Dwyane Wade Dunks Over Kendrick Perkins, Celebrates Ridiculously, But Heat Lose to Thunder

When the Miami Heat essentially held a victory celebration in the summer, they became an easy team for the country to root against. So whenever an opportunity to mock them comes about, America generally relishes the opportunity.

Such was the case on Wednesday night, when the Miami Heat — rejuvenated thanks to a three-game winning streak over the Lakers, Grizzlies and Spurs — hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Heat trailed by 11 midway through the second quarter when Dwyane Wade spun past Serge Ibaka then showed incredible lift with a dunk over Kendrick Perkins. Wade is 6-foot-4; Perkins is 6-foot-10. As you can imagine, Wade was feeling pretty good about his dunk, but that probably didn’t warrant the most ridiculous celebration by a guy whose team is trailing by nine in the history of guys whose teams have been trailing by nine.

Wade’s dunk got the crowd to really fan up, and he got the prestigious honor of being NBA.com’s “Dunk of the Night,” but it was the Thunder who executed in crunch time and came away with an 11-point victory. The Heat are now 18-20 against teams with a .500 record or better, which wasn’t what Miami envisioned when it saw Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh emerge from behind the clouds of white smoke to brag to America about how good they are.

And America continues to laugh.