Even though he didn’t get voted into the NBA All-Star Game because Justin Bieber brain washed 60 million teenyboppers into voting for Kyle Lowry, Dwyane Wade, averaging nearly 22 points per game, is without a doubt one of the league’s top scorers.
Wade is the highest scoring player in the NBA during the fourth quarter, as the Miami Heat broadcast crew pointed out during the team’s win against the Chicago Bulls Sunday. Here is how he stands among the top fourth quarter scorers in the league.
We all know Wade likes to go left. It’s in every scouting report there is on him but no one, not for 11 seasons, has been able to stop him from going the way Zoolander can’t.
His preference for going left is even more dramatic in the fourth quarter and he tends to post up on that left block, from where he’s attempting a sizable 13.4 percent of his shots. He’s taking 34.3 percent of his shots from the left side in the final period.
With Miami’s ball movement such a mess for so much of the season, the go-to play has been to let Wade go to work. For better or for worse.
In the past, Wade liked to get a head start and drive to the rim with an explosion of athleticism.
Now in his golden years, you’ll see him take it to the low block and feel out his opponent, looking to score with an arsenal of post moves. You’ll see variations of this over the course of the season.
Wade likes to spin over his right shoulder, but he can spin over the left if need be. If the defender tries to cheat up and press on that right shoulder, Wade still have the explosiveness to turn the other way and get around him. He’s also got the step back jumper or dribble moves to get by his man in a face up situation.
Wade does a nice job of head faking and hesitating so that his defender never has a clue as to which move Wade will make until it’s too late. It’s like being toe-to-toe with Floyd Mayweather in the ring and having no idea how he’s going to hit you or even when he’s going to throw the punch.
Wade is one of the greatest isolation players the NBA has ever seen, and while many of his athletic skills have waned over the years, his bag of tricks has grown. It’s what keeps him in the game and, at 33 years old, the league’s top scorer in the fourth quarter.
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