Dedmon ably filling in — and filling stat sheet
ORLANDO — Dewayne Dedmon played without a double-double through his first 21 appearances this season. When the Miami Heat were whole, they weren’t needed.
Over the past eight games, the veteran center has had three, all while starting in place of sidelined Bam Adebayo. All have been needed.
Wednesday night, there were 10 points and 14 rebounds in the 101-96 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, allowing the Heat to move to 1-1 on this four-game trip that continues Friday night against the Orlando Magic and concludes Sunday against the Detroit Pistons.
But more than that, guard Gabe Vincent said, it is the subtle things from Dedmon that are making a significant difference.
“I told him the next dinner’s on me,” Vincent said after Wednesday’s career-best 26-point performance. “I was surprised I was open half the time. He was setting great screens. I had a terrible turnover in the last minute of the game. He took a charge to save the day. “I know I’m getting some attention right now for however many points I had, but Dewayne, in many ways, was a huge contributor.”
Dedmon’s Wednesday assignment also included defending Joel Embiid, who closed with 17 points and 14 rebounds but never imposed his will to the degree anticipated amid Adebayo’s absence.
“That was the game plan, to limit his touches,” Dedmon said, with Embiid’s 13 shots fewer than four other players in Wednesday night’s game. “So whenever I had an opportunity to raid him, then force him off the block, that’s what the game plan was. So, I just did it to the best of my ability.”
Statistically, it was a Heat victory driven by Vincent’s scoring and the early 3-point shooting of Duncan Robinson.
But Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said it was his veteran players, such as Dedmon, who have been setting the tone to overcome the team’s recent injury adversity.
“You just can’t say enough about Kyle [Lowry] and P.J. [Tucker] and Dewayne,” Spoelstra said. “That’s our veteran leadership core right now, just stabilizing every lineup, giving confidence to everybody, and making the appropriate plays when necessary.”
Zoned in
There are times when Spoelstra bristles when the degree of zone defense played by his team is cited. But he also said it has become necessity due to his team playing shorthanded, as was the case in Philadelphia.
“It just depends on what’s needed at the time,” he said. “You know, we do play a zone, we don’t play it every game, we don’t play it every situation.
“But that may be something we have to go through a little bit tactically. We ended up having some success. We wanted to do it a little bit more. Fortunately, we were able to get some stops.”
It also helped keep his players out of foul trouble, an essential when only fielding 10.
“It was pretty disruptive just from a flow standpoint,” Robinson said.
Said Embiid: “They affected us with the zone. I mean, whether it’s just we couldn’t catch the ball in the post or we couldn’t make any threes.”
Yurtseven ailing
Rookie center Omer Yurtseven was added to the Heat injury report Thursday, due to a lowerback bruise. Tyler Herro, after missing Wednesday’s game, again is listed as questionable, due to a quad contusion.
Still out for the Heat are Adebayo (thumb), Jimmy Butler (tailbone), Markieff Morris (neck), Caleb Martin (protocols) and Victor Oladipo (knee). Of those four, only Oladipo is traveling.
If Yurtseven and Herro are unable to play, it would leave the Heat with nine available players, one above the NBA required minimum.