In middle, Heat still not centered
MIAMI — The big thing for the Miami Heat continues to be change.
At the close of Wednesday’s season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic, it was Bam Adebayo on the court for the decisive sequence.
The following night in the victory over the Washington Wizards, it was Kelly Olynyk.
In Saturday’s homeopening loss to the Charlotte Hornets, it was Hassan Whiteside cast as the lone center on the court.
One in, two out has mostly been the Heat’s three-center approach through the season’s first week, utilizing multiple big men an average of just 14.6 minutes per game.
In the ever-downsizing NBA, it seemingly has left coach Erik Spoelstra with little recourse.
“I mean you want to be out there, you want to play,” Olynyk said, with the Heat taking Sunday off before beginning preparations for Wednesday’s visit by the New York Knicks to the AmericanAirlines Arena. “It’s up to him to give us the best opportunity to win, whatever he thinks it is.”
Out of 144 game minutes to this stage, Whiteside has played 87:23, Adebayo 54:36 and Olynyk 46:17.
In Saturday’s 113-112 loss to the Hornets, the split was 24:50 for Whiteside, 15:28 for Adebayo and 15:30 for Olynyk.
While Whiteside’s minutes were limited by foul trouble, he still played as closer Saturday, after Adebayo scored 10 points in the first 7:08 of the final period. Olynyk did not play in the second half.
Spoelstra said the agility of Whiteside and Adebayo made them the fits for the challenge of trying to contain Hornets guard Kemba Walker, who nonetheless went for 39 points, including the winning free throw with five-tenths of a second to play.
“Hassan, before he went out, was incredibly impactful on both ends,” Spoelstra said. “He was out there trying to corral and contain Walker at the 3-point line and sprinting back to the rim to finish off possessions with the rebound. That’s what he’s capable of. And then Bam just kept that going with a different way of doing basically the same thing — quick-twitch athleticism.
“They both give you great lob threats with the vertical spacing. But we were able to keep that going, 24 minutes of very good center basketball in the second half. And when somebody is going like that, the way Walker was, you have to have mobile bigs to be able to try to take the ball out of his hands.”
As for Olynyk, the agility appears to be lacking. And today’s NBA is no place for slow-footed big men, as evidenced by the Hornets not utilizing Frank Kaminsky in Saturday’s game.
“You want everybody to do well. We want to win,” said Olynyk, who has the Heat’s only winning points of the season, his putback layup with two-tenths of a second to play in Washington. “You want to do the part you can. Obviously you want to be out there helping your teammates. Obviously you believe you can help and make a difference. But obviously it comes down to him and his choices.
“At the beginning of the season, you’ve got to kind of feel things out and find the units that worked well together, worked best together. I kind of just roll with it. There’s going to be some growing pains for everybody.”
Whiteside said even beyond foul trouble, he appreciated Adebayo earning the second-half minutes, at the heart of the Heat’s comeback from 26 down.
“Him getting dunks like that, it’s great to watch,” he said. “I was in foul trouble, so there wasn’t anything else I could do about it.”
Adebayo said he particularly enjoyed anchoring the defense during the secondhalf rally.
“I feel like we’re all very versatile,” he said of the three centers. “We’ve all been in the gym developing our games. I felt like a leader out there, because I was quarterbacking the defense.”
Three centers. One role. In a league where less has become more with men in the middle.
“Everybody on this team has to sacrifice something,” Adebayo said. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to sacrifice and you respect coach’s call, because we all feel like he’s doing the right thing.”
“Hassan, before he went out, was incredibly impactful on both ends.”
— Heat coach Erik Spoelstra