What a waste! Wade’s 50 points go for naught

February 24, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

MIAMI (AP) — Dwyane Wade needs a wingman.

Sunday’s defeat at Orlando counts as one loss for the Miami Heat, but Wade’s teammates were outscored twice.

•There was Magic 122, Heat 99.

•And Wade 50, Rest of Heat 49.

Wade’s career-high 50 points in the blowout loss brought new light to an old problem, with the Heat again asking their MVP candidate to bear an inordinate amount of the offensive load.

“Dwyane’s a great player, but he can’t do it by himself,” Heat forward Udonis Haslem said.

Never was that more visible than Sunday.

It’s the first time this season a player reached 50 in a losing effort, and the first time since March 14, 1995 — when Dana Barros had 50 for Philadelphia in a 136-107 defeat against Houston — that someone scored so many and his team lost by 20-plus points.

The rest of Miami’s starters combined for 15 points. Not exactly a shot of momentum heading into another game with postseason implications tonight, at home against Detroit.

With the playoff drive in full swing, the Heat still seek a bona fide second scoring option.

“There’s some concerns,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra acknowledged.

Through Sunday, 131 different NBA players have scored more than 25 points in at least one game this season.

Some teams have as many as six players to do so, and Chicago’s roster now has seven players fitting into that category (only five actually scored that many for the Bulls; newly acquired Brad Miller and John Salmons did so for Sacramento before getting traded to the Windy City).

Miami? Just Wade.

Every other team has at least three players with 26-point games this season.

“We know that everyone has to do their job and play their role,” Haslem said.

Jermaine O’Neal has a 36-point game, but got that for Toronto before being traded to Miami. Shawn Marion (who went to Toronto in that deal) and Michael Beasley both had 25-point efforts for this season’s Heat, but no Wade teammate has eclipsed that plateau.

O’Neal, who scored six points against the Magic, apologized to Wade for not doing more.

“That’s the reason why they brought me here, to be able to score in the low post and make plays and defend,” O’Neal said. “In every aspect, I kind of failed the test.”