The 2017-18 NBA season got off to a rough start for Dwyane Wade. However, the veteran shooting has still managed to show flashes of his former star self ever since returning to the Miami Heat.
Wade managed to dip into his bag of tricks again on Monday night versus the Oklahoma City Thunder. He kickstarted the play with a vicious swat on point guard Raymond Felton before subsequently finishing with a dunk in transition, via NBA on ESPN:
It is encouraging to see that Wade is still more than capable of making plays such as these. Unfortunately, the highlights were few and far in between after he registered just six points on 2-of-10 shooting to go with two rebounds and two assists.
The Heat ran into a Thunder team that was determined to secure their spot in the Western Conference Playoffs after putting on a dominant fourth quarter to hand them their second straight loss. Although he would have liked to have ended the regular season on a stronger note individually, there is no doubt that Miami will need more of prime Wade in the playoffs.
Fortunately, the team still has a chance to potentially clinch the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs with a win over the Toronto Raptors and a Milwaukee Bucks loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday. Miami holds a convincing tiebreaker over Milwaukee after beating them in all three matchups this season. While moving up one spot in the seeding may not be too substantial, it would serve Miami well to avoid the bracket that includes both the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers.