So, this is interesting. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra went through his pregame news conference on Sunday without mentioning that Dwyane Wade would be returning to the lineup as the team's sixth man. This is kind of important, you know, because Wade had been a starter in 495 consecutive games (including the playoffs) until Sunday.
Ray Allen started against the Spurs and Wade entered the game with 4:41 left in the first quarter. Knowing now that the plan was for Wade to come off the bench all along, let's look back at Spoelstra's answer this morning when I asked him this question:
QUESTION: Now that you have everyone available, are you looking for a rhythm now — to find a rhythm and cohesion with your different units?
SPOELSTRA: "I’m not going to over think that. Look, I’m going into the season, I’m trying to impress that message to our players. Sure, we’ll try to get to that. We might not. Let’s embrace this year. It’s different, and that’s one of the challenges. It can be an excuse, or we can find an excuse how to win. We need to find more of those excuses, and we can win and how we can come together more under this circumstances.
“I woke up this morning, and got the report from Jay [Sabol] that everybody could be available. That hadn’t come across my mind. I hadn’t thought about those decisions that I might have to make in terms of who’s dressing and who’s not dressing. This is the first time this year that I possibly, hopefully will have to make that decision. It might not happen for the rest of the year. Who knows?"
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