Vintage Dwyane Wade Keeping Miami Alive in Heat-Raptors Series

MIAMI — The Miami Heat were teetering on the brink of disaster, facing both a two-point deficit and potentially falling into a debilitating 3-1 series hole.

The shot clock was off. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra had a timeout in his pocket, but left it there. There was no need to diagram something that the capacity crowd at AmericanAirlines Arena could all see coming.

All four Heat players ran to the right side of the floor. Wade stayed on the left, with only Toronto Raptors swingman DeMarre Carroll separating Wade from a de facto season-saving basket. A slight hesitation gave Wade enough of a step to race around Carroll, and the helping Raptors’ defenders couldn’t stop the 34-year-old shooting guard from exploding to the basket and extending a game the Heat ultimately won 94-87 in overtime.

“You gotta give him credit. He made some tough shots,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “We tried to send help to him. … At the end, he put his head down—iso play, there was nothing fancy about it—he just put his head down and went to the rim.”

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Wade has long carried the Heat and willed them to success, and the narrative hasn’t changed during his 13th NBA season. He scored a game-high 30 points Monday night, passing Magic Johnson for 13th on the NBA’s all-time postseason scoring list in the process.

“[Chris Bosh] kept coming up to me and kept saying, ‘If we’re gonna go out, I want to go out with you having the ball,'” Wade said. “He kept telling me to be aggressive.”

Wade didn’t have much of a choice.

Miami only had two other double-digit scorers: Goran Dragic and Joe Johnson, who combined for 30 points on 10-of-29 shooting. Miami’s bench was outscored by Toronto’s 35-19. The Heat misfired on all but one of their 15 three-point attempts.

Wade had to be the savior, and he attacked with …

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