Wade envious of greater reliance on 3-pointers
After all he accomplished with the Miami Heat during what assuredly will be a Hall of Fame career, Dwyane Wade apparently is going through a decided case of post-playing fear of missing out.
Because Erik Spoelstra’s team is doing now what Wade said mostly stood as a barrier during his time with the franchise.
The iconic guard explained as he worked TNT’s studio during the Heat’s 112-106 Tuesday night victory over the Boston Celtics.
“Erik Spoelstra, I love him to death,” Wade said with a smile, “but I feel like he held me back now, Coach. You’re allowing everybody to shoot all these 3s that you did not allow me to shoot.
“He wouldn’t let me shoot. He told me I was shooting the homerun shot. But I love Coach.”
The Heat attempted 45 3-pointers in Monday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors and then 43 more in Tuesday’s victory over the Celtics. The 45 stood as their second-highest total of the season.
As a matter of perspective, during Wade’s rookie season, in 2003-04, the Heat averaged 16.5 3-pointers per game. When he helped the franchise win its first championship in 2005-06, the
Heat averaged 17.6. And when the Heat in 2012 won the first of consecutive championships with Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, the Heat averaged 15.6 3-point attempts per game.
Wade, who retired after last season, said he appreciates Spoelstra playing to the strengths of shooters such as Duncan Robinson, Tyler Herro, Kelly Olynyk and Jae Crowder, among others, particularly when Jimmy Butler is not on the court. Butler sat out Tuesday’s victory due to ankle soreness, with the Heat closing 15 of 43 from beyond the arc.
“What I love about the way that the Miami Heat are getting 3s is there’s ball movement, which is very important when they don’t have a Jimmy Butler,” Wade said. “They don’t have the guy that really penetrates for them and gets his guys shots, so the ball movement is important. Pitch-aheads are important.
“They’re doing a great job of getting the rebounds, pitching it ahead. And also, with Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson, they’re always moving without the ball. So they’re doing a great job of down screening, getting those guys to come up. All they need is pointtwo seconds to get their shot off. It’s gone.”
Wade also related a preseason conversation with Bam Adebayo.
“Oct. 8th, me and Bam had a conversation about his season and we were predicting his stats,” Wade said. “I said Bam was going to average 14 points, eight rebounds and 3 1⁄2 assists. Bam told me I was crazy, and [he] was going to average 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.”
Asked by host Adam Lefkoe what Adebayo was averaging, Wade laughed and said: “16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.”
His time
Celtics coach Brad Stevens said he is not surprised that Jae Crowder has thrived with the Heat with his move into the starting lineup. Stevens coached Crowder for three seasons with the Celtics.
“He has got great toughness, great ability to battle on the interior and guard on the perimeter,” Stevens said. “He’s very smart. He’s a good player. On the other end of the court, he stretches you out.
“He adds to winning. Obviously, Miami already probably targeted him and figured that out.”
New world
Spoelstra acknowledged the back-to-back games against the Raptors and Celtics were unique because they did not involve travel, or even driving home from the arena between home games on consecutive nights.
“It’s probably similar to your home back-to-backs like we’ve had this season with Friday and Saturday night, where you’re sleeping in your own bed,” he said.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, all games are being played at Disney World’s Wide World of Sports complex, with teams being shuttled by bus to their near Disney hotels.
“It does matter,” Spoelstra said. “It does make a difference if you’re not jumping on a plane and arriving at a hotel in a different time zone at 3 in the morning. Those are legitimately tough on teams, all teams.
“But we had a little bit more time to bounce back too. It wasn’t 24 hours, it was 30 hours.”
The Toronto-Boston back-toback was the Heat’s final one of the season, with none expected in the playoffs. The Heat closed 8-4 in the first games of back-to-backs, 6-6 in the second.