What has changed for Rozier during three-game surge?
The Miami Heat has pushed guard Terry Rozier to be himself since he joined the team following a trade in late January. But the transition has been tricky at times because the Heat has also needed Rozier to be somebody he wasn’t prior to the trade.
With the Charlotte Hornets, Rozier was a high-usage player who was tasked with creating offense for himself and others off the dribble.
With the Heat, Rozier is a secondary option as part of an offense built around the leading duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.
“It’s taken him some time to get comfortable here and we wanted to show him a little bit of grace through that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said ahead of Thursday’s highstakes matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “But we had a ton of moving parts and I think by now he knows that everybody wants him to be that aggressive. You hear that, ‘Hey, go be yourself.’ But what does that actually mean?”
With the Heat, it’s meant stay aggressive even if the shots are different than the ones Rozier took with the Hornets.
In Rozier’s 30 games with the Hornets this season before the Jan. 23 trade, more than half of his three-point attempts came off the dribble — attempting 4.8 pull-up threes to just 2.9 catchand-shoot threes per game.
In Rozier’s 28 games with the Heat this season after the trade, the catchand-shoot threes have outnumbered the pull-up threes — attempting 3.1 catch-and-shoot threes and 2.6 pull-up threes per game.
And Rozier’s catch-andshoot volume has spiked during the current threegame hot streak he’s riding, culminating with a 34-point performance to lead the Heat to a 109-99 home win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. It marked the most points he has scored in a game since joining the Heat.
Rozier has averaged
27.7 points per game on 56.9 percent shooting from the field and 19of-32 (59.4 percent) shooting from three-point range during this three-game surge. He has taken seven catch-and-shoot threes per game during this stretch, shooting an absurdly efficient 14 of 21 (66.7 percent) on those opportunities.
“Y’all don’t understand how much Spo has been on me about catch-andshoot since I’ve been here,” Rozier, 30, said. “It just takes a little time to get adjusted. Coming from Charlotte, I always got the ball in my hands and a lot of my threes come off the dribble and that’s just kind of how I play. So I had to get back to my workouts, catching and shooting and stuff like that. So it’s just a matter of time. But I’m just happy to be knocking down my shots.”
THE RETURN OF LOVE
Veteran Kevin Love returned to his backup center spot in the Heat’s rotation in Tuesday’s win over the Knicks, logging his first game minutes in more than a month after missing 14 straight games with a bruised right heel.
Love recorded eight points on 2-of-7 shooting from three-point range, three rebounds and three assists in 16 minutes off the Heat’s bench.
“It felt really good,” Love said after playing in his first game since Feb. 27. “Obviously, I felt like I worked hard to get my foot right. It’s just with that heel, it was so tough to actually get back out there and just get that heel bruise, it was pretty severe, to just heal back up and get back out there on the floor. But the last two weeks were huge for me and I was available tonight, got my chance and just went out there and felt good.”
Love was also available for the two games prior to Tuesday’s victory over the Knicks, but he did not play in either game despite being in uniform. Instead, the Heat continued to play Thomas Bryant as the backup center in Friday’s win against the Portland Trail Blazers and Sunday’s victory over the Washington Wizards before Love returned to that role in Tuesday’s win against the Knicks.
With Love back in the Heat’s rotation in his usual backup center role, Bryant did not play on Tuesday. It marked Bryant’s first DNPCD (did not play, coach’s decision) since March 10.
“This is what depth is all about,” Spoelstra said of the Love-Bryant decision. “Obviously, we’ve used all of our depth, but the depth becomes a little bit more complex when you have more guys available. And [Bryant] has really given us such tremendous minutes the last six weeks while Kevin was out.
INJURY REPORT
The Heat ruled out Tyler Herro (right foot medial tendinitis), Josh Richardson (right shoulder surgery), Orlando Robinson (G League), Cole Swider (G League) and Alondes Williams (G League) for Thursday’s game against the 76ers. The rest of the
Heat’s roster is expected to be available.
Anthony Chiang: 305-376-4991, @Anthony_Chiang
For summaries, complete standings and results go to the eEdition at MiamiHerald.com.
Atlantic
y-Boston New York Philadelphia Brooklyn Toronto Southeast
Orlando Miami Atlanta Charlotte Washington Central
Milwaukee Cleveland Indiana p-Chicago Detroit
Southwest
Dallas
New Orleans Houston Memphis San Antonio Northwest
x-Denver x-Minnesota x-Oklahoma City Utah
Portland
Pacific
53 52 52 29 19 W
23 23 23 47 56
L
.697 .693 .693 .382 .253
Pct
24 331⁄2 GB
L.A. Clippers 47 28 .627 Sacramento 44 31 .587 Phoenix 44 31 .587 L.A. Lakers 43 33 .566 Golden State 41 34 .547 p-clinched play-in spot; x-clinched playoff spot; y-clinched division
THURSDAY Philadelphia at Miami, 7:30
Sacramento at New York, 7:30 Atlanta at Dallas, 7:30 Golden State at Houston, 8 Denver at L.A. Clippers, 10
WEDNESDAY
Portland at Charlotte L.A. Lakers at Washington Detroit at Atlanta Oklahoma City at Boston Indiana at Brooklyn Memphis at Milwaukee Toronto at Minnesota Orlando at New Orleans Cleveland at Phoenix
TUESDAY Miami 109, New York 99
L.A. Lakers 128, Toronto 111 Washington 117, Milwaukee 113 Philadelphia 109, Oklahoma City 105 Minnesota 113, Houston 106 Denver 110, San Antonio 105 Cleveland 129, Utah 113 Golden State 104, Dallas 100 Sacramento 109, L.A. Clippers 95 —
— 3 3 41⁄2 6
N.Y. Min FG-A FT-A R A F Pt DiVincen 35:15 11-21 3-3 4 4 3 31 Hart 45:35 1-3 0-0 6 7 3 2 Hartnstn 18:20 2-2 0-0 1 2 1 4 Brunson 36:19 5-18 9-10 2 10 2 20 McBride 44:45 9-16 2-2 2 2 324 Achiuwa 26:56 1-4 0-0 6 0 2 2 Bj.Bogdan 19:26 6-10 3-4 6 0 1 16 Burks 3:15 0-1 0-0 2 0 0 0 M.Robnsn 10:09 0-1 0-2 1 0 2 0
Totals 240 35-76 17-21 30 25 17 99
Percentages: FG .461, FT .810.3-Point
Goals: 12-34, .353 (DiVincenzo 6-15, McBride 4-8, Bj.Bogdanovic 1-4, Brunson 1-6, Burks 0-1).Team Rebounds: 7.Team Turnovers: 14.Blocked Shots: 2 (Hartenstein, McBride).Turnovers: 14 (Brunson 5, DiVincenzo 4, Hart 2, McBride 2, Bj.Bogdanovic).Steals: 11 (DiVincenzo 4, Hartenstein 3, Hart 2, Achiuwa, M.Robinson).
Miami Min FG-A FT-A R A F Pt Ji.Butler 38:41 5-12 6-6 563 17 Jovic 25:19 1-2 2-2 361 5 Adebayo 32:32 6-9 3-4 910 15 D.Robnsn 28:59 2-7 0-0 214 6 Rozier 34:54 10-15 6-6 530 34 Hghsmth 28:04 6-11 0-0 812 14 Jaquez Jr 12:26 1-2 1-1 202 3 Love 15:30 2-8 2-2 331 8 Ca.Mrtn 23:35 3-8 0-0 234 7
Totals 240 36-74 20-21 39 24 17 109
Percentages: FG .486, FT .952.3-Point
Goals: 17-38, .447 (Rozier 8-11, Highsmith 2-4, Love 2-7, D.Robinson 2-7, Jovic 1-2, Ji.Butler 1-3, Ca.Martin 1-3, Jaquez Jr 0-1).Team Rebounds: 8.Team Turnovers: 18.Blocked Shots: 4 (Ca.Martin 2, Love, Rozier).Turnovers: 17 (Ji.Butler 4, Ca.Martin 3, Rozier 3, Jaquez Jr 2, D.Robinson 2, Adebayo, Jovic, Love).Steals: 5 (Adebayo, Highsmith, Jaquez Jr, Jovic, D.Robinson).