Kelly Olynyk sparks offense in Lakers win; NBA needs to revamp playoff seedings; Top 10 March Madness moments from Heat players.
Forward scores 17 points in Heat’s win over Lakers
This was no time to defer. Kelly Olynyk knew it.
With Dwyane Wade and Hassan Whiteside out, with Tyler Johnson and Josh Richardson off with their shots, the Miami Heat desperately were seeking a spark.
So Olynyk decided it was time to launch, shooting 7 of 14 for 17 points off the bench in Friday’s 92-91 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers that snapped a ninegame road losing streak.
The 14 shots were the most attempted by the unconventional big man since Feb. 3.
“I think it’s a little bit of everything, ball finding energy, more plays, they wanted to get me going a little bit at the start,” Olynyk said of his active effort off the bench. “Sometimes you go out there and the ball doesn’t gravitate your way. That’s the game of basketball. Whoever has it going, we feed off that.”
This time it proved to be Olynyk, who played all but seven seconds of Friday’s decisive fourth quarter.
Most of those minutes came alongside center Bam Adebayo, with coach Erik Spoelstra opting for a bigger closing lineup, with the duo finding a way to help limit the Lakers to 20 fourth-quarter points.
“I think it makes tough on guys on the offensive end when you [line up] like that,” Olynyk said. “We just went out to play big, just covered for each other, scrambled and did whatever it takes.”
Standing tall
Adebayo said he made sure that at Friday’s moment of truth he was an active participant.
After hesitating defensively on the driving shot by Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox that forced overtime in Wednesday’s Heat loss, Adebayo said there was no way it was going to happen on the Lakers’ final shot.
So even with Justise Winslow on Isaiah Thomas, Adebayo hustled to assist on the 14-foot step-back jumper by the diminutive Lakers guard with 3.5 seconds to play and the Lakers down one.
“The previous game, the same situation. They went left and coach said ‘You’ve got to jump,’ ” the rookie center said. “So I was like, ‘Man, just jump and live with the result.’ I contested and it turned out to be our ball. I’m glad it did. I’m glad he told me that.”
Thomas felt he still got the look he wanted.
“I’ve made that plenty of times, step-backs left or right,” he said. “I’m happy with the separation I got and the shot I got it just didn’t fall.”
Adebayo took an extended aggressive stance earlier, playing all 12 minutes in the third quarter.
“He was ferocious, on both ends,” Spoelstra said. “So we played him the whole 12 minutes straight. We just couldn’t get him out of the game.
“That’s what you want to do with your minutes. It’s not going to guarantee that the coaching staff will keep you in there, but you want to make the coaching staff have to make tough decisions.”
Active hands
Spoelstra thought his team was particularly active with their hands on defense Friday and proved correct, with the Heat closing with 29 deflections, a significant number considering the Oklahoma City Thunder lead the NBA at 16.8 per game. That helped force 20 Lakers turnovers, with the Heat recording 14 steals, one off their season high.
“Our guys were all over the place,” Spoelstra said. “And it doesn’t even mean our guys were doing it perfectly, just the activity was making up for a lot of things.”
Spoelstra cited such activity as a way Richardson compensated for his 1-of-8 shooting.
“If you looked at J-Rich’s stat line, it would look like he didn’t have a big impact in this game,” Spoelstra said, “but in the third quarter he was really active defensively and that started to inspire guys to make those kind of plays.”
Lakers coach Luke Walton noticed.
“We were telegraphing our passes and passing out of motion and they were getting [deflections],” he said. “We couldn’t even make a post pass, which is basic fundamentals of passing. So that is frustrating.”