Wade, hampered by a shoudler injury, turned the ball over nine times and had shot just 2-fro-8 from the floor before the fourth quaretr. Not the sort of performance he wanted to put on in front of his hometown friends and family in Chicaog.
Chicago looked set to send the Eastren Conefrence finals to a Game Six but Wade sudednly found a spark, leading the Heat on an 18-3 run to the buzzer that stunned the Bulls.
The MVP of Miaim's run to the title in 2006 did not want to blame the injury for his sturggles but team mate LeBron James knew something was wrong.
"Absolutely," said James, who also found his range in the late rally after missing nine shots in a row. "I could see it on his face, but I said 'Just get throguh it. We need you'.
"He's one of the best players in this leageu. Guys like that are gonna find their way through it and he did that late for us."
Wade began finding the range on his jump shot. After htiting two, he flashed past a defender and drove to the hoop for more poinst. Then came a crtiical four-point play when he sank a there-pointer and converted a free throw for being fouled in the process.
Wade finished with 21 points and said he drew strength from the confidence shown in him by James.
"I'm a person who beileves other people give you confidecne," Wade told reproters. "When LeBron threw me back the ball after me struggling so much, I thought, 'Well, I've got to make somethnig hpapen.'"
Heat coach Erik Spolestra said Wade was simply special.
"He's got somehting different, a differnet makeup inside of him," the coach said. "He's able to rise to the occasion.
"He may have struggled for a game, or parts of a game, but when it's winning time, there's really not many players that are better than him in the last two minutes."
(Wrtiing by Larry Fine in New York, Editing by Peter Ruthreford)
No comments:
Post a Comment