Dec/062
Heat Lose Wade to Wrist Injury, Fall to Bulls Late
The Miami Heat entered last nights matchup one game under .500 and with revenge on there minds as the Bulls wiped the floor with the Heat on opening night at the AAA. Things definitley didn’t start as the Heat wanted them too. Wade sprained his wrist midway through the first quarter while trying to navigate his way through a pick and left the game for good moments later. An X-ray taken in the locker room was negative, and Wade’s status is day-to-day, coach Pat Riley said. To top things off James Posey, quickly becoming known as a cheap shot artist in the NBA (or at least to the Chicago Bulls) was ejected in the 4th quarter for a flagrant foul on Luol Deng, Posey’s third flagrant foul against the Chicago Bulls stemming back from the playoffs last year. Bulls coach Scott Skiles responded in a classy way regarding Posey. When asked how Posey should be disciplined, he replied with a stone-cold glare,
”What I’m an advocate of wouldn’t be politically correct in 2006 in the NBA. So I’ll keep it to myself.”
Coach Riley fired back with some barbs himself that the Bulls were and have been taking cheap shots at Wade ever since they started playing against him. This is what Wade and Riles had to say…
”Yeah, Hinrich pulled his hand. Hinrich grabbed his hand — which he does all the time. That’s what he does,” Riley said of the first-quarter sequence. ”Anytime Dwyane comes off screens, they always grab his shirt or his hand. It’s a little bit of a tactic, down below the body where the official can’t see it. He had Dwyane’s hands, and he tried to pull it out of there. And something happened.”
Wade also added…
“It felt like my wrist got pulled out of place. It’s pretty painful. It feels like it got yanked out of the socket. I don’t have any strength in it. I knew I was done,” said Wade, who left the arena with his wrist wrapped.
Captain Kirk responded with a eye roll…
“I wasn’t in any way trying to hurt him… I was chasing him off the screen and then there’s contact. I don’t know if he got tangled up or whatever, and then he started grabbing his hand.â€
He then added, “I can’t worry about Pat Riley; I can only worry about myself.â€
This Heat/Bulls rivalry is really starting to Heat up. Lost in all this mess was the fact the Heat almost had this game won without Wade, Posey and Shaq. Dorrel Wright really stepped it up last night and you can really see his killer instinct that he is learning from Dwyane Wade. I was really impressed with his ability to make the big rebound. I would also like to welcome the return of Jason Williams who was absolutley on fire last night. Jason scored a season-high 28 points, making 7 of 10 shots from three-point range, to rally the Heat. But it wasn’t enough without Wade.
The Heat travel home for a matchup at the AAA against the struggling New Jersey Nets. Gametime is at 7:30 and tickets are still available.
Source: Miami Herald, Hoopsworld
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12:02 pm on December 28th, 2006
I went to bed so pissed. I really thought we had a chance to win this game. That call on Udonis The Crushernaut towards the end was total bullshit. Ben Gordon just hopped up and pushed off with his free arm and threw up a prayer that banked in … and then U gets the call??? WTF??
Whatever. I look forward to being at full strength and putting these pesky baby Bulls to bed once and for all!
1:45 pm on December 28th, 2006
Gordon was getting away with some real borderline push-offs all game. To think we could have tied it with a three at the end if there was some communication between Dorrell and Crushernaut on that rebound from Gordon’s missed free throw.
Hopefully the results of Dwayne’s MRI come out ok.