Without Jimmy Butler or Bam Adebayo, and without Dewayne Dedmon as well, how were the Heat going to stand up to Wolves and Rudy Gobert on the inside? Answers: first with Nikola Jovic and Orlando Robinson (24 points and 12 rebounds between them) under the panels, then especially with his general aggressiveness.
Erik Spoelstra’s players made an enormous physical effort to dominate and win this match on the wire.
“These matches have not all been in our direction, but that’s what we really want: to have suspenseful matches, hot moments and difficult contexts”, commented the Heat coach for the Sun Sentinel. “We hope that the team will feed on that. The whole team now has experience in decisive moments. »
All Miami players have scored in this game and “everyone played hard” remarked Max Strus. We will obviously have to continue to do so when Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are back.
“I had to call two time-outs during the game because the players were tired,” says Erik Spoelstra. “And we won by three points. This is how hard it is to win in this league, this is what you have to do for it and it has to become a habit. We were seven or eight points ahead several times in the game and they came back. But they never took control of the game. Our level of effort and intensity must continue like this and must become a habit. »
Two elements show how the Heat jostled the Wolves. Already, Chris Finch’s players have lost 22 balls! And the last deprived Minnesota of an equalizing ball in the dying seconds.
Then, the aggressiveness of the small Miami and the Miami zone defense pushed the Wolves coach not to put Rudy Gobert on the floor at the end of the game. The Frenchman compiled 10 points and 8 rebounds in the game but, in 31 minutes, he posted the worst +/- of the meeting with -14…
With 21 points and a positive contribution (+13), it was Naz Reid, who has been very good lately, who has been the most prominent pivot on the Wolves side. “Reid was great,” confirms Chris Finch. “At the heart of the zone defense, he made very good decisions. He was aggressive and played fast. » Which was not the case with Rudy Gobert.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jimmy Butler | 21 | 34.8 | 52.9 | 37.2 | 82.1 | 2.1 | 4.7 | 6.8 | 5.8 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 21.8 |
| Tyler Herro | 25 | 35.3 | 45.5 | 40.8 | 90.9 | 0.6 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 4.2 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 21.4 |
| Bam Adebayo | 30 | 35.1 | 53.2 | 10.0 | 84.1 | 2.5 | 7.3 | 9.8 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 3.1 | 20.8 |
| Kyle Lowry | 29 | 36.0 | 40.6 | 35.9 | 85.6 | 0.8 | 4.0 | 4.8 | 5.9 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 2.8 | 14.3 |
| Max Strus | 31 | 31.1 | 39.7 | 32.8 | 81.6 | 0.5 | 2.9 | 3.5 | 1.9 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 12.9 |
| Caleb Martin | 30 | 32.4 | 46.6 | 39.6 | 80.0 | 1.6 | 3.1 | 4.7 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 10.7 |
| Gabe Vincent | 19 | 24.8 | 39.0 | 29.7 | 84.0 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 2.9 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 2.6 | 8.8 |
| Victor Oladipo | 8 | 26.1 | 39.1 | 29.4 | 69.2 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 2.8 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 2.9 | 8.6 |
| Duncan Robinson | 23 | 18.5 | 35.6 | 32.2 | 90.0 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 2.1 | 6.9 |
| Dewayne Dedmon | 26 | 12.2 | 50.8 | 30.6 | 71.4 | 1.0 | 2.7 | 3.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 6.3 |
| Nikola Jovic | 13 | 14.2 | 39.3 | 22.6 | 94.7 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 2.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 5.6 |
| Haywood Highsmith | 22 | 20.1 | 39.0 | 36.2 | 35.7 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 4.5 |
| Orlando Robinson | 6 | 15.3 | 45.8 | 0.0 | 71.4 | 0.8 | 2.5 | 3.3 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 4.5 |
| Jamal Cain | 9 | 11.2 | 53.3 | 16.7 | 62.5 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 1.1 | 4.2 |
| Dru Smith | 5 | 13.4 | 35.7 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 2.2 |
| Udonis Haslem | 5 | 7.0 | 10.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 0.6 |
