Miami Thriving Behind LeBron and Wade's Simultaneous Success

SALT LAKE CITY -- King James, for the best interests of the Heat kingdom, I am kindly asking that you drive to the basket.

No, Master Wade, it is you who has won great wars in Miami. You should be the one to shoot the ball.

OK, so it didn't go quite like that. But for much of this Miami season, stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were deferring too much to the other.

So what happened?

Miami got off to a 9-8 start, and its struggles elicited glee from so many who had hoped to see the team stagger. Well, there's now bad news for those who were celebrating prematurely.

The Heat (15-8) have won six straight games, the most impressive being Wednesday night's 111-98 toppling of Utah at EnergySolutions Arena. And James and Wade, two players who are similar in what they like to do on the court, are learning how to play together.

Early in the season, James, a small forward, and Wade, a shooting guard, both had their moments but there was plenty of awkwardness. It often looked as if the basketball gods, wanting to maintain some NBA competitive balance, would not permit both to play extremely well in the same game.

---

---

When James put up 35 points at home to Boston, Wade scored eight. When James had 25 points at home against Indiana, Wade managed just three.

When Wade rung up 39 points in the first meeting this season against Utah in Miami, James scored 20. When Wade had 28 at New Orleans, James managed 20 on 6-of-16 shooting.

It's worth noting all of the above games were losses.

But James on Wednesday scored 33 points and Wade had 28. It marked the first time this season both scored 28 or more in the same game.

"We were looking for each other too much, and it was hurting our game, which was hurting our team play,'' James said of earlier in the season. "I was brought here and D-Wade was re-signed here for us to be ourselves and we weren't being ourselves because we were trying to be too unselfish. It's crazy to say when you're too unselfish it hurts the team. But it was hurting the team because we were looking for each other and there were too many turnovers early in the season. But we just figured it out, just playing our game, and as a result of us playing great the last few weeks.''

In the six-game winning streak, James is averaging 26.3 points to raise his seasonal average to 24.1 and Wade 23.8 to up his mark to 22.0. The streak has seen James shoot 54.3 percent to raise his seasonal mark to 46.5 and Wade shoot 57.4 percent to raise his to 47.7.

"It was just a change for both of us to want to look for him and want to give him the ball, but also you want your greatness to show,'' Wade said. "We can play the way we play. But, if we don't have it, get off it and we got another guy on the other side that can do some damage. ... I think of late we're playing great together. We feel great on the court together. I don't think we look that terrible right now as people said we did earlier.''

Both looked great Wednesday. James shot 12-of-20 and Wade 9-of-14. James had nine assists and Wade had four, which shows neither is becoming fully unselfish.

One question, though, is: How do the two decide whose turn it might be to dominate? Do they do paper, rock, scissors in the layup line?

"They're starting to feel each other out,'' said Heat guard Eddie House. "It seems like in the first quarter one's real aggressive and in the second quarter it seems like the other one's aggressive. And then the rest of the game, each one taking turns.''

On Wednesday, James actually was the main man in the first three quarters, scoring 27 points to Wade's 17. That must have meant Wade got the fourth quarter, which is when he outscored James 11-6 and the Heat outscored the Jazz 34-20 to cement the win.

While a 96-70 home mauling of Orlando on Oct. 29 was pretty good, an argument can be made this was Miami's best win of the season. It was on the road against a good team, and it avenged an ugly 116-114 home overtime loss to Utah on Nov. 9, when the Heat blew a 22-point lead.

That was one of the games noted above. While Wade thrived, James shot 5-of-18.

James isn't doubting he and Wade are similar players, the argument some have given about why the Heat experiment might not work. Instead, they're now trying to utilize their talents to such a degree that it won't matter.

Hey, Lennon and McCartney were both legendary musicians, and they found a way to work together.

"We are two similar players, but we want to win, and we know what it takes to win, and we're figuring it out,'' James said. "We're figuring it out well now. So we don't listen to the naysayers too much. People are going to say what they want to say but right now we're in a good streak and we're just trying to keep it going.''

OK, but where does forward Chris Bosh, the apparent third member of the titanic trio, fit into all of this? Well, Bosh's All-NBA resume in seven seasons includes just once being named to the second team while James and Wade have combined in the same number of seasons for six first-team berths, four on the second team and one on the third team.

Still, Bosh didn't want to seem left out when asked about James and Wade having been too unselfish early in the season and now just being themselves.

"I think we all were, myself included,'' Bosh said.

OK, Bosh did score 27 points in a win last Saturday over Atlanta. But how far the Heat goes this season is still going to depend primarily on how James and Wade, two of the best five players in the NBA, can continue to mesh.

"I think we've both been playing at a high level in this win streak together,'' Wade said. "We've been leading our team in that aspect in coming out and showing (opponents) how the game is going to go.''

Lately, it hasn't been pretty for foes. The Heat have outscored the opposition by an average of 16.5 points during the streak and this is just the second time in Miami history the team has won six consecutive games all by double digits.

Next up is a Friday visit to Golden State. Perhaps the only major decision coming in is whether it will be James or Wade being more of the aggressor in the first quarter.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com or on Twitter @christomasson