The Miami Heat held practice without the Miami Heat on Monday, as franchise player and holder of postseason fortunes Dwyane Wade sat out with a sore ankle and assorted other boo-boos.

The Sun-Sentinel quotes Wade sounding all defiant and stuff:

"That's not my goal, to make people think I can make it through the whole season," he said of the latest advertising campaign for his sneakers. "I want to play the whole season.

"It's not about making other people believe that. I just want to be out here every game with my teammates, as we continue to grow."

Yeah, now that you mention it, basing a sneaker ad on overcoming your injury history is kind of lame. Can't we just do cool characters like LeBron?

Anyway, as this post's incendiary headline suggests, any injury or combination of same that slows or sidelines Wade cripples this team's playoff hopes (see what I did there?) Whatever improvement this team has made - and it's made a little - would be all but lost without Wade, the star that makes everyone else's incremental progress possible. This year would look like the aimless doodle Michael Beasley drew that one time he went to class at Kansas State University.

I know these little dings happen in an NBA season, but it's early, and I'm officially starting to worry. It feels like foreshadowing.

Dwyane Wade - fall down seven times, get up eight weeks later.