The Cleveland Cavaliers needed someone to step up as they took on the top team in the NBA while being down several players. Dean Wade didn't just step up, he carried the Cavs to a victory over the Boston Celtics.
Wade scored 20 points in the fourth quarter, was a perfect five-for-five from behind the arc, and scored the game-winning bucket after the Cavs found them down 22 points at the start of the period.
J.B. Bickerstaff had nothing but praise for Wade following the victory. How could you feel any other way following a performance such as that?
"He was himself. This is a version of Dean Wade that we've seen in the past and it's the one that we press, and press, and press from him to be," said Bickerstaff postgame.
"When Dean Wade is playing with that extreme confidence, he's a hell of a basketball player. He's a multi-faceted guy. He's not just a spot-up shooter. We know the thing he can do defensively, but he has an offense game and tonight he got it rolling. The belief, the confidence, that's who he is at his core."
The wild part about this ending is that Wade likely would never have even been on the floor in that scenario if Evan Mobley hadn't exited the game in the third quarter with an ankle injury. However, he was asked to head into the game and converted when called upon.
That's just another example of D-Wade and the rest of this Cavaliers roster stepping up when asked to do so.
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