Wade Picks Up Where He Left Off -- on Fire

The battle between the Heat's Dwyane Wade, left, and the Lakers' Kobe Bryant was decidedly one-sided. Wade scored 40 points, Bryant had 16. (By Marc Serota -- Getty Images)

MIAMI

You ask about the best player in professional basketball and even insiders will still start talking about Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. Some will look at the Phoenix Suns' recent winning binge and say it's Steve Nash.

But when we left the big-stage games last June, Dwyane Wade was the NBA' s best player, and over the next five months he may prove to be up to the same kind of heavy lifting, if the Christmas day game was any indication.

With Shaquille O'Neal attired in a beautiful steel blue three-piece number and Bryant having had one decent night's sleep out of the last seven because of a bad case of the flu, Wade saved the Christmas matchup by scoring 40 points, handing out 11 assists and blocking four shots.

In the NBA, there's always talk of the great players putting up "statement games." And while Christmas day is usually too early for such a thing, the defending champs had gotten off to such a terrible start that Wade's performance and Miami's 101-85 victory over the Lakers was somewhat necessary.

"Dwyane had an outrageous night," his coach, Pat Riley, said. "He did a great job of making every right play. He reminded me a little of Steve Nash today. Every play Steve Nash makes is the right play and tonight Dwyane made every right play. Three out of the last four games I wasn't happy at all. [But] this was a good win. I just hope it's the start of something good and consistent at home. These are the types of games you have to play at home. You have to play with a lot of passion and grit."

Of course, Wade has done that for three seasons plus now. Sometimes he makes the pass Nash would have made. Some nights he has to rebound big and score in the fourth quarter the way LeBron does. Some nights he has to do all of it and does, the way Bryant has done for more than most of 10 seasons.

It's too bad Kobe was struggling with the flu because he and Wade are the best matchup the NBA has to offer now. Okay, it's not Wilt and Russell. It's not Bird and Magic. But Wade is at the top of his game and the top of his appeal. And Bryant is in the middle of a transition that will serve him and his Lakers well.

Maybe it was simply sitting at home for three rounds in May and June that led Bryant to some serious introspection about who he is as a basketball player. Or maybe it was specifically seeing Shaq's new playmate, Wade, walk away not only with the NBA championship but with the spoils for the victor. We've seen precious little of Kobe over the past six months but plenty of Wade, from commercials to magazine covers.

The week leading up to this game here in Miami found Kobe in the middle of a makeover, an obvious effort to do something different after two seasons of what he used to do not working very well. And for that effort, the Lakers are so, so much better than they were. They began the day only one game behind Phoenix in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, even though the Suns had won 15 straight.

Kobe is shooting less (down from 27 shots per game to 19) and passing more (11 assists the other night to help beat the Nets in New Jersey). "I've got to be more like a big brother to my teammates," Kobe said in more than one pregame conversation. "I've got to be more tolerant of their mistakes, be a facilitator."