Heat’s Wade irked by palming accusations

 Dwyane Wade has been called many things this season.

Gutsy certainly would have been an apt description Wednesday night, for how he recovered from two days of battling a migraine to lead the Heat with 23 points in the 93-89 victory over the Jazz that concluded the team's 3-2 western trip.

Resilient essentially captures the way he has rebounded from two seasons of injuries to march to the top of the NBA's scoring chart.

But cheater?

That's a new one, and has the sixth-year guard a bit perplexed.

In a story posted on the league's website, NBA.com, Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy essentially called Wade that this week.

"His ability to carry the ball right now, he's getting away with that," Dunleavy said. "He (carries) left to right, right to left, but he just does it fast so nobody sees it, I guess."

Dunleavy, who cited Wade as playing in "a class above the rest," compared what he views as Wade's palming violations to a signature move of former NBA scoring standout Bernard King.

Wade was called for palming violations in consecutive games last month against the Raptors and Wizards while attempting change-of-direction dribbles. The league has made such calls a point of emphasis this season.

"Sometimes you get called for it, sometimes you don't," Wade said. "Everybody palms the ball every once in a while."

Considering the Clippers escaped with a controversial victory Saturday over the Heat, Wade was surprised Dunleavy would take issue with his play.

"There's a lot of things going on that could be called," Wade said. "So if you want to nitpick at everything, then he doesn't have enough to do. He needs to do something else."

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said he appreciates the perceptions.

"That's a tough call. That's why the league has such an emphasis on that," he said. "It's almost like a charge-block. Every single possession you could ask 10 people to judge whether that's a carry or not, and you'd probably have five people say 'yes,' five people say 'no.' "

Spoelstra said Wade's style hardly should make him a target of the palming police.

"The overwhelming majority of the time, he's going north-south," Spoelstra said. "The palming violations are usually east-to-west. Dwyane, everybody knows, he's attacking, he's going toward the rim. He's not spending a lot of motion going sideways."

As for Dunleavy's comparison to King, Wade had no issue.

"Tell him I'll take it as a compliment," he said.

Work remains

Power forward Udonis Haslem said the worst thing the Heat can do is get too full of itself, despite a soft upcoming schedule that includes games against Oklahoma City, Charlotte, Memphis and Milwaukee.

"I would think that we understand that," he said. "We already lost one to Charlotte, so we understand that they can beat us. We're still a young team and we've still got a lot to learn."