Miami Heat by the numbers: No Wade hurts

This year’s Miami Heat (13-5) squad is much of the same from last year’s sans team captain and forgotten franchise savior, Dwyane Wade, who has only appeared in nine games this season. Let’s take a look at where the Heat rank in several key statistical categories with the season nearly a third of the way through.

Miami is hurting in several of the following areas compared to last year solely because of Wade’s absence, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Take a look.

*NOTE: These are rankings through all games played on 1/25/12. Last year’s ranking is in parenthesis.

TEAM STATS

Win Percentage: 72% (71)

Eastern Conference Standing: 2nd (2nd)

Pace: 3rd (21st)

Rebound Rate: 9th (3rd) – This is one of those categories really hurting by Wade’s absence. He’s one of the best rebounding guards in the game.

Offensive Efficiency: T-1st (3rd) – No doubt the team’s drastic increase in pace has allowed for more opportunistic buckets in transition.

Defensive Efficiency: 8th (5th)

Turnover Ratio: 26th (19th)

Field Goal Percentage: 1st (2nd)

Defensive Field Goal Percentage: 10th (2nd) – Wade riding pine really hampers them defensively because he’s significantly better in this area than his replacements.

Three Point Percentage: 4th (7th)

Defensive Three Point Percentage: 24th (9th) – This may just be a product of the small sample size. The Heat want you to beat them from deep.

Point Differential: 3rd (1st)

The most troubling drops so far have to be the decrease in effectiveness on the boards (Wade) and the significant increase in turnovers per possession. Both are areas where the team should improve naturally as an increase in sample size should revert those figures towards the mean.

INDIVIDUAL STATS

THE GOOD

LeBron James Efficiency Spike:  55% FG (51), 41% 3FG (33), 1.6 3FGA (3.5)

THE BAD

Udonis Haslem’s Shooting: 40% FG (51)

With the absence of Dwyane Wade, LeBron is obviously reverting back to his days in Cleveland, aka “Takeover Mode”. Of course his stats are going to rocket. The efficiency drop for Haslem’s jumper is troubling, however. Is it just the lack of repetition? Or is there something not quite right with his surgically repaired foot?