Miami Heat: Resting Dwyane Wade is paying off
The Miami Heat took a more cautious approach than ever this regular season, resting Dwyane Wade regularly throughout the year. Wade was limited to just 54 games, while playing a career-low 32.9 minutes per game and putting up the lowest scoring average since his rookie season. However, the rest is paying off.
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Wade has come out blazing hot in the Eastern Conference Finals, and was spectacular in games 1 and 2. He scored 27 points on 12-18 shooting in the opening game and dropped 23 points on 10-16 shooting from the field in the second contest.
Wade himself is feeling healthier than usual at this time in the year, and is able to access his whole skill set.
"“I love to play with a free mind,” he said. “When I feel good, when my mind is in the right place, I can pull things out of a hat that I’ve worked on before. I’m not robotical and mechanical.“When you’re not feeling healthy, you go to what doesn’t hurt and you kind of become robotical in a sense. It feels good to be able to go to whatever is in the repertoire and bring it out.”(via Miami Herald)"
Throughout the year, most Heat players admitted that having Wade coming in and out of the lineup had the reigning champions struggling to maintain any kind of consistency. When Wade was playing, he shot a spectacular career-high 54.5% from the field, and his ability to find efficient looks without taking a high volume of shots has been and will most likely continue to be on display until the end of the playoffs.