Dwyane Wade: Back to my comfort zone
MIAMI -- The worst part was the uncertainty.
Chris Bosh remembers all of those times he would enter the
Miami Heat’s training facility three hours before tip-off, see teammate
Dwyane Wade’s troublesome knee being poked, prodded, tested, diagnosed and then reevaluated again by the medical staff before the final word arrived.
Miami's Chris Bosh might be the best he's ever been.
Tom Haberstroh
The Heat’s starting lineup would be written up on the team’s dry-erase board. There were plenty of nights last season when Bosh and his teammates wouldn’t learn of Wade’s availability until just before the game when they realized his name wasn’t among the five listed.
“He might make a wrong move in warm-ups, and then that would be it,” Bosh recalled Tuesday of Wade. “It was just that much of a delicate situation. Before, it was giving him trouble and even he didn’t know what was going to happen. He was stressed out because he didn’t even know how he was going to wake up in the morning, whether he was going to be fine that day or hurting from the start.”
It’s a far different sort of start that has Wade and his teammates far more encouraged about his prospects now. Coming off a season in which he missed 28 games largely due to knee issues the team tried to address through a proactive maintenance program, Wade’s availability and production have been the most surprising aspects of the Heat’s 5-2 start entering Wednesday’s game against Indiana.
Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports
Dwyane Wade has already played in as many back-to-backs (three) as he did all of last season.
This time a year ago, Wade was already well into that maintenance program that started in training camp and left him out of the lineup for the second game of the season. He also frequently skipped at least one game to preserve his knees or to deal with soreness when Miami played on consecutive nights.
Among the biggest accomplishments of the Heat’s young season is that Wade, 32, not only pushed through a recent stretch of six games in nine nights, but thrived while doing so. Wade has already played in every game of Miami’s three back-to-back sets, which matches his total from all of last season.
Wade finished with 20 points and 10 assists in Sunday’s 105-96 win at Dallas a night after he had 25 points, eight assists and two steals in 30 minutes during a 102-92 home victory against Minnesota. Wade still deals with some uncertainty. He joked in Dallas that he woke up in the team hotel amid the dizzying recent schedule and didn’t immediately know what city he was in.
For now, health seems to be the least of his worries, although conditioning remains his top priority. That’s one reason why Wade, a perennial All-Star with three championship rings among other accolades, was proud Tuesday to count his recent stretch of production as a significant personal accomplishment.
Even after the Heat absorbed back-to-back losses last week to Houston and Charlotte, Wade approached coach Erik Spoelstra with a bounce in his step, having totaled 44 points on 16-of-29 shooting in 64 minutes over those two contests.
“I told Coach, obviously coming out of four [games] in five nights, we lost two of those -- I said, ‘Well, I had an individual victory, playing my best on the last night of those,” Wade said. “The same thing with the six [games] in nine [nights], playing my most minutes in the biggest stretch. It’s all good from the standpoint of the work I put in this summer. It’s very, very early, but I’m happy where I’m at right now.”
Neither Wade nor Spoelstra would venture into great detail how Wade’s conditioning and maintenance program has evolved from the process they went through last season.
But Spoelstra has been fond of saying that Wade is “putting in a typical American workday” in terms of showing up for eight-hour shifts. That time incorporates practices and games, in addition to the conditioning routine Wade goes through before practices or after game-day shootarounds as well as the treatment sessions after games.
Wade and Bosh have shared the additional burden created by LeBron James’ return to the
Cleveland Cavaliers in free agency after the trio guided the Heat to two titles and four straight trips to the NBA Finals.
Bosh has scored at least 20 points in all seven games this season, which is his longest streak with the Heat, and is the only player in the league averaging at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and three assists a game. And Bosh’s four double-doubles this season are only two shy of his total for all of last season.
For Wade, the transition has allowed him to serve as the team’s primary facilitator and he’s averaging 19.7 points, a team-high 6.9 assists and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 51 percent from the field. He’s had two games with at least 10 assists, which match his total from 54 regular-season games last season.
“What you’re seeing now is the residual of all the work Dwyane has put in -- I keep saying he’s working a full American day,” Spoelstra said. “He’s not shortcutting any part of the process. It’s not easy. But it’s what he has to do to keep himself at a high level. We’re all happy with the process, his commitment.”
Wade has advanced from a trial-and-error process to a more stable and reliable routine this season. Two years ago, Wade entered the 2012-13 season recovering from knee surgery. He came into last season coming off a shock-wave therapy procedure to address extensive bone bruises in his right knee and spent much of the season in and out of the lineup as he played through the rehab process.
The wild production swings last season led to Wade’s strong performance against the
Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals but his confounding struggles in a five-game loss to the
San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. This past offseason was all about conditioning, which included reshaping his body and losing enough weight to require a smaller size in his game-night jersey and shorts.
“Every year is different. Last year was last year,” Wade said. “My body went through a different thing and we went through a different program. It worked at certain moments and it didn’t at others. Right now, this year is different and we’re starting off different. You can’t control it. As long as you put the work in, hopefully you’ll see the progress you make from the process.”
Teammates as well as opponents have already witnessed the progression.
Danny Bollinger/Getty
Chris Bosh has joined D-Wade with increased productivity, posting four double-doubles, just two shy of his total for last season.
“People keep talking about him being old or hurt, but I don’t see it,”
Toronto Raptors guard
DeMar DeRozan said after Wade had 19 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in a Nov. 2 win against the Raptors. “He’s that guy. He and Chris are back to both being that guy again.”
Bosh said Wade shouldn’t be expected to play in every back-to-back and will likely take some games off this season even if healthy. The difference between this season and last season, Bosh said, is that his teammate seems rejuvenated and determined to lead by example on and off the court.
It starts with Wade being healthy, reliable and available.
“It’s smart to have that balance with him,” Bosh said. “But we have to be a little smarter with the balance this year. We had the luxury of having a super veteran team in the past, and he knew that guys would pick up the slack. But we have a younger core now, and we have to all do a little more. He’s responded well to that. It’s just something you deal with, and for him it’s a lot of motivation.”
Wade sort of forgot how good all of this attention felt, especially from opposing defenses.
As the Heat were on their way to racking up a season-high 31 assists and carving through the
Dallas Mavericks for their most impressive win of the season so far, Wade noticed the additional company he commanded each time he touched the ball.
There were nights last season when Wade would have been a forgotten man in a suit on the bench as his team trudged through the second game of a back-to-back set.
He’s now back to being the center of attention, commanding a double-team.
“It felt good to get that back,” Wade joked Tuesday. “It’s a sign of respect. I have to make the plays I’m making to get off the ball. I’m comfortable at understanding the game and knowing when to get guys shots and when to get my own. It’s back to my comfort zone I’ve had pretty much my whole life.”
for rio hard when most everyone wanted him gone
when he resign
