Whiteside responds with screen gem in win
In case anybody was wondering, Hassan Whiteside got the message.
Heat starting guards Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters spent the two days leading up to Wednesday’s game against Boston asking for better screens. Whiteside responded to their request by pointing the finger back at them after Tuesday’s practice, urging them to be patient when using his screens.
But they were all on the same page in the 104-98 win over the Celtics.
“(Dion and I) were in the paint all night. I felt like Hassan was great,” Dragic said after the victory. “I even told him after the game. When he’s setting these kind of screens, it makes my job and Dion’s job so much easier because we have more time to create, to read the defense.”
Whiteside finished Wednesday’s game with eight points and 10 rebounds in 28 minutes. But those aren’t the numbers that tell the story.
Whiteside, who is aver- aging 2.4 screen assists per
game, finished with five screen assists against Boston — one short of his sea
son high against Utah on Nov. 10. Wednesday’s impres- sive screening performance came just a few days after the Heat’s $98 million cen- ter had zero screen assists in Sunday’s 120-95 loss to
the Pacers.
Screening is an important part of the Heat’s driveand-kick offense, with Dragic
and Waiters relying on solid screens to help give them space to get into the paint. During the 30-11 run over
the final 41 games last season, Miami averaged 10.7 screen assists per game and
Whiteside accounted for 3.6 of them.
“I would argue that this might have been Hassan’s best screening game,” coach Erik Spoelstra said after Wednesday’s win. “So you look at so many things that are deceptive about a box score. He has eight points
and 10 rebounds, which is pretty pedestrian for him, and a minus-11 in a plus-mi- nus and it doesn’t, at all, display the type of winning plays he was making tonight.
“This is what we’re trying to help him with, to under- stand how to really impact winning in all facets, and that’s in practice, yesterday he had a very good prac- tice, in shootaround, and followed it up with a focused pregame. It’s not about the results. But I don’t see it as an accident. Those guys were able to get in the paint. They had some great screens from
our bigs. (Kelly Olynyk), he is one of the better screeners, anyway, in this league. That’s why it’s a symbiotic relationship. Guys can’t do it on their own.”
Dragic and Waiters ben- efited from Whiteside’s inspired screening perfor- m ance Wednesday. The
Heat’s starting backcourt combined for 53 points, seven rebounds and 10 assists while committing just four turnovers against the Celtics.
Those 53 points are the second-most Dragic and Waiters have combined to score in a game since they began playing together last season. They teamed for 58 points in a win over the Bucks on
Jan. 21. Twenty-one of Dragic and Waiters’ combined 41 shots came from inside the paint Wednesday.
“I really wanted to get those guys in the paint, and they were hitting shots late, so they played great,” Whiteside said. “Goran and Dion, great job.”
Waiters returned the com
pliment.
“First and foremost, big shout-out to Hassan Whiteside,” Waiters said. “Those screens, that’s how we preach to him all of the time. Whitey sometimes tries to come up there and get the roll. But most of the time, if you’re not hitting the guys, it’s hard for us to really get
into the paint because of how they’re playing us. Because they don’t want us to get the
lob. He was coming up big. Then he was holding the screens, that allowed us to turn the corner, get downhill between us and the big.
“From here on out, I’m going to expect that every
night, and if you’re not, I’m going to have to say something. Be mad at me. Call me all the names. If that is going to help us get wins, we need that. If he’s screening, man, he’s big, he’s so strong. After a while, man, guys are not going to want to keep going over screens.”