EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — A week that started with Dwyane Wade stressing it would take more than a nagging injury to keep him off the court is ending with the Miami Heat guard insisting he won’t rush back from such an ailment.
“I just try to be smart about it and see how I feel,” Wade said Thursday of the strained right hip that kept him out of Wednesday’s 112-108 overtime loss in Boston, his first absence of the season.
As teammates went through a light workout at the Nets’ practice facility in advance of tonight’s game against New Jersey, Wade put up a few shots and then put up with various contortions of his midsection by the training staff.
Wade said he would be a game-time decision tonight, adding that the goal is to get to a point “where I can really help my team and then not go in and out, just try to be smart about it and see how I feel.”
The Heat is concerned that if the injury is not fully treated, it could spread to his groin.
“Thankfully and hopefully,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, “it’s just a little bit of a nagging injury that we can get rid of now.”
Spoelstra warned not to expect a decision long before tipoff.
“We’ll probably loosen him up before the game and see how he feels,” he said. “But hopefully he’ll be ready to go.”
Wade said he was impressed with the effort his teammates put up against the short-handed Celtics. The most impressive of those performances might have been by backcourt partner Mario Chalmers, the lone Heat player to see action in all 67 games.
