Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Winslow finding his rhythm
LOS ANGELES — There was a point when scoring was the ultimate challenge for Justise Winslow.
That point was a month ago, when over a five-game span, the fourth-year Miami Heat forward averaged six points, with no game with more than eight, shooting 11 of 38.
Since then, Winslow has scored in double figures in seven of the past nine games, with a season-high 20 points in Friday’s victory over the Phoenix Suns at the start of this six-game trip, and then eclipsing that with 21 in Saturday’s victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
“I think I’m finally just catching a rhythm,” he said, with the Heat turning their attention to Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center, now with victories in four of their past five games. “I’m healthy for the most part for a stretch of games. I’m just figuring it out. I’m still young.
“I’m still trying to figure out my niche in this league, but every game I just get closer and closer to figuring it out. Obviously we’re short on guys, so we needed everybody to be aggressive.”
With Goran Dragic given Saturday off for rest after returning a night earlier from an eight-game absence due to a swollen right knee, and with Josh Richardson sidelined with a right shoulder impingement, it put Winslow in Saturday’s starting lineup as the Heat’s featured ballhandler. He closed with nine assists, the secondhighest total by a Heat player this season, helping to create scoring opportunities for big men Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo, among others.
“First off,” he said, “just naturally just dribbling the ball up the court and just feeling the ball allows me to get a lot more rhythm than just going to the corner and that sort of thing. But also just my playmaking ability, it allows me to be more aggressive. But, at the same time, I’m able to get into the paint, create triggers for other guys.
“And I’m unselfish. It’s not like I’m trying to go out and hunt for 30 points. I want to get my teammates going, as well, whether it’s a spray to KO in the corner I had or a little bounce pass to Bam on that dunk. Those kind of things get me going just as much as it gets the scorers going.”
The ailing: Richardson said he is hopeful of a quick recovery.
“It was just kind of progressive in the Suns game. It flared up in the afternoon. I tried to warm up, but it didn’t feel right,” he said. “We’ll try to work it out, try to do some band work and just overdose on treatment. We’ll see what it looks like [Monday].”
Then there is Tyler Johnson, who lasted just eight minutes Saturday before leaving with a bruised left hip.
“I’m optimistic. I’m always optimistic about everything,” he said. “If there’s any way that I can play on Monday, that’s what I’m going to do. Just take the next day to try to get treatment, get as many sessions of that as I can.”
Dwyane Wade closed Saturday’s victory 5 of 10 on 3-pointers, one off his career high for conversions and two off for attempts, as part of his game-high 25-point effort.
“He’s just so mature with this group, giving what he thinks and sees that’s needed at the time,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “A lot of times it’s steadying presence. Sometimes it’s playmaking, sometimes he had to come in and score.
“We joke about it afterwards. He asked me, ‘Would you ever guessed that I shot 10 threes in a game?’ I said, ‘No, I probably would have taken you out and screamed at you for taking too many home run threes and shots.’ But he’s really evolved. He’s embraced that challenge of developing his 3-point shot. And he’s spent a lot of time on it and you’ve seen the results from that work.”