It’s been obvious to you and me, you think the Spurs missed it?
Dwyane Wade isn’t as explosive and dangerous as normal, the bone bruise in his knee is holding him back.
“You can tell something’s not right,” San Antonio’s Danny Green said at practice Wednesday, and he’s the guy who has spent a lot of the last three games covering Wade.
By covering, I mean helping off him to clog the paint when LeBron James has the ball. Tom Haberstroh summed it up well over at ESPN: Wade has never had a jump shot you had to fear from distance (he shot 38 percent in the midrange this season, 25.8 percent from three) but you always had to respect that explosive first step that got him by defenders and to the rim.
But now you don’t have to respect that explosion because the bone bruise in his knee has robbed him of it. So Wade is being covered like he’s Rajon Rondo. Wade knows it, too.
“They just go, obviously on my pick-and-rolls they go under. And that’s pretty much it,” Wade said at practice Wednesday. “Limiting my opportunities. I shoot some, some I don’t. Some I get in the paint, and try to make plays…
“I got some shots in the second half that I liked. I just missed them. I think out of my 15 shots, 14 of them I would love to take every time. I thought one of them I rushed. But the rest was good shots.”
Wade, like LeBron and Chris Bosh, were clear that Miami’s stars were too passive on both ends of the floor and it is up to them to change things around in Game 4.
{“We’re getting good opportunities. We have to try to do our best to make more of our opportunities. We’re getting good shots. We’re getting some shots that we want….” Wade said. “But if us three don’t lead the charge, we’re not going to be NBA champions. Our teammates count on us, so we have to step up.”
The three of them have to step up. But it can’t be just one of them, it can’t be just LeBron carrying everyone and hoping Mario Chalmers or Mike Miller steps up.
It is going to have to be Wade and Bosh that make the Spurs defense pay for how it is choosing to play them.