Trying to Make Dwyane Wade One-Dimensional

The Heat have taken a 3-1 lead in their series with Chicago, thanks in large part to Chris Bosh, LeBron James, a stalwart team defense, and an overall scrappy attitude not seen during the regular season.  But the Heat's most reliable scorer this year, Dwayne Wade, has been noticeably quiet on offense -- he's currently shooting a paltry 39% from the field in this series.

Copyright NBAE 2011 (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images)

Is it a slump?  Or is it a strategy that have the Bulls employed?  (Answer: it's a little of both.)  So how do you slow down Dwyane Wade?

As it turns out, the Bulls have been making Wade shoot while going to his left.  Granted, this development isn't new and Wade has always taken a high percentage of shots from the left side of the court.  But the difference here is that Chicago is posturing its defenders far over onto Wade's right side, to the point where it looks like Wade could walk directly forward at will.  So the Bulls are using defensive stances that are essentially begging him to go left, while taking his other options -- pull-ups from straightaway, moves into the paint, and points from the right-hand side -- and shelving them.  It's not that he's missing those shots.  The Bulls are overplaying to the point where he can't even take them.

For Coach Tom Thibodeau, it hasn't always worked this way, even recently.  As as assistant coach and defensive specialist for the Celtics last season, he faced Wade and the Heat last season, too, with vastly different results. Wade made 56% of his field goals and sliced the Celtics for over 33 points per game even though, as a member of a less talented Heat squad, he was far and away the focal point of the Celtic defense.  (If you don't believe me, look at Jermaine O'Neal's stats for that series. It's hard to believe the Celtics signed him after witnessing that self-immolation firsthand.)

Take a look at the shot charts for Wade (taken from ESPN's site) for the Bulls-Heat series:

Wade has gotten literally nothing from the top of the key or the three-point line behind it.  He has also come away empty from the right-hand side of the floor.  He does have some points in the paint, but keep in mind that many of those makes are in transition, as the Bulls have done a fantastic job keeping him out of the paint in their half-court defensive sets.

Contrast those shot charts above with his work against Thibodeau and the Celtics last year:

Again, Wade took most of last year's shots from the left-hand side, too, but in a very different manner.  He shot a large percentage of jumpers from the three-point line (or just inside of it), roughly aligned with the left elbow of the key.  This year, with defenders playing up into his right shoulder, those standstill J's aren't an option.  In its place, the default shot is an on-the-move 14-foot, tweener fallaway.  Instead of having his feet set, Wade is trying to shoot while moving left.

Copyright 2011 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Bulls have used a team-defense scheme to implement their strategy.  The initial perimeter defender (Rose, Bogans, Brewer, Deng) plays sufficiently close to Wade to prevent jump shots while aligning his entire body with Wade's shooting arm.  The alignment is so far askew that even the slowest of NBA guards would be able to dribble left freely.  But the perimeter defenders of the Bulls are talented, and the fact that Wade is still shooting with his right arm is gives them enough time to recover on many of his shots.  In addition, the interior defense stays ready to provide help and prevent Wade from getting all the way to the rim.  As always, Thibodeau's defenses always help and rotate quite well.  

Hampering Wade may be the lone bright spot for the Bulls in this series.  LeBron James' jump shot has looked better over the last two weeks that at any point in his playoff career.  Chris Bosh had a monster Game 2, and has hit many rally-killing shots throughout the series.  Unless Thibodeau can connive similar schemes for slowing James and Bosh, the Bulls' postseason will be ending sooner than they had hoped.