Sunday’s game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat was supposed to be one of the last times LeBron James and Dwyane Wade shared an NBA court together, but life had other plans for Wade. Now, the close friends and former teammates have only one opportunity left.
Wade missed the Lakers’ 113-97 at Miami because he, ironically, had to be in California for the birth of his daughter. LeBron ended up scoring a season-high 51 points, but he was still very disappointed that he couldn’t do battle with Wade.
“It sucks. I can’t even lie to you guys,” James said, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “I have never lied to you guys, obviously. I mean we all know the reason why he is not here.”
The Lakers won’t make another trip to Miami this season, but the Heat will travel to the Staples Center for a rematch on Dec. 10. LeBron is crossing his fingers that the timing works out for him to face Wade one last time.
“To know that we only had two more games against each other, and one of them isn’t going to happen, it sucked a little bit,” he added. “Hopefully we are both in uniform when Miami comes to L.A. and we can finish this off the right way.”
It’s unclear how much of an impact Wade would have made for the Heat defensively, but perhaps he could have helped hold James under 50 points. That will almost certainly be the only time in LeBron’s career that he is disappointed after a convincing win in which he drops 51.
