Reaction, details and fallout of Wade’s game-winner and Heat’s most dramatic win of year
Five takeaways from the Heat’s riveting 126-125 win against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday at AmericanAirlines Arena:
▪ In a final season of incredible moments for Dwyane Wade, this one stands above all.
With Miami down two, Wade took a pass from Dion Waiters, had his first shot blocked, retrieved the ball out of the air and banked in an off-balance straight-away 25-foot three at the buzzer.
Wade and the Heat then erupted in jubilation.
“Special” is how Wade described it afterward. “Been in this position so many times and so many times and you don’t make the shot and the one I make gets flicked from my chest. Just an amazing moment, especially with what we’ve been going through, a lot of close games losing. And great to do it in front of the fans.
“I told Steph [Curry], ‘I needed this one on my way out. You all got enough.”
Afterward, Wade ran to the other end of the court, was smothered by teammates and jumped on the scorer’s table after the biggest win of the Heat season.
“That’s what was funny to us,” Goran Dragic said. “He was sprinting faster than the game. He makes so many game-winning shots. Nothing surprises me.”
Wade’s three-pointer with 15 seconds left was also critical, cutting the Warriors’ lead to 124-123. Kevin Durant then missed a free throw and made the second, setting the stage for the Heat’s final possession with 13.9 seconds left.
Allow Wade to describe what happened next:
“After KD hit the free throw, I came down and had an isolation on Andre Iguodola. As I turned my back, he kind of hit the ball, so I dribbled it out and I saw Dion [Waiters] coming. So I flipped it to him. I thought he was going to raise and shoot but when he took the dribble, they remembered he hit a shot similar [two years ago] so they doubled him and he found me.
“As I was going to shoot, I saw KD flying at me, so I tried to pump fake him and tried to shoot the shot. [Jordan Bell] blocked it [with 1.2 seconds left]. All I could think about was a little time on the clock so get my foot behind the three point line and try to get it up to the rim and it went in. I put up my arms and looked at the ref, and when the ref did his good face, that’s when I ran, that’s when I took off.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he knew the shot was going in from the moment it left Wade’s hands, and that it was fitting to have a moment like that in his final NBA season.
Wade’s final numbers: 25 points, seven rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks in just under 26 minutes. He shot 10 for 17 from the field and 5 for 8 on threes, having entered just 1 for his last 14 on threes.
Erik Spoelstra said “the raw genuine emotion was my favorite one of all the ones he has hit. After being 16 years in the league, that was one of my favorite moments, watching his reaction and the team’s reaction.
“We were absolutely dead in the water, thought we had a couple of clean looks. Dwyane was open the first time, then shot faked to see if he could get something better. That’s Hall of Fame presence of mind. Sometimes you just need to be lucky. We had so many of these breaks go against us. Maybe we were due for one.”
According to heat.com’s Couper Moorhead, Wade had been 0 for 9 this season on three pointers in the final 30 seconds of games with a margin of five points or fewer. He was 2 for 2 on those shots Wednesday.
Wade said “one thing cool is for me to do this with younger teammates who have heard about some of the things you do but don’t get always the opportunity to see it.”
▪ Goran Dragic had one of the best second quarters in Heat history.
Dragic’s 25 points in the first half were even more remarkable considering it was just his third game back from knee surgery and achieved in just 14 first half minutes. Dragic hit 4 of 6 three-pointers and sank 9 for 9 from the free throw line before intermission.
What’s more, Dragic’s 20 points in the second quarter were the second most in Heat history in a second quarter, behind Mike Miller’s 22-point eruption in a 2011 game. (Wade also has had three 20 point second quarters.) It was the highest scoring second quarter of Dragic’s career.
“I’m never surprised by his talent and the plays he can make, but I didn’t realize he had 25 at halftime until after I spoke to the team,” Spoelstra said. “He was in one of those zones. We needed every bit of it. You have to get a cushion against this team. You need players who can make plays against all the switching and guys who can create something out of nothing and Goran does that and has done it his whole career as well as anybody.”
Dragic attempted only two shots and scored two points in six second-half minutes, finishing the night with 27 points.
Said Dragic: “My first game was rusty. My second game was better than the first and the third game [Wednesday], my legs felt good.”
▪ Kelly Olynyk continues his best stretch of the season and Bam Adebayo did good work filling in for Hassan Whiteside.
Olynyk has played better as a starter and followed his 28 point game on Monday with a 15 point, 5 rebound effort Wednesday.
Adebayo, filling in for injured Hassan Whiteside, had 11 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks.
“Bam was tremendous,” Spoelstra said. “We were able to run a lot of our offense through him because of all their switching. He was guarding Durant down the stretch and we had full trust in him.”
▪ The Heat does some of its best work offensively against the defending champs.
The Heat’s 74 points were the second-most in a first half in franchise history, one short of the 75 scored in a first half in 1997.
Miami did it Wednesday with 24 for 38 shooting, including 9 for 18 on threes. Miami also reached the 100 point mark after three quarters for the first time since last March.
And consider some of these other numbers:
Overall, the Heat entered Wednesday averaging 105.1 points per game, 27th in the league. But Miami is averaging 122 points in two games against Golden State, including the 120-118 loss Feb. 10 in Oakland.
The Heat entered Wednesday shooting 44.7 percent from the field, which is 26th in the league. But Miami shot 50.6 percent on Wednesday and 45.7 in the previous meeting.
The Heat entered Wednesday shooting 34.8 percent on threes overall, which is 19th in the league. Miami shot 45 on threes on Wednesday (18 for 40) and 36 for 83 in the two games.
And keep in mind Miami did this against a team allowing opponents to shoot 44.7 percent, fourth best in the league from a defensive perspective.
It also helped that the Heat – which entered last in the league in free throw shooting at 68.8 percent –hit 24 of 30 from the line.
Beyond Wade, Dragic and Olynyk, don’t forget Josh Richardson, who hit four big threes in the second half on a 21-point night.
Richardson’s 16 points and in the second half and Wade’s 13 after intermission helped keep the Heat afloat even as Golden State stormed back from a 64-40 second-quarter deficit to ultimately take the lead in the fourth quarter.
▪ The Heat is surprisingly good against Western Conference playoff teams.
Miami moved to 7-6 against Western teams that would qualify for postseason if the season ended Wednesday. In other games, the Heat is seven games under .500.
Maintaining that above .500 record against the best of the West will be difficult, with road games left at Houston, San Antonio and Oklahoma City.
More significantly, the Heat won a home game for the first time since Jan. 12, snapping a six-game skid at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Miami - which is tied with Orlando, just one-half game behind No. 8 Charlotte - overcame 36 points from Klay Thompson, 29 from Durant and 24 from Curry.
“This could be the turning point for us,” said Justise Winslow, who had 12 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists and resumed starting at point guard after missing two games with a sore shoulder.
The Heat has a quick turnaround, with a Thursday night game in Houston. The Heat again will be without Whiteside (hip) and James Johnson (shoulder); neither accompanied the team on the late night trip to Texas.
This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 11:33 PM.
