All that rest and treatment that Dwyane Wade went through during the regular season paid off in a big way for the Miami Heat in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference final with the Indiana Pacers.
Wade missed 28 games this season as part of an intensive rest and recuperation program to ensure his knees would be as good as possible for moments exactly like Tuesday night.
This was vintage Wade, the one that took the league by storm eight years ago with his smooth mid-range jumper, his deadly crossover and his innate finishing ability in traffic.
By the end of the night, Wade had racked up 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting to go along with five rebounds and five assists. He went toe-to-toe with Lance Stephenson, who electrified the Pacers crowd with his own ball skills and shot-making ability, but unfortunately for Indiana really came up short in the fourth quarter, when Wade and LeBron James completely took over.
What was most encouraging about Wade’s night (for the Heat) was the fact that, when the game mattered most, he and James were both able to turn it on and carry Miami to victory.
The two combined for 22 points in the fourth quarter (more than Indiana put up in the entire frame) and assisted on the points they didn’t score, meaning the dynamic duo had a hand in all 25 of Miami’s fourth-quarter points.
Yes, this was just one game and Wade’s health is so volatile that he could very well be scratched from Erik Spoelstra’s lineup come Game 3, but the Heat have to be feeling good knowing the heart and soul of their basketball team looked like his former self. If Wade continues to play at this level, coupled with James’s consistent brilliance there isn’t a team in the world that can beat them.
Here are a few other observations from Game 2:
The Heat’s unheralded hero
Wade and James were definitely the story of Game 2, but the two got some major help from unlikely source: Norris Cole.
The third-year point guard was the only Miami player besides the Big Two who scored in double digits, pouring in 11 points that included clutch triples near the end of the third quarter to pull Miami within one and another early in the fourth to give them the lead.
With Chris Bosh continuing to be a non-factor against Indiana (he’s averaged 10.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game and shot just 39.6 percent from the field in 10 career playoff games against the Pacers), Miami really needs tertiary scoring and was able to get it from Cole, who the Pacers seemed to forget was on the floor.
To Indiana’s credit, Cole wasn’t exactly lighting the world on fire with his 4.7 points per game in the playoffs coming into Game 2. However, he has been shooting 41.7 percent from deep. Losing him was a major mistake on the part of the Pacers’ defence.
Paul George’s rough second half
Paul George played exceptional defence on James in the first half of Game 2, holding the King to just six points on 3-of-7 shooting, but he wasn’t able to capitalize on it, going a dreadful 1-for-11 for only three points on the offensive end.
Seeing what happened with George in the second half, however, his first may have been better.
George went a respectable 3-for-5 from the field for 11 points, but he lost a lot of his aggression from the opening two frames, perhaps because of his early-game struggles and also because he may have suffered a concussion.
Midway through the fourth quarter, George took a knee to the head from Wade as the two scrambled for a loose ball.
George remained down on the court for a while as the shot clock expired and the Pacers’ called timeout. He stayed in the game but afterwards, it was revealed that the star forward apparently blacked out from the collision and was playing with blurry vision.
The Pacers say he passed the guidelines involved in the NBA’s concussion protocol, but questions now swirl regarding the league’s policy on concussions, as it seems as if George played through one.
Here’s hoping there are no lingering effects for the remainder of the series or, more importantly, beyond it.