For those who have been under a rock, Dwyane Wade is amazing.

The Miami Heat superstar started Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks by scoring his first nine points in the paint. What makes that statistic amazing is that Wade is a guard, someone many may not expect to continuously attack the basket. One only needs to watch Chauncey Billups to know what a stereotypical guard looks like. Sure, Billups will occasionally take the ball to the bucket, but Wade does it on a consistent basis.

Why does Shaq constantly get wide-open flushes? The opponent is worried that Wade is going to posterize them, which means that the defense will shift to Wade, leaving Shaq open for a dunk.

Dwayne Wade is fun to watch, because unlike many guards, he is fearless going to the basket. At least twice in Game 1, Wade missed a powerful dunk over Dallas big men. He did miss the dunks, but it wasn't because Wade didn't try to put some emphasis on his attempt. Both times, Wade exploded to the basket and took it fearlessly at his opponent. It took two hard hacks to keep Wade from finishing in Jordan-like fashion. The best guards don't just shoot. They take it to the basket, take their lickings, and keep on ticking.

Here's some food for thought. In the NBA this year, Dwyane Wade led the league in free-throw attempts per game with over 13 attempts per contest, according to NBA.com. This is a guard we're talking about, not Shaq, Tim Duncan, or Dirk Nowitzki.

I am watching this series because I look forward to watching guards like Wade and Mavs guard Jason Terry try to flush it down the throats of their much taller opponents. Nothing is better than watching a smaller guy pick on someone much larger than him.

SOURCE http://www.nba.com/playerfile/dwyane_wade/index.html