A dreaded 0-for night

MIAMI — As if Sunday’s 25-point loss to the Indiana Pacers wasn’t humbling enough, it left Dion Waiters in a statistical purgatory he has spent his career striving to avoid.

This is, of course the player who last season, amid the start of the Miami Heat’s second-half revival, famously offered, “I’d rather go 0 for 30 than for 9. Because you go 0 for that means you stopped shooting. That means you lost confidence.”

Waiters closed 0 for 10 in Sunday’s 120-95 loss, exiting AmericanAirlines Arena without comment.

Monday, he explained winding up with a line score he is loathe to accept.

“I was out of the game,” he said of being pulled by coach Erik Spoelstra. “Itwould have kept going up.”

It was how the shots went up that contributed to Spoelstra pulling the plug.

“Dion is at his bestwhenhe’s really attacking the paint and putting pressure on the defense,” Spoelstra said. “That’s not only on his shoulders. Now, he had opportunities [Sunday] night as well, where he could be aggressive and he could get better at that. But it’s also the screening to be able to get him into the paint, and to be able to work different multiple layers deeper into the possession and not just settle.”

Waiters agreed, particularly about the significance of setting proper screens for the team’s wings.

“We’ve got to go out there and play our part,” he said. “It’s sometimes tough. We’ve got to go out there setting screens and things like that. How teamsare playing usnow, ifwe’re able to hit our guy, then it makes everything easier for the guard.”

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