Dwyane Wade Dominates Through Subtlety When LeBron James takes over a playoff series, he takes it by the throat. His dominance is often so obvious and blunt that his contributions become impossible to ignore. James stands at the center of it all, bathed in spotlight, and wrapped in our collective awe. But when Dwyane Wade takes over a playoff series, he manages to do so in a way that captures our attention and then releases it, thus freeing him to work the unexpected angle and astound viewers - and defenses - once again. He forces those watching the game to seek him out and trace his movements, in part because his work with the ball is loaded with subtlety, but also because he's a masterful agent of his offense's sleight of hand. That dynamic is one reason why, despite the silly claims to the contrary, James and Wade make for such a fantastic on-court pairing. We can make mountains out of their lack of perimeter shooting or occasional tendency to become overly dependent on isolation offense, but these two remarkable players dominate games in superficially similar and yet incredibly different ways. Although James and Wade both boast impressively expansive skills, the nuances of those skills allow them to take on very different roles for a Heat team that thrives on their synergy. True to form, James has dominated the Heat's current first-round series in the most apparent of fashions, but it's Wade who has been the Knicks's silent killer. Wade has converted more than 61 percent of his field goals in the series, and while his stat lines haven't been as extravagant as those of his superstar counterpart, his work beyond the Knicks" first line of defense has been fantastic. While James often looks to attack New York in pick and rolls from the top of the key or as a solo battering ram, Wade often slinks to the court's baseline boundary - a haven for those with his gifts of awareness and timing: With the ball or without, Wade walks the court's edge as a means of shifting the game's orientation. The inclination of the modern superstar is to attack from the top of the floor, both as a signal of will and might; the perimeter is where Jordan faded away and Iverson broke ankles, and the allure of such similarly captured and easily emulated brilliance tends to overcome better judgment far more than it should. Wade isn't totally immune to the charms of that approach, but he also isn't dependent on it. By working from the wings toward the floor's baseline extremity, he not only limits the potential for help defense from unknown angles, but orients himself to attack an inverted defense. There are no pesky perimeter defenders around to swipe at his dribble or wall off his path. The baseline holds particular perils for offensive players who don't fully understand its limitations, but Wade manages to use that swath of space as a legitimate weapon - a zone in which he materializes and scores in the blink of a eye, only to drift back into the game's natural flow. Wade manages to shift the nature of his attacks on the defense in a similar manner through his work on the low block. James may be nurturing a promising post game, but Wade's is - and long has been - fully formed, and provides him with an avenue to victimize a group of opponents largely unschooled in the ways of post defense: Not only does Wade create complications for the perimeter defender forced to check him inside, but it puts the opponent's - in this case, the Knicks" - team defense in an uncomfortable - and unconventional - situation. Normally, when Wade has his man at a particular disadvantage, help can come from any of several conceivable angles. The same is true of a standard entry pass into a more conventional post player. But by putting a guard on the block and spacing the rest of the offense appropriately, help defense comes at a much greater price. Wade is too good of a passer to consistently double, and too strong of a scorer to leave to his own devices. It's not impossible for defense to cover him down low, but doing so seems to create complications elsewhere. His work on the perimeter is dangerous and productive in its own right, but by forgoing the trouble of having to break down a defense and instead skipping straight to the collapse, he accelerates the offensive process by simply changing his positioning. It's through such zones that Wade is able to unleash fits of nearly unstoppable scoring. The potential for more traditional operations as a top-of-the-floor player will always be present with Wade (and manifests itself as needed), but it's through his less conventional work that he's able to catch defenses unaware, and strike violently before returning to the creases and the fringe. He may not draw the audience's instinctive gaze, but the drama of his surprising bursts only serves to highlight Wade's manipulation of the periphery.