How Miami Can Help Dwyane Wade

Sometimes you just have to step back, take a deep breath and maybe take a walk.

It’s especially important to do so when a team loses by 19 points and falls behind in a seven-game series, or when a primary offensive option shoots 2-of-13 to go with five turnovers in that very same contest. When things go as poorly as they did for Dwyane Wade in Game 3 against the Indiana Pacers, it’s natural to speculate on the what and the why of it all. Speculation is always a nice distraction from frustration in the absence of appealing logic.

But a couple of days later, after the visceral reaction has subsided, perspective reigns. The good in basketball is never as good as you initially think just as the bad is never as bad because people, and teams can make changes. Wade’s Game 4 doesn’t have to go the same way as his Game 3.

It could, of course, and the same shots he missed before could become makes, but that can be fool’s gold. Wade is in the midst of a 13-of-55 shooting slump on jumpers during the playoffs and it would be hardly surprising for him to suddenly get hot from the outside – he’s certainly set his own personal precedents for this – but rarely do those streaks last for long without support from higher-percentage opportunities.

That’s where his team can help him.

“A big part of that is my responsibility, to make sure he gets to a place where he is comfortable and confident, where he can be aggressive,” Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s where we have been focusing our energies the last couple of days. We know he has to be a big part of what we do.”

Nothing is more important to Wade’s offensive game than space. Not perpetual space, but eventual. Wade can create this space for himself, beating his own man off the dribble and splitting defenders in pick-and-rolls, but it’s up to Miami how long he has until the defense sends help and collapses. The longer Wade has space to operate, the longer he has to make a read followed by a decision and the more likely he is to get closer to the basket. Without it, the quicker passing lanes close up and a jumper becomes more likely.

The latter result was far more common during Game 3, when Wade went 0-for-8 from 10-19 feet. Some of that is on Wade to exhibit more patience attacking off the dribble – not as easy as we tend to think as missed shots start piling up – but the HEAT can also alleviate pressure by making shots themselves.

Those shots were there in Game 3 far more than they were in Game 2, which was the result of getting shooters in motion and the team, particularly LeBron James, getting the ball to the weak side more often. But the other half of the battle is making the shots generated for you, and with nobody able to take advantage of the open looks, Indiana’s defenders – including David West, who guards Shane Battier (0-for-6 from three) when Miami plays James at power forward – started sagging more and more into the paint.

More bodies in the paint equals less space, and less space for Wade means tougher shots.

Tough shots will always be part of the game, of course, but they also have a way of becoming easier as a player gets into rhythm, something that wasn’t lost on James the other night, when he cost Wade an easy first-quarter dunk.

“I was very upset at myself, we had a 2-on-1 fast break, and as a scorer you get a layup or a dunk and it helps you out a lot, but I turned the ball over,” James said. “We’ll be more conscious about getting him some easy ones and get him going.”

Getting out in transition off makes or misses always helps, but it’s tough to rely on fast-breaks. You can, however, depend on motion, and getting Wade moving without the ball has always been a recipe for success. In Game 3, Wade used only three possessions in which he receiving a pass after making a cut, missing twice in the paint. But again, it’s easier to cut when the defense is reacting and there is space to move into. Cutting into a standing, waiting defense is usually not as effective as cutting into one watching another offensive action.

Getting Wade in motion with screens off the ball would hardly be anything new for the HEAT. They’re doing it already, just not taking advantage of it as often as they have at other times this season.

Other adjustments have already been made as well. Because Indiana was staying home on shooters and having big men sag off screens to prevent drives by Wade, James and Chalmers – note the increased number of floaters all three are shooting – Spoelstra started having his team run more pick-and-rolls near the sideline with no shooters in the corner, affording the ballhandler more space and forcing a more dramatic reaction from the Pacer’s defense on the drive.

Without Chris Bosh in the lineup, Miami has been far more dependent on those pick-and-rolls to start the offense, but those can also wear a player down over time (Wade is 12-of-37 attacking off screens in the playoffs) and weary legs mean more missed jumpers, too. As long as Bosh is out, this won’t change, but there’s also an option to make things a little less demanding on Wade, and that’s to make him the screener.

Typically, when Spoelstra calls for the James-Wade pick-and-roll, James is screening for Wade. Typically, the defense switches, and James draws the smaller defender for a mismatch. But in Game 3, the Pacers once trapped the ballhandler during that action, leaving James, who slipped the screen, open at the free-throw line.

If Indiana is going to play it like that – they could have just been pressuring Wade specifically in that game – then having Wade set the screen and roll off into space, where James can find him, could be a viable option.

If Indiana switches the defense, then Wade sets the screen rather than slipping it and pops out into space, or he seals off his man and posts up.

Of course that could mean Wade drawing the lengthy Danny Granger in the post, which is why using Wade as a screener might not be the best option when the defense has a chance to set itself. But in transition, where Miami already has Joel Anthony or Ronny Turiaf set a screen at the elbow as the ball comes up court, there could be mismatches available.

Not that Wade always needs mismatches to get in the post, where he is scoring nine points for every 10 possessions in the postseason. Paul George has played Wade well in one-on-one situations, moving well laterally to force jumpers, but despite George’s length Wade was able to draw fouls from him in the post, not to mention back him down effectively, earlier in the series. Wade posting up George, using the cross-screens the team is already setting for him, could work, and it could get George off the floor quicker.

And when George is off the floor, that means Wade could end up with either Dahntay Jones, who plays limited minutes and is an easier guard for Wade on the other end, or, if Indiana tries to match a small lineup, Leandro Barbosa or George Hill, both of whom Wade has an advantage over down low.

All of these ideas and options can go the other way, however. When the HEAT try too hard to exploit any matchups or focus in too much on single options in their sets, the offense tends to stagnate. The team can get Wade easier opportunities, but it can’t do so at the expense of fluidity, because that leads to less space, and then you’re back at square one.

Wade did not have a good Game 3. That much is obvious, and he needs to play better for Miami to win. But teams can help players to bounce back as much as they can help themselves as long as there is balance, both in the player trying to find his own rhythm and the team trying to find it for him. The HEAT won’t be more likely to win Game 4 just because Wade scores 30 points. They’ll have a better chance of winning if he’s efficient.

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