Sports

Heat’s on Wade in East semis

CHICAGO — Dwyane Wade is used to being the focal point of a team’s offensive attack, as he has been for much of his stellar career with the Heat.

So, of course, Wade was well aware of the fact that, as he headed into the locker room for halftime of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Bulls on Friday night, he had only taken one shot in the first half.

“Oh, yeah,” he said with a smile after the Heat’s practice at University of Illinois-Chicago yesterday. “You know when you’re not really into it in the sense of shooting shots.”

Even after the Heat made a point of getting Wade involved in the second half, he still finished the game going 5-for-7 from the field and scoring 10 points, and was the fourth-leading scorer in Miami’s 104-94 win.

“In the first half, with the minutes I was played, I didn’t really get an opportunity to be too aggressive,” he said. “In the second half I played the whole third quarter … Coach [Erik Spoelstra] was aggressive with it, so I was able to get a couple more opportunities in that quarter. We came out of the half and looked for me in a couple sets down low, but I’m not overly concerned about that.

“At the end of the day, it’s about winning. If I was concerned about my numbers, then I wouldn’t be here in this position. If my team needs me to do more, then I’ll look for my opportunities, but it’ll change from game-to-game.”

Wade has been limited by a sore right knee, an injury that kept him out of Game 4 of Miami’s first-round sweep of the Bucks. It’s obvious he’s not playing at 100 percent, as he is averaging just 13.3 points in six playoff games, but he admitted there’s not much he can do about it.

“It is what it is,” he said. “I’m dealing with the same thing, and at certain moments it’s better than others.”

In the meantime, he has been trying to pick his spots to make his presence felt, deferring to the hot hand. In Game 3, that meant Chris Bosh (20 points and 19 rebounds) and Norris Cole (18 points on 6-for-7 shooting) were the beneficiaries. The Heat also made an effort to get Wade the ball in the post in the second half, where he was effective and where they’d like him to get the ball more often moving forward.

“He’s shown a great maturity in this series,” Spoelstra said. ”When you play a defensive team like this, you don’t know who is going to get the open look. You have to be aggressive and force an action and the ball has to move, and everybody else is a recipient.

“If Dwyane is coming in here and trying to score 40 every night, that doesn’t allow those things to happen. But he is also aggressive enough that if you leave him uncovered, he’s going to make you pay for that.”

* Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau was fined $35,000 by the NBA yesterday for comments he made following Friday’s game. Thibodeau was critical of the way the officials handled the game, including the decision to eject Nazr Mohammed for his shove of LeBron James during a tussle early in the second quarter.

“We’re very well aware of what’s going on,” Thibodeau said Friday of how the game was called. “I’m watching how things are going. I watch very closely. What I’m seeing is … we’ll adjust accordingly.”

Thibodeau also said James flopped when Mohammed pushed him, a criticism the league MVP brushed aside when he was asked about it yesterday.

“It’s kind of the same as when I heard people say that I was overrated,” James said. “I don’t need to flop. I play an aggressive game. I don’t flop. I’ve never been one of those guys. … I don’t even know how to do it. So, it’s like, OK. [That criticism] doesn’t mean much to me.”