Dwyane Wade has missed the last two games for the Miami Heat with a sore knee,
which required an MRI that came up clean. Interestingly enough, the Heat didn’t miss Wade (or Chris Bosh, who’s dealing with another blood clot issue) at all in two huge offensive performances, with the first a 115-111 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night and the second a 114-94 thrashing of the Washington Wizards on Saturday evening.
Granted, the Wizards were playing their third game in three nights thanks to a makeup game from a recent blizzard, but the theme of the last two Heat games was the same: playing with pace.
Miami traditionally plays slow, as evidenced by its pace rating of 94.97 possessions per 48 minutes on the season, per NBA.com. That’s the second-slowest mark in the entire league.
But the last two games? That pace mark comes in at 102.9, which would rank ahead of the league-leading Sacramento Kings. And the Heat’s offensive rating in the two wins was an explosive 112.5 points per 100 possessions.