Wade’s frustration resurfaces after latest loss
Dwyane Wade’s frustration is evident.
The Chicago Bulls broke a five-game losing streak Monday night at Charlotte but have fallen out of an Eastern Conference playoff spot, tied with the Heat for ninth place. After Chicago’s latest loss, a 100-80 defeat to the Celtics on Sunday, Wade’s frustration poured out as he spoke to reporters.
When asked if the Bulls’ commitment to developing younger players in the middle of a playoff race is frustrating, Wade didn’t want to answer the question.
“I d o n’ t k n ow, ” Wade said to reporters. “I wish upper management could be answering these questions because I’m tired of answering the same ones every game. I don’t know. I wish I had the answers, I don’t. I don’t want to say too much. I don’t want to an excuse, we continued to fight all season long and here we are.”
With the playoffs within reach and four weeks remaining in the regular season, Miami (32-35) begins a crucial five-game homestand Wednesday with a game against the New Orle ans Pelicans.
B a s e d o n t h e way t h e Heat have been playing, the homestand should go well for Miami with four of the five opponents carrying losing records (Pelicans, Timberwolves, Trail Blazers and Suns).
Since Jan. 17 — the day Miami’s 21-5 stretch began — the Heat have been one of the NBA’s best teams.
During this period, the Heat rank second in the NBA with a net rating of 8.3, sand- say the wrong thing. I just want to get out there and try to play, try to lead.
“Find a way that me and Jimmy (Butler) can be better to help these guys. We got to go look at the film, sit down with coach (Fred Hoiberg) ... we got to figure out a way for us to be better so we can help everybody else be better.”
This isn’t exactly the way Wade envisioned this season playing out when he left the Heat after 13 seasons to sign a two-year, $47 million contract with the Bulls last summer. The contract includes a player option for the second season worth $23.8 million.
That’s an amount of money that Wade likely won’t get if he opts out and enters free agency. The 12-time All-Star entered Monday averaging 18.7 points on a career-low 43.4 percent shooting this season.
Wade has made it clear that he’s not sure what the future holds for him beyond wiched between the firstplace Warriors and the thirdplace Spurs. Net rating is the difference bet ween a team’s offensive and defen- thi s season. At 35, Wade acknowledged that Chicago’s mediocrity would affect his decision whether to pick up his player option.
“I wouldn’t lie to you and say no,” Wade said to reporters in January. “Of course, I can’t play this game forever. I just turned 35, and I have a number in my head how long I want to play. At the end of the day, you want to be in a situation where it’s a competitor situation, whatever the case may be. It’s tough in this league as well because a lot of that also depends on how much money you’re willing to make. It depends on what city you’re willing to be in. So it’s a lot of variables to that, but no question about it, what happens throughout this year, as I go into my summer, I’ll definitely take a look at it. I take my career seriously and where I am and where I want to be. And I will do the same thing this summer.”
Sunday wasn’t the first sive ratings.
“For sure,” Johnson said when asked if he believes the Heat can sustain this Golden State and San Antonio level time Wade has expressed his frustration this season. The future Hall of Famer sounded off after Chicago blew a 10-point lead in the final three minutes of a January home loss to the Hawks, questioning his teammates’ effort and desire.
“I t j u s t d o e s n’ t me a n enough for guys around here to want to win ballgames,” Wade said in January. “I can’t be frustrated, and I can’t care too much for these guys. They have to care for themselves.
“I’m 35; I have three championships. It shouldn’t hurt me more than it hurts these young guys. They have to want it.”
For those comments, Wade was fined and benched for the start of Chicago’s Jan. 27 loss to Miami. So don’t expect Wade to call out his teammates again, even in the middle of a losing streak. of play. “I think people still don’t believe it. We’re still under the radar bec ause of how we started. But we understand that we still have more levels to go. All this is still new to us. So once we start getting more and more comfortable, I think we can become an even more dangerous team.”
You can point to the Heat’s league-best 3-point shooting during their 21-5 run or elite defense as the reason for the unexpected turnaround. But coach Erik Spoelstra insists it isn’t one single thing that’s pushing the Heat in the right direction.
“Everybody wants that defining moment and I think that’s what’s special about this team,” Spoelstra said. “It was, it has been and it will have to continue to be a methodical, incremental improvement in a microwave society.
“People don’t want to hear that, but this group has been very consistent even when we were losing to approach every day to try to get better, and that hasn’t changed since the success rate has changed a couple months ago.”
Miami’s under-the-radar status hasn’t changed either. More local attention is coming the Heat’s way, but the national attention hasn’t caught up yet.
Two of the Heat’s scheduled nationally televi sed games during this winning stretch were removed from the schedule. And Miami currently doesn’t have any nationally televised games remaining on its regular-season schedule.
“Probably when we’re in the playoffs making some noise,” Johnson said when asked when people will start believing in the Heat. “You can tell that this isn’t just a string of good games, this is actually a good basketball team.”