Dwyane Wade‘s well-timed tear this month has got the NBA buzzing (or, at least, the people who cover it). He’s showing that the “clutch gene” never goes away, even after countless knee injuries and aggravations or taking a backseat to the best player in the known universe.

His clips of 26.9 points, 5.1 assists, 3.3 rebounds on 51.4 percent shooting in March are his best of any month this season. He’s averaging more than 10 points more than he did in February.

We know Wade, with Chris Bosh sidelined, is Miami’s go-to option and best overall player. But how good has Wade been relative to the rest of the NBA during this month? Well, really, really good. Right there with MVP galloping dark horse Russell Westbrook and other most valuable player favorites.

[table id=12 /]

Both Wade and Westbrook are averaging 0.404 points per possession in March, a rate that would top the NBA from significantly used players.

There are a few reasons why Wade is playing at an MVP-level right now. First and foremost, he says he’s as healthy as he’s been in years. Secondly, the addition and acclimation of Goran Dragic as a ball handler has allowed Wade to focus more on scoring and less on captaining the offense.

You can see that Wade is shooting nearly six percent more of his shots from is favorite spot on the low left block and has increased his clip by more than 10 percent.

We’ve already covered how the Heat rely on Wade in fourth quarter. Now, though, Wade has in the infrastructure in place to take over the way he wants to–in the post and off the pick-and-roll. A fringe playoff team at the beginning of the month, now his Heat are in control of the seventh seed and 1.5 games behind the Bucks for the sixth spot.

*All stats via NBA.com’s statistics database unless otherwise noted.