Wade may delay the surgery till after the playoffs, and may opt for a continued rehabilitation of his shoulder. But this could be risky, and it might backfire. One bad fall, and Wade’s career may be in jeopardy. I suggest, same as what Lebron James suggested, that Wade sit out the rest of the season, and undergo surgery now.

With Wade coming down, so do the hopes of the Heat repeating as champions. Let it be remembered that the man called “The Flash” single-handedly brought back the team to life in the Finals against Dallas, he, by his lonesome, brought the first ever NBA Championship to the city of Miami. Currently, they are gunning for the eighth and final seed of the East, gutting it out against New Jersey, Orlando and even New York. With Miami struggling this season, and with Wade carrying most of the load, the chances of Miami defending their title are very very slim, so do their chances of carving a backdoor way to the postseason wars. If ever they make it, there is a big possibility that they will face Detroit in the first round, and the Pistons are tough opponents. Their starting five is easily one of the best in the NBA. And without Dwyane, Miami isn’t that dangerous anymore.

I hope Wade makes the right decision. Miami should not risk Wade’s grave injury. The Heat will have to do without their superstar, and salvage every chance of competing well in the playoffs. They still have an outside chance of making it to the top four as they are only down 3.5 games behind the Washington Wizards in the Southeast Division. The other players like Jason Williams, Jason Kapono, James Posey and Shaquille O’Neal must bring their game to the highest level possible to compensate for Dwyane’s loss. They should, or it will be an early summer vacation for them.

And then the Spurs knew they were in for a game.

Parker scored 24 points, including five down the stretch to halt New York’s frantic comeback attempt, and the Spurs held off the Knicks 105-93 on Monday night.

Reserve Brent Barry added 19 points for the Spurs, who blew almost all of a 23-point lead after Knicks coach Isiah Thomas went deep into his bench with his team seemingly out of the game late in the first half.

The Knicks used a 20-2 run in the fourth quarter to pull within 92-91 with just over 4 minutes to play on a jumper by Stephon Marbury, who had the Madison Square Garden fans on their feet after they heavily booed him during a horrendous game Saturday night.

ut Parker knocked down a jumper, and after Tim Duncan converted a three-point play, Parker nailed a 3-pointer that gave the Spurs a 100-91 lead with 1 1/2 minutes left.

Duncan and Manu Ginobili each scored 15 points and Parker had 10 assists for the Spurs, who won on consecutive days following a victory in Toronto on Sunday.

Leading by six early in the second quarter, the Spurs held the Knicks scoreless for more than 4 minutes during a 22-5 burst. Parker had two beautiful passes on consecutive possessions, finding Duncan for an alley-oop in transition, then firing a behind-the-back pass in the corner to Barry for a 3.

The Spurs led 52-29 with 3:34 remaining in the half. Thomas then sent out four new players who helped the Knicks close the half with a 12-2 spurt that made it 54-41.

That group — with Robinson, David Lee, Malik Rose, and Mardy Collins joining starter Quentin Richardson — also opened the second half, while players such as Marbury and Eddy Curry, who help comprise the NBA’s highest payroll, watched from the bench. Rose and Collins hadn’t even scored this season.

The Knicks got within 11 early in the third quarter before Parker and Bruce Bowen knocked down consecutive 3-pointers to give San Antonio a 62-45 cushion. The Spurs seemed firmly in control from there, leading by 19 early in the fourth quarter before New York nearly rallied.(source: yahoo nba)

Harrington scored 32 points, and the Indiana Pacers sent the Knicks to their fifth straight home-opening loss with a 109-95 victory Saturday night.

Taking advantage of New York’s poor defensive effort, Harrington shot 14-of-24 from the field. A key offseason acquisition for the Pacers, he was only 4-for-19 for 12 points in the first two games.

Harrington returned to Indiana this summer when the Pacers acquired him from Atlanta. The New Jersey native said the Knicks wanted him, too, but the Hawks didn’t want to cooperate. So instead, he showed New York what it could have had.

Harrington wasn’t the only Indiana player to find things easy Saturday. The Pacers shot 64 percent (25-of-39) in the second half to spoil the first home game of Knicks coach Isiah Thomas.

Steve Francis scored 25 points and Eddy Curry had 22 for New York, which hasn’t won a home opener since Oct. 30, 2001. Stephon Marbury had a miserable game, going 1-for-9 for four points with six turnovers, and wasn’t surprised when he was the target of boos.

Thomas coached the Pacers from 2000-03, leading them to three playoff appearances before he was fired by Pacers president Larry Bird and replaced by current coach Rick Carlisle.

Following last season’s 23-59 debacle, Thomas acknowledged before the game that the Knicks had to win back the fans. And though the Madison Square Garden crowd got behind New York when it was trying to rally, there were the familiar boos and groans when the Knicks simply couldn’t get any stops.

Leading by five at halftime, Indiana hit its first 11 shots in the third quarter. Maybe the Knicks might have thought about a hard foul or something — after all, Thomas was the star of the Detroit “Bad Boy” teams that won consecutive titles fueled by their tough play. But Indiana didn’t attempt its first free throw of the game until Harrington made a pair almost halfway through the period.

By then, the Pacers were on their way to hitting 13-of-17 from the field in the quarter, building a 14-point lead. New York chipped away late in the period as Nate Robinson scored the final five points, including a 3-pointer with 0.1 seconds left that cut Indiana’s lead to 77-76 heading to the fourth.

But the Pacers quickly regained control, scoring the first nine points of the fourth to open an 86-76 lead on a three-point play by Sarunas Jasikevicius with 8:44 to play. The Knicks never got closer than six again.

Jermaine O’Neal scored 17 points and Jasikevicius added 16. Jamaal Tinsley had 14 assists.

Indiana led 43-31 after Harrington’s dunk with 2:03 to go in the second quarter. The Knicks closed with a 9-2 surge to pull to 45-40 at halftime, taking advantage of a 19-0 edge in free throws attempted in the half. However, New York only made 13 of them (68 percent). (source: yahoo nba)

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They are also overloaded in almost every position. All-Stars Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Steve Francis and Jalen Rose have to battle for minutes against promising upstarts and reliable veterans in Nate Robinson, Quentin Richardson, newly-acquired Jared Jeffries and sensational rookie Renaldo Balkman. Now that’s just the back court. And if you notice, most of these guards and wingmen are shoot-first-defend-later players.

There is also a similar positional battle going on at the front court. Thomas has to find ample and “satisfiable” minutes for reliable-when-healthy Eddy Curry, guy-who-broke-out-in-Seattle Jerome James, hard working Malik Rose, promising Channing Frye and hustling David Lee. Thomas needs to define their roles. Some players need to accept that they are going to get limited minutes this season, especially with Thomas promising to have a regular rotation.

Word around is Thomas will employ a run-and-gun offense similar to that of the Phoenix Suns. The problem though, his point guard isn’t named Steve Nash, it’s shoot-first-pass-when-in-trouble Marbury. But Thomas has remarked that he will leave the running and scoring to his All-Star guards, Marbury and Francis. Thomas brought them in New York for a reason, and he has trust in these players. We’ll see how things will work out.

I see them running, but they won’t be running like the Suns. There is just a bad mix here. Let’s consider their starting five. Curry has to start at center, and they need him to grab those rebounds so they may start their fast break. In this running style, I don’t see Curry scoring that much. He is a good low post player, he may be one of two resorts when they need a score from the post, the other being James. But James won’t be fielded in unless they need to bang against Shaq.

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Frye showed his athleticism last year. He could be a running power forward, and he’s gonna start. Jeffries has my nod over the aging Rose at small forward. Jeffries has the difficult task to guard the other team’s biggest scoring threat like Lebron James, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. He is just long and quick, plus he can play at both forward positions. And with this running game, he may play at four with Frye at five, then three guards up front. Jeffries’ job could be in jeopardy as well, with the promise and hustle of 6-8 rookie Renaldo Balkman. The kid has shown toughness and hustle. He is a good defender and is sooooo long. He scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds against Boston in a pre-season game.

Francis and Marbury will start at both guard positions. These two are formidable at the open floor, but they need to help each other out if they want to improve New York’s league’s second worst record at only 23 wins. It would be great though if we see them cuffing the passing lanes for steals and easy lay-ups.

With the Knicks’ new running style, I won’t be surprised if you see Crawford, Balkman, Malik Rose, Richardson and Robinson off the bench and on the floor at the same time. Oh boy, these guys can run and they will definitely run. Richardson has to lessen his three-point attempts. He ain’t that effective from the outside anyway, averaging just a shade over 32 percent for his career from beyond the arc. He is athletic and he could slash to the basket. Veteran Jalen Rose, who at 33, could see less minutes this season despite averaging 12.3 points per game last season. He is a prime candidate for a trade within the season.

Clearly, New York has a lot of guns and firepower, but they have to jell. They need to play as a unit for them to be able to save Isiah’s job. But, as I see them, it’s still going to be a long season for the Knicks. They will miss the playoffs once again.