If you follow the Heat or have read anything about them during the past couple of months, surely you’ve heard about how injuries have plagued them throughout the season. Josh McRoberts’ knee injury took him away from the team at the beginning of the season and Chris Bosh’s blood clot removed the All-Star from the team after the All-Star break. Those were the last things the Heat needed the season after the team lost the four-time MVP LeBron James to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. So ultimately, with all of those injuries and the losses of players like James, Shane Battier and Ray Allen, somebody needed to step up. And the team’s co-captains delivered.
For those who don’t know, from the beginning of the LeBron Era in Miami up until now, the Heat’s co-captains have been Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem. Originally, Wade was the only captain, but once Haslem decided to return to the Heat for a much smaller contract than he could have gotten elsewhere, Wade and the Heat decided Haslem deserved to be one of the team’s captains. Together, the duo has won three championship rings in Miami. In 2006, Dwyane Wade was the team’s star player and had a historic finals series. Haslem started all of the team’s playoff games that year and averaged 8.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game during the playoffs.
Since then, both of their roles have declined as the team started adding more and more talent like James and Bosh. Wade became the team’s second option on offense, and sometimes third behind Bosh. Haslem became a bench player that occasionally would get starts if a starter went down with an injury. Last year, Haslem only played in 46 games, starting 18 of them.
With the loss of James, Wade knew his role would be back as the team’s top option on offense, occasionally being the second option behind Bosh. Wade responded by averaging 22.4 points per game by the end of December. But then things started to trend down for Wade when he only averaged 16.9 points per game during January and February, while he struggled to stay healthy. For Haslem, the whole season up until March was tough. He was averaging 3.7 points per game going into March, which was on pace for a career low.
The Heat had a weak February as Wade and Haslem did, too. They went 5-7 during that month and went from the clear favorites to win the East’s seventh seed to being just a game away from being out of the East’s playoff picture. But something changed in the Heat’s locker room during March. It is now clear that started with the leadership of Wade and Haslem. They’ve led by example on the court this month. Wade is averaging 25.2 points per game this month while shooting 50 percent from the field. The last time Wade averaged more points per game in a month (at least 10 games during the month) was March of 2011. Haslem is averaging 22.1 minutes, 5.6 points, and 5.6 rebounds per game during March, all season highs for a month for him. He has taken a role that the team hasn’t asked from him in a while, which is starting power forward with some minutes at center as well.
The co-captains’ leadership was on display on Sunday against the Detroit Pistons. The Heat came into the contest without some important players. They were missing both of their centers, Hassan Whiteside and Chris “Birdman” Andersen. Things seemed even worse for the Heat when they lost starting forward Luol Deng and Michael Beasley, who, although considered a small forward that can occasionally play power forward, was playing the backup center role behind Haslem. It looked bad for the undersized Heat, starting a 6’8" power forward in Haslem at center against one of the league’s best big men in Andre Drummond.
But Haslem was able to put together his best performance of the season, scoring 18 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Dwyane Wade realized that with a few of the team’s best scorers out, he would have to step up despite being one day removed from getting fluid drained from his knees. And he delivered with a historic performance. Wade scored 40 points, including a 19-point fourth quarter. Wade went 11 for 11 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Dirk Nowitzki in the 2012 season.
Miami started the month eight games under .500 at 25-33, and now with one game left in the month, they are just five games under .500 and are as close to being the sixth seed as they are being out of the playoffs. They are now one and a half games behind the Bucks, a team they were seven games behind going into March.
We are no longer far from the end of Dwyane Wade’s and Udonis Haslem’s careers. They both aren’t playing the amount of minutes they used to be able to and occasionally need to sit out games just to give their aging knees a rest. But when it’s all said and done, it will be moments like those that they've given Heat fans this month that they will be remembered for.