Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters missed the first two-and-a-half months of the season with an ankle injury that also kept him out for much of last year, finally returning on Jan. 2 in a seven-point performance during a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Since then, Waiters has been up and down, putting together a 21-point outing in a victory over the Chicago Bulls on Jan. 19 but also laying some stinkers in the process.

Waiters says that the only way he'll be able to return the form is by simply playing more:

“You do extra stuff, you do extra conditioning. You ride the bike, you do stuff like that,” said Waiters, according to Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. “You stay sharp. You go back into the gym. You work, put that work in, get that conditioning up, you lift. You pretty much know as a pro athlete what you need to do to get yourself back. But none of that, for me, means as much as playing. That's what I need to be doing.”

In nine games overall since coming back, Waiters is averaging 9.4 points, 2.2 rebounds and two assists over 18 minutes per game while shooting 44.3 percent from the floor and 31.8 percent from three-point range.

Waiters missed the Heat's win over the Cavaliers on Friday night due to a migraine.

“It's tough, but it happens. Things like that happen,” he said. “It wasn't severe or anything like that, so it's not like I missed a decent amount of time. Things like that you can't control.”