With 12 games left, no time for Wade to rest

MIAMI (AP) -- Erik Spoelstra has a simple plan for how he'll manage a stiff and sore Dwyane Wade as the Miami Heat make their playoff push.

"Play him," the first-year Heat coach said.

Wade is at the point in the season where the little aches and pains are becoming bigger aches and pains. He's spending extra time in the training room, getting ice baths, even had his personal trainer Tim Grover visit from Chicago for a few days recently to go along with the daily guidance Wade gets from the Heat medical staff.

But with 12 games left in a 22-day span starting Wednesday night in Indiana -- a place where Wade has never won as a pro, losing all seven times he's taken the court there -- there's no time for a break.

"Once you start playing, your adrenaline gets going and everything's fine," said Wade, the league's leading scorer at 29.9 points per game and an MVP candidate. "I think it's the beginning of games when you've got to get yourself going. ... I was running all around the court, I was trying to make sure we didn't get lost or fall asleep with the game going slow. That makes you all aware."

With the Southeast Division race essentially decided weeks ago -- Orlando can officially clinch on Wednesday -- the Heat have been left to contend for the No. 4 playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

And in that race, there's little room for slippage.

Atlanta (42-29) has control of the race for the No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round, holding a 3 1/2-game lead over the Heat. The Hawks have 11 games remaining, meaning Miami has one game in hand.

Miami (38-32) is 1 1/2 games ahead of Philadelphia (36-33) for the No. 6 spot, and three games up on Detroit (34-35), which currently holds down the seventh seed in the East playoff bracket.

It all means that Spoelstra is leaving nothing to chance. That's one of the reasons why, even with Miami up by double digits in the fourth quarter against lowly Memphis on Monday night, he put Wade back into the game in the fourth quarter.

"I would have taken those minutes. I wanted some more rest," Wade said. "But I play with a young team. All year, I don't have the luxury of sitting out fourth quarters. One day, we will get back to that. But right now, we're not there. We've got to try to get the win."

Wade missed his first game of the season last Wednesday in Boston, after a strained right hip flexor -- that led to some stiffness in his groin -- left him sidelined. In the four games before Miami played the Celtics, Wade logged 50 minutes in a double-overtime win over Chicago, 37 minutes in a home win over Boston, 52 1/2 minutes in a triple-overtime epic win over Utah, then 34 minutes the next day in a loss at Philadelphia.

Without him, the Heat lost 112-108 in overtime to Boston.

The stretch that Wade is on now represents one of the longest of his life without an extended break from competitive basketball.

He was shut down late last season, as the Heat sputtered to the worst record in the NBA, because of knee pain. Wade began training for last summer's Beijing Olympics in May, played the whole way through late August while helping the Americans win a gold medal, then started camp with the Heat just a couple of weeks later.

His body might need a break, but if Wade gets his way, he won't be getting one for at least another few weeks.

"We have to be smart about it," Spoelstra said. "...He feels not 100 percent, probably not anywhere near it. But as long as we can maintain that, we'll keep on playing him. And it takes him a while to get loose, but he's still explosive."

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)