Observations and other notes of interest from Friday night’s 143-107 NBA Cup victory over the Chicago Bulls:
– The development hits keep coming.
– Following Wednesday night’s victory over the Warriors, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said forget the stats and instead consider how Dru Smith changed the tone of that game.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– As in undrafted Dru Smith.
– This time, with the Heat shorthanded, Spoelstra had to dig deeper.
– So he turned to another undrafted Heat developmental prospect.
– This time Keshad Johnson, undrafted Class of 2024.
– In response? Eight first-half rebounds by Johnson, tying his career high.
– And he kept going, closing with his first career double-double, with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
– “Been putting in work the whole season just staying ready. Opportunity came tonight.”
– That it did.
– At times this offseason, and even at the start of this season, there were questions about the Heat guaranteeing Johnson’s salary at a time when the team was tight against the tax.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– Then came Friday night and the need, with Nikola Jovic and Andrew Wiggins out, for anything resembling a power boost.
– Enter Johnson.
– Whose energy burst turned the game in Friday night’s second quarter.
– Such is what you need from a minimum-scale player at the end of the bench.
– The ability to turn a game or two along the way.
– Which is what Johnson did, making his entrance with a 3-pointer.
– And then turning his focus to the glass.
– Why Keshad Johnson?
– Friday night offered a hint of why.
– With Wiggins out and Bam Adebayo back for a second game after missing six with a toe sprain, the Heat opened with a lineup of Adebayo, Kel’el Ware, Pelle Larsson, Norman Powell and Davion Mitchell.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– Of going without Wiggins, Mitchell said it meant missing out on contributions on multiple levels.
– “I mean a lot of everything,” he said. “Wiggs is a big part of our defensive scheme, of him guarding the best players.”
– With Larsson called for two fouls in the opening 2:35, it led to an earlier-than-usual entry for Jaime Jaquez Jr. as sixth man.
– Simone Fontecchio followed.
– With Smith and Johnson then following together for the night’s primary nine-man rotation.
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– Spoelstra said the fact that it was an NBA Cup game played into the atmosphere.
– “Cup games are fun,” he said at the morning shootaround. “Regardless, it’s Heat-Bulls.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– The game was a rematch of last season’s play-in round opener.
– “I think for us, we try to take one game at a time. Every game is I think important to us, especially because of the position we lost last year in the first round. So we’re just trying to get better each game,” Mitchell said.
– And, yes, the Cup tiebreakers were on players’ minds.
– “Granted, it’s a Cup game, so we’re gonna try to score a lot of points,” Mitchell said.
– Seventy first-half points followed.
– That came after the Heat’s lowest-scoring first half of the season Wednesday night against the Warriors (49 points).
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement– Adebayo’s first conversion from the foul line gave him 2,000 for his career.
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