Wade played with an injury, staging a king's return [View excellent photo gallery] [View skill statistics]. Tencent Sports News - On December 29th Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued as the Heat faced the Bobcats in an away game after playing back-to-back matches. In the final stages, Dwyane Wade's passing mistake put the Heat at a disadvantage, but the Flash turned it around and hit a jump shot with only 2.9 seconds left, ultimately helping the Heat narrowly defeat the Bobcats 96-95, securing their sixth consecutive win over the Bobcats. Wade finished the game 5-for-13 from the field, contributing 10 points, 4 assists, and 2 blocks.
Key moments belonged to Wade, as the Flash delivered a high-difficulty jump shot for the decisive two points against the Bobcats.
In the Heat's first two games, Wade had performed exceptionally well, scoring 26 points with 8 rebounds and 6 assists against the Mavericks, and 24 points with 8 rebounds and 4 blocks against the Celtics. Facing the weaker Bobcats, Wade was expected to continue his strong performance, given that in his previous 23 career matchups against the Bobcats, he averaged 21.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 6.3 assists. However, today, Wade's performance left much to be desired. From the start of the game, Wade picked up a foul while assisting in the defense against DJ White. Looking at his matchup, he was defending Gerald Henderson, tragically, during the Bobcats' opening 11-0 run, Henderson easily scored 4 points. Meanwhile, Wade missed a jump shot, finally completing a dunk off a pass from James, but then allowed Henderson to score another basket. In the subsequent defensive play, Henderson even blocked Wade's layup. After letting Henderson score again, Wade, who was defensively ineffective, was substituted by Battier.
Wade's condition today was really poor; one could say he was completely outplayed by Henderson in the first quarter. But it didn't stop there. In the second quarter, he was also dominated by the Bobcats' rookie Kemba Walker. At the start of the second quarter, Henderson scored again, and after being substituted out, Wade faced Walker. Looking at the first-half stats, Wade was 2-for-8 with just 4 points and 1 assist, while Henderson was 6-for-9 with 12 points, and Walker was perfect on 3 attempts, scoring 7 points. It was evident that in this first half, Wade not only disappeared but was thoroughly outplayed by these two players.
Even more tragically, in the latter part of the second quarter, Wade twisted his left foot and returned to the locker room for examination, failing to appear in the Heat's starting lineup in the second half. Fortunately, Wade's injury wasn't serious, and after receiving simple treatment, he returned to the game in the final stages of the third quarter. However, the results were harsh. In the 1 minute and 23 seconds he played in the third quarter, Wade contributed nothing on both offense and defense, and was even stolen from by Henderson at the end of the period. Clearly, the injury greatly affected Wade, but the Flash is certainly not someone who gives up easily.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Wade immediately retaliated against Henderson, followed by blocking Derrick Brown's shot, then scoring and dishing out assists, leading the Heat to level the score. A great pass to Bosh for a dunk, blocking an opponent's layup, and finishing with a powerful dunk off a pass from James, the Heat gradually took the lead. This is Wade's fighting spirit, regardless of victory or defeat, the Heat truly needed this kind of spirit!(Zhang Lei)