After sitting out two weeks with an ankle injury, Dwyane Wade made his return for the Miami Heat on Friday night at American Airlines Arena. And he made an immediate impact against the New York Knicks, putting on a 24-minute highlight show with LeBron James that gave Miami a 52-48 halftime lead. Wade finished the half with 18 points, connecting with James on an array of fast break dunks. LeBron added 14 points and was superb in his own right against a Knicks team playing without Carmelo Anthony. James took an alley-oop on the break from Wade and went high up into the square to bring it down and ignite the crowd.
Despite the brilliance of James and Wade, the Knicks are right there and trail by only four after a hot-shooting half from three-point range. The Knicks took a whopping 23 attempts from behind the arc, but hit ten of them to maintain some rhythm on the offensive end. Bill Walker, playing increased time with the absence of Anthony, was exposed on the defensive end by James but he did hit four of six three-pointers to lead New York with 12 points.
For more on this game from a Heat perspective, check out Pennisula is Mightier. For a view from the other bench, there is always Posting and Toasting, SB Nation's Knicks blog. And for more on this and every other game, check out the SB Nation NBA hub page.