You’ve got to hand it to Shaq and Kobe. So completely did they hog the spotlight in their Christmas Day showdown that the player who actually dominated the game garnered barely a mention.

Yes, Bryant’s 42 points were exciting, and I, too, wanted to see what happened the first time he drove the lane and ran into Shaq. But amidst the gushing, most missed out on the real story from Saturday’s game: The best player on the court was neither Shaquille O’Neal nor Kobe Bryant.

O’Neal, after all, fouled out long before the game’s exciting conclusion. While his 24 points and 11 rebounds were impressive, his gift of free-throw masonry (2-of-7) was a nice stocking stuffer for the Lakers. And Bryant committed an unacceptable nine turnovers and made only 12 of his 30 field-goal attempts. His defining moment came at the end of overtime, when he ignored the Christmas spirit of giving and opted to forego passing to an open teammate in favor of forcing an off-line 3-pointer against a double-team.

No, the star of the big Christmas showdown was quieter than reindeer on a roof while scoring 26 points and handing out 10 assists. He was the one who ran the Miami offense with aplomb, which was one reason the Heat had fewer turnovers (7) than Bryant did. And he was the guy who stepped up when it mattered, sealing Miami’s 104-102 overtime win with a twisting left-handed bank shot.

Away from the focus of the camera, Dwyane Wade dominated. And it was no accident.

The Miami Heat have won 11 straight games, and while Shaq has been a major force, Wade arguably has been even better. Saturday was his third straight game with at least 20 points and 10 assists, and his sixth straight with at least 20 points. That includes last week’s game against Boston, when Wade led a Shaq-less Heat team past the Celtics by dropping in 33 points and 11 assists.

The individual statistics bear out that Wade has arrived as one of the game’s top players in just his second pro season. Through Saturday’s games, Wade was the seventh-ranked player in the league in my Player Efficiency Rating (PER), a tool I use to measure each player’s statistical contributions on a per-minute basis.

In fact, if you compare Wade to Bryant as a wingman for the Diesel, it’s no wonder the Heat are faring so well. Statistically, Wade provides the same support that Bryant did when O’Neal was a Laker, and that devastating 1-2 punch combined for three championships in L.A. But what Wade has done takes a back seat to how he’s done it.

While Bryant constantly battled to be the top dog with O’Neal and fought on and off with the behemoth center for most of the past five seasons, Wade hasn’t uttered a peep. Bryant constantly looked to push the envelope on how many shots he could take and how big a role he could have in the offense (helped along, I should add, by a sycophantic media that proclaimed him the next Jordan).

On the other hand, Wade has happily fed Shaq and waited for his turn later in the shot clock or when transition opportunities arise.

With Shaq’s primary partner working cooperatively rather than combatively, the overall offensive effort has been much more cohesive than the Laker attack of a year ago. Miami ranks third in the NBA in Offensive Efficiency, my measure of how many points a team scores per each 100 possessions, at 107.5. A year ago, the Lakers ranked sixth at 103.2. Better yet, Miami is nearly six points better than league average, while the 2003 Lakers were barely two points over. Given that teams have nearly 100 possessions in an average game, Shaq gained about four points a game when he swapped Kobe for Wade.

The reason is that the team is getting better shots. With a behemoth center and a slashing guard, both last year’s Lakers and this year’s Heat led the NBA in free-throw attempts. But relieved of Kobe’s insatiable desire to attempt the most difficult shot possible, Shaq’s Miami team also leads the league in field-goal percentage at a scorching 48%. With Bryant, Shaq’s Lakers ranked fourth at 45.4%.

This goes a long way toward explaining why the Lakers won 73% of their games when Shaq played with Kobe – and 77% when Shaq played without Kobe. That’s not to say that Bryant isn’t a fantastic player, or that the Lakers could have won those three titles without him. But the enmity between the two grew so deep that by last season it was hard for the Lakers to live up to their awesome potential.

The numbers confirm what our common sense tells us: Paired with a much friendlier guard who nonetheless possesses talent to match Bryant’s, Shaq is better off. The Heat are cruising along with the best record in the Eastern Conference and they’re on pace to win several more games than last year’s Lakers. And that’s without Hall of Famers like Karl Malone or Gary Payton to fill out the roster.

Thus, Saturday served to hammer home what had already become the only logical conclusion: When it comes to pairing a star guard with the game’s most dominant center, Wade is better at the Kobe Bryant role than Kobe is.