Wade's 'D' the Difference Against Pistons

During the second half of Miami's win in Detroit, after a tougher-than-usual bucket from Dwyane Wade, Jeff Van Gundy made a particularly keen observation.

"It's a joke how good this guy is," Van Gundy remarked.

Even though Wade finished with 39 points, it wasn't his offense, but his defense that ended up sealing the victory for the Heat down the stretch.

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Wade's last points of the game came with just under two minutes to play, when he made two free throws to give his team their first lead of the afternoon at 91-89. But he blocked two shots in the final 30 seconds: one on Arron Afflalo on a three-point attempt in the corner, and the other near the rim on a drive by Rodney Stuckey.

The block on Afflalo was all ball, but Wade's follow-through once the ball was out sent Afflalo to the ground. No foul was called, and Wade calmly reached down and helped Afflalo up.

The block on Stuckey -- which occurred on what was effectively the game's final play -- was surrounded by a bit more controversy.

Stuckey drove the ball to the basket, with Wade right on him. As Stuckey went up for the shot, Wade reached in and briefly got a hold of the ball, before Stuckey was able to get it up above his head for the shot attempt. Wade caught the ball on the release too, though, then tiptoed the baseline and passed to a teammate as he fell out of bounds.

Pistons' head coach Michael Curry was livid that a foul wasn't called on the play, and let the refs know about it big time, which resulted in his picking up two quick technicals and getting tossed with 0.6 seconds remaining. (Wade said afterwards that there was contact, and it could have been called either way.) As someone who wasn't really rooting for either team, I'm glad the officials swallowed their whistles there. It was solid defense on Wade's part.

The thing that caught my eye on that final play (and what the announcers finally mentioned long afterwards) was that after Wade rebounded the block, when he came down his right toe appeared to land on the white out of bounds line. It was very close, but it appeared to me that he definitely was touching the line. It was a bang-bang play, and close enough that you can't really blame the officials too much for (possibly) missing it.

In the end, it was just another stellar game from Dwyane Wade, which is something we've gotten used to this season. There was a lot of good defense throughout by the Pistons, particularly in the form of some violent rejections from Jason Maxiell. But in the end, Wade's defense -- and not his 39 points -- were what proved to be the difference.