‘It’s up to coach Spo’
Whiteside sits entire fourth quarter of road loss to Chicago Bulls
MILWAUKEE — Erik Spoelstra did not want to talk about numbers before or minutes after when it came to center Hassan Whiteside.
The upshot for the Miami Heat center was another game when he found himself purely as spectator.
“Um, you know, it’s whatever coach Spo wants,” Whiteside said after sitting out the entire fourth quarter of Monday’s 119-111 loss to the Chicago Bulls at the United Center, pulled for good with 5:52 to play in the third period, limited to 6:08 of action in the second half. “That’s what coach Spo wants to do. That’s the lineup he wants to go with, coach Spo, he thinks that’s what he thinks is going to get us the win, I can’t do nothing about it.”
It hardly was the best of Whiteside, who closed a game-worst minus-20, the Heat outscored by that amount when he was on the court. Spoelstra instead went with backup big man Kelly Olynyk for all but four seconds of the final period and rookie center Bam Adebayo for 3:29 in the fourth quarter, as the Heat trimmed what had been a 19-point deficit to five at one point.
“It goes however it goes,” Spoelstra said of the approach, his focus shifted to tonight’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks at BMO Harris Bradley Center, the second stop on this fivegame trip. “We didn’t get the job done. That’s the bottom line.
“We were in a hole. At that point, you’ve got to make whatever decisions you can make to try to get back into the game. It looked like we were getting it back.”
In the 10 games Whiteside has been back since missing 13 with a bone bruise on his left knee, he has been held out of the entire fourth quarter five times, limited in another game to 2:44. He has yet to play more than 30 minutes in any of those games, limited to 19:51 Monday.
Spoelstra went to the smaller finishing group Monday with the Bulls pulling center Robin Lopez for good with 2:48 to play in the third period.
Whiteside, though, felt Spoelstra might have been able to force Chicago’s hand had he been reinserted.
“Every time I came in the game, they put Lopez in,” he said. “With Robin. I didn’t have to guard any shooting bigs. They put Robin Lopez in every time I came in, I guess for boxing out. So I don’t have no problem with it, but it’s up to coach Spo.”
Whiteside, whose words about the situation were measured and calm, closed with nine points and eight rebounds, ending his run of four consecutive double-doubles as part of the seven-game winning streak the Heat brought into the Bulls game.
Asked before Monday’s game about that streak, Spoelstra brushed the statistics aside.
“I actually don’t care about his double-doubles, at all,” he said. “It has nothing to do with that. Sometimes he gets confused by that barometer. It has everything to do with winning plays and making an impact to help your team win.”
Feeling better
Justise Winslow said he came through the Sunday-Monday back-toback set against the Bucks and Bulls encouraged, after missing the previous 14 games with a strained left knee.
“My wind was better [Monday],” he said. “I actually felt tired [Monday]. I felt I was out there making plays. I didn’t score much, but defensively I felt I was being effective.”