, you know, took over the game the last five, six minutes," O'Neal said. "That's what a great player of his caliber does."
It wasn't that long ago that O'Neal was trying to get his sidekick to stop shooting so much. But the Shaq-Wade relationship has one huge difference from Shaq-Kobe.
Wade has become the bigger star in this one. If he hadn't already proved that by averaging 26.2 points to O'Neal's 19.2 entering the game, he did by taking over Game 3.
And unlike with Bryant, O'Neal has no desires to limit Wade's aggressiveness.
"He's the type of player that you just let him go and let him do his thing," O'Neal said.
The two games in Dallas had been tough on Wade. Still battling the lingering effects of a sinus infection, he admitted he tired in the fourth quarter of the Heat's Game 1 loss.
The Mavs then ran away with Game 2 in the lone blowout of the series. Nearly all of the attention was focused on O'Neal's struggles, but just as big for the Mavericks was the way they contained Wade, holding him to 6-of-19 shooting from the field.
Riley was asked about Wade's struggles before Game 3, and he predicted Wade would bounce back.
"I watched Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor and all of these guys play and I've coached a lot of the great ones," Riley said. "And I've seen the great ones attacked, just absolutely attacked by defenses, and doubled and tripled and hit and knocked and scratched and kicked and whatever it takes to stop them. I'm not saying this has happened to Dwyane, but over the last couple of years, he's started to see things and started to feel things that he's never experienced before.
"And he'll get used to it. He's always been one of those guys that has stepped up and taken the challenge and I know he wasn't happy with what happened in Game 2. So I fully expect him to respond."
Making Wade's play even more impressive is that he's doing it with so little help, especially from O'Neal.
Wade might have to do more than show Shaq the way -- he might have to carry him there.
The other four starters totaled 48 points, the Miami bench came up with another eight.
During one long stretch of the second half, the Heat made 13 field goals. Wade had nine of them.
"He really had it on his mind that he was going to be aggressive getting to the basket, especially in that fourth quarter," the Mavs' Jason Terry said. "He really, really took over."
Wade had 21 points and nine rebounds in the first half, helping Miami take a nine-point lead. But the deeper Mavs completely turned around the game in the third quarter, and had built a double-digit lead by early in the fourth.
At that point, there seemed nothing that could prevent a quick end to the series. In fact, Dallas is already expecting it -- the route for their championship parade has already been planned.
It looks as if Wade still plans to cancel it.
