"That's what it's all about, finding another way," said Wade, who hit just 5 of 20 shots from the field and was 7 of 10 at the foul line for 17 points. "My teammates did a great job of shooting the ball tonight."

Second-year guard Daequan Cook drilled 6 of 6 from three-point range in the first half and finished with a team-high 24 points, and Wade knew where to find him.

"With the way Milwaukee packs the paint and makes you spray the ball for your shooters to shoot, he made them pay for it," Wade said.

Wade also was matched up for most of the night with Redd, who was 8 for 21 from the field and 0 for 6 from three-point range while scoring 16 points.

"Every time I play Michael, he plays hard," Wade said. "He's my Olympic teammate. It's always a great matchup with Mike."

The Bucks had success limiting Wade in a victory in Miami in December, when he was held to 15 points. But this time he was content to spread the ball around as four other Heat players scored in double figures.

Rookie forward Michael Beasley had 21 points, Udonis Haslem 18 and Shawn Marion 14, along with a key block of a shot by Richard Jefferson in the final 30 seconds.

Bucks coach Scott Skiles said he knew the Bucks were in trouble despite Wade's low-scoring night.

"It's a red flag," Skiles said. "When Dwyane was 1 for 8 at halftime, we had a tie game (at 55). You know at some point he's going to come in and make a couple baskets.

"We did a respectable job on him again, but we were so slow to recover to the other guys and slow to recognize that they had a guy (Cook) that was making multiple threes out there."

Wade entered the night averaging an NBA-best 29.1 points to go along with 7.1 assists and 5.1 rebounds while playing 38.2 minutes per game.

Wade half-jokingly complained that he didn't shoot well because he was getting hit on the arm all night.

He had a pass deflected and stolen by Bucks forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute in the final minute, and the former Marquette star also missed a free throw to help the Bucks hang close.

"It was one of the few games that Dwyane wasn't absolutely able to take over," Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. "I thought he played a very intelligent game. One of the things you really have to do against this team is move the ball and get off the ball and hit the open guy.

"Earlier in the year, if you said we could win a game on the road when he shoots 5 for 20, I'm not sure we had the defensive toughness to do that."

Wade was coming off a bit of a scoring spree in the three previous games, as he scored 41 in an overtime victory at Sacramento, 27 in a close loss against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers and 31 in a victory at Minnesota on Tuesday.

"Everybody points to his scoring and that's not something we take for granted," Spoelstra said. "We lean on him quite a bit, and he has a huge offensive load for us. Really, what has been great for us has been his defensive commitment.

"Since training camp he set the tone, to let everybody know this is how we do it at the Miami Heat. He's been there all the way through. We're playing him big minutes, but he doesn't miss a practice, doesn't miss a turn. For all the young guys we have on the team, it's been very critical, because it has fast-tracked their learning process."

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Charles F. Gardner posts news, notes and analysis at jsonline.com/blogs/Bucks

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