Wade sidelined for rest of season

Dwyane Wade’s season is over.

Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley announced Monday that the guard, who has battled left knee pain throughout the season after summer surgery, will not play in the last 21 games.

“I think it’s time,” Riley said.

The move was expected, although the timing -- with so much of the season left -- was mildly surprising. But Wade sat out Friday’s game against the Golden State Warriors because of knee stiffness, telling Riley at the time that it pained him just to get out of bed.

The next day, Wade looked strong playing in Atlanta. But with all hope of the playoffs gone, the Heat -- the NBA’s worst team at 11-51 -- and Wade decided that the time was right to stop.

Wade, the league’s fifth-best scorer at 24.6 points, will turn to therapy in hopes of getting his knee back to top form.

Meanwhile, Smush Parker was waived by the Heat, nearly 3 1/2 months after the team put him on the inactive list after an altercation with a female valet parking attendant.

Parker, 26, hasn’t been with the team since late November and appeared in only nine games, averaging 4.8 points.

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Denver Nuggets guard Allen Iverson has a small fracture on his right ring finger but will try to play through it.

The team said X-rays detected a non-displaced fracture at the end of the finger. Iverson was injured against San Antonio on Friday.

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Washington Wizards forward Caron Butler, who hasn’t played since Feb. 5 because of a left hip injury, returned to practice -- six days after point guard Gilbert Arenas (knee) did so.

There is no timetable for either to return

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Charlotte Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace practiced for the first time since suffering his fourth concussion in four years on Feb. 22. He hopes to play Wednesday at Dallas. . . . Chicago guard Chris Duhon, fined by the Bulls for missing Sunday’s shoot-around, was fined again for making flip comments about it.