Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade overcomes a slump in form; Gets back to his old ways – NBA Feature
Dwyane Wade had an exceptional night on Sunday, a night that made all those who were watching remember the Wade of 2006.
In 2006, Wade was the man who carried the Miami Heat team on his back and led them to an NBA Championship by defeating the mighty Dallas Mavericks. He was the most celebrated sportsman and celebrity in Miami
after that and ever since, he is the guy who seems to own the team.
He was 24 then, and is 30 now and not that same guy anymore. He has not been putting up the same numbers and age seems to be catching up on him as he doesn’t have the same explosiveness he used to have a few
years ago.
Wade’s role in the Miami lineup has been reduced after the formation of the Big Three. He has taken a back seat to LeBron James, and seems content with the change as he wants to do whatever is necessary for the
team to win a championship.
However, with Chris Bosh sidelined from the Eastern Conference Semi Finals against Indiana after suffering a strained abdominal muscle in game 1, Wade saw a sudden jump in responsibility, and could not live up
to it. He shot poorly in the first three games, going 2 of 13 in game 3 that saw him having a standoff with Coach Erik Spoelstra after a team timeout.
A lot of criticism was directed at him over his game and behaviour, with many people writing the Heat off this year’s playoffs as they had decided that Wade was not going to return to his old form and without
Bosh, James alone could not guarantee success.
Well, those people were wrong.
After starting off poorly once again going 1 of 8 from the field to open game 4 against Indiana, Wade suddenly looked like the same person who had led the Heat to the championship in 2006. The ‘Flash’ gave Pacers
all of it and scored 30 points on the night, added 6 assists and 9 rebounds.
He was 13 of 23 from the field and 2 of 2 from the three point range and teamed up with LeBron James (who had 40 points, 18 rebounds and 9 assists for night) to score 70% of their team’s total points, levelling
the series at two games apiece.
Wade took a different approach to figure out his slump and regain his confidence, visiting his high school coach. And it seemed to have worked. With the amount of criticism he faced after game 3, it had to take
a person of great mental strength to come back with the type of game he did.
“The last 48 hours have been mental. I spent some time up at IU with my coach. First time there, great place, really nice campus. But I really spent time with a mentor of mine, a father figure. You know, we had long days, long
hours of just conversating, just talking, about a lot of things. It was great for me to just to get away and just get that, that energy I needed from him. And besides that, just figuring out what I need to do differently to help my team get this win” said
Wade in the post game press conference.
With the slump behind him, Wade will be full of confidence and this makes him even more dangerous for the Pacers. There are only three games (may be two) left in the series and two of them are in Miami.
With Wade back in form and James playing like the MVP he is, Miami are suddenly back in this series and have a strong chance of progressing into the Eastern Conference Finals.
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