MIAMI -- Apparently, Dwyane Wade can shake off a stomach virus with a few vintage performances but there's little he can do to remedy the headache that's become of this Miami Heat season.

Wade scored a total of 70 points over two games played in a span of 48 hours, and all he had to show for it Wednesday night was an injury-riddled, confidence-rattled team that squandered one of his best games in four years in yet another demoralizing loss at home.

After scoring 28 points in Tuesday's victory in Brooklyn, Wade battled through illness again Wednesday to put up a season-high 42 points in a 105-87 loss to the lottery-bound Utah Jazz. Despite the effort, the Heat were beaten badly again at AmericanAirlines Arena, where they are 4-8 this season and have dropped four straight at home by double-figure margins.

For Wade, it's gotta be frustrating to feel this healed yet simultaneously helpless.

It's growing more difficult by the game to determine whether the Heat are this bad because they're hurting or whether they're hurting because they're this bad. Either way, Wednesday was a bit of a waste for Wade. The only thing that kept this from feeling like a Los Angeles Lakers game was the high level of efficiency from Wade, who was 12-of-19 from the field and 16-of-21 from the free-throw line.

But otherwise, this essentially had Kobe's fingerprints all over it.

By the time Wade left the game with less than two minutes remaining, he had scored 42 of his team's 84 points. Wade simply kept shooting, kept attacking, kept pressing because he was on a roll -- even as the Heat were getting steamrolled by a Jazz team that came in having lost nine of its past 10 games.

"You want to win games like that so you can feel good about yourself," Wade said after his first 40-point game since the 2012 playoffs and highest total since he scored 45 against Houston in 2010. "It's hard to feel good about yourself when you lose, even when you have a good individual performance."

It's the sort of disconnect that's beginning to painfully define the Heat's season, one that on Wednesday forced Wade to take solace in his game within the game. He needs help, but it likely won't come again at all this season from Josh McRoberts, who is scheduled for knee surgery next week. It may not come for a few more games from Chris Bosh, who missed his third game to recover from a strained calf.

And consistent help has yet to come from Luol Deng, Danny Granger, Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole or any of the primary players coach Erik Spoelstra has shuffled through on his way to using 11 different starting lineups this season, largely because of injuries. But this was a statement game from Wade.

Wade refused to bite on numerous questions after the game about whether there is enough adequate help on the roster to help avoid squandering one of his few remaining productive seasons. Instead, Wade steered his answers toward a focus on patience and perseverance.

What Wade no longer has time for are stretches in games when he sees waning effort.

"We don't have as much as other guys; we are depleted," Wade said. "We could put a better effort out. I can't say we're going to win every game or we are more talented than every team we are playing, but our effort can be there. This kind of effort as a group is just unacceptable for us. That is our problem."

That lack of effort has contributed to the Heat having trailed by at least 18 points at one stage or another in three consecutive home games. The lack of continuity has played a role in an offense that has sputtered along for most of the season with very little spark. And the lack of defensive disposition has led to the Heat stumbling from an elite unit to one that now ranks among the worst in the league.

There is no shortage of problems facing the Heat right now.

Answers, however, are another story completely.

"I don't have that right now," said Spoelstra, with the Heat off to their worst start in his seven seasons as coach. "That's what we're trying to figure out. It's not for a lack of want."

Only Wade got everything he wanted Wednesday. Well, aside from a victory to reward his effort.

"I don't have an explanation -- it's just disappointing," Wade said. "We wasted so much energy just trying to get back into the game. We just didn't have enough to get over the hump."

That hump presents a massing uphill challenge for the Heat in their current state.

This was hardly the way they wanted to start their climb back toward stability at the start of a seven-game homestand that continues Friday against the surging Wizards and is highlighted by a Christmas showdown with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Wade insists he's healthy and completely over the strained hamstring that sidelined him for seven games earlier this season. He's since shown he can deliver a few breakout performances.

But they'll have little impact if the Heat continue to break down around him.