During their six of seven losing slide, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have combined to score 57% of Miami's points per game on average.

In the road loss to Chicago and home loss to the Blazers, they combined for 71% and 72% respectively. The Heat now have a 2-2 record in the four games where the Larger-2 combine for more than 70% of the team's overall scoring output.

For the season, James and Wade combine for 49% of Miami's scoring on average in wins and 54% of their scoring in losses.

Many of Miami's wins have been blowouts, which create late game scoring opportunities for rotation players with those two on the bench, but I believe the difference is statistically meaningful, particularly when looking at games as independent events.

Both players took on a more passive scoring role during the first part of the season and that is reflected in a small standard deviation through the Charlotte victory on January 3rd. This was the first time they each scored 30 or more points in the same game.

In their postgame comments, both players expressed satisfaction with the combined scoring surge.

"To look at us in the Boston game earlier this year, we didn't know what each other was thinking," Wade told the media. "Now we're on the same page. Us not being able to play together is not a conversation anymore. I think we do a good job of playing off each other.

"This is what we envisioned and it's starting to come true," he said.

A few days later, they combined for 73% of their scoring (78 total points) in an overtime win at Portland.

"You look at games like this and moments like this and you really understand why we decided to team up and come together," Wade said. "I am a fan of his on the court and I am just glad I get to experience this in the same jersey he wears, instead of being on the other end."

"I had to do whatever it took to win," James said.

The Heat lost their next game, a road defeat at the Clippers. Things were so much different at that point in the season, in hindsight I can't believe I asked Wade after the game if they had reached a point where losing is a shock.

They lost their next two games after that when both Wade and James were in the lineup (versus Atlanta, at New York). In those losses, the tandem combined for 69% of the team's scoring and 66%.

Easy wins followed in which their scoring percentage dropped below 50% and they had a 46% in their important loss at Boston on February 13th.

The fact that Wade and James combined for 71% of Miami's scoring in the road loss at Chicago on February 24th was at least partially a byproduct of Chris Bosh's infamous 1-for-18.

Even though both players are excellent facilitators for other players and they could be doing more of it with better consistency, I see this is as more of an indictment on their supporting cast. While Bosh's role could be larger instead of an elbow jumper bailout, their spot-up shooter flotilla (Mike Miller, James Jones, Mike Bibby, Mario Chalmers, Eddie House) are still getting excellent looks, but simply are not hitting with any type of efficiency. Miami has been consistently and brutally killed in bench scoring differential.

Furthermore, opposing teams are collapsing into the paint late in games when Miami's transition game is more easily neutralized and that makes scoring incredibly difficult on the ISO superstars.

There is some chicken/egg with the whole percentage of scoring evaluation, but a more reliable scoring effort from players other than the Larger-2 is an excellent first step to once again become a winning fourth quarter team. That was the team we saw completely dismantle the Lakers on Christmas Day when Wade and James combined to score 47% of their points. Bosh had 24 and Chalmers had 13.

"Offensively, it's probably the most trust and the most poise we've played [with] this season," Erik Spoelstra said after that win.

This contrasts to the familiar refrain Spoelstra has sounded during the losing streak.

“Frankly, we don’t have a lot of answers how to get over this hump,” Spoelstra said on Tuesday after the Portland loss. “We can just keep grinding and not let go of the rope.”