Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Center taking broader outlook
Whiteside focuses on win after scoring 4 points
MIAMI — The best sound coming from the Miami Heat in their 108-90 victory Friday night over the Atlanta Hawks might not have been the swishes from most of those 17 3-point conversions.
Instead, it might have been a particular sound bite from center Hassan Whiteside in the locker room after the game at Philips Arena.
“It’s not always about putting up numbers. It’s not all about that,” Whiteside said. “It’s about winning and getting your teammates involved.”
It was less than two weeks ago that Whiteside — sitting by his locker at American-Airlines Arena after a disheartening 116-107 home loss to the Orlando Magic that included an early hook by coach Erik Spoelstra — pointed to his game-high 19 rebounds and said, “I lead the league in rebounding, the last time I checked.”
He also closed that game at minus-6 in the plus-minus computation, the Heat outscored by that margin when he was on the court.
Flash forward to Friday, when Whiteside put up 4 points on 1-of-9 shooting and was just as quick to take note of the box score, but for more than his 10 rebounds.
Even having sat out the entire fourth quarter, Whiteside finished plus-20, the Heat dominating the Hawks while he was on the court.
“There’s a lot of different ways to impact
winning,” Spoelstra said, as the Heat turned their attention to theirs game Saturday night against the Indiana Pacers at AmericanAirlines Arena. “I didn’t look at it. He told me to. But that plusminus, I think it looked pretty good when he was in the game.
“So who cares what the points and the rebounds and the blocks may be?” Spoelstra said. “He had a big block in the third quarter, but he was making a lot of winning plays for us.”
That had Whiteside again taking comfort in the stat sheet, but this time with a more team-oriented focus.
“Coach, as I was saying with the plus-minus, Coach was saying I had an amazing game,” Whiteside said. “So he gets excited when he sees that plus-minus that high. So, just making winning plays.”
And playing through everything else, even with the Heat called for 27 fouls to 12 for the Hawks, with Atlanta attempting 36 free throws to the Heat’s 13 attempts.
“There were some times where guys felt like they got fouled under the basket, but we just kept playing,” Whiteside said. “We didn’t bother the refs. We just kept playing and got stops.”
Whiteside said he was appreciative of teammates taking charge on a night the Hawks packed the paint.
“It’s especially nice when I can rest in the fourth quarter, I cannot play in the fourth, quarter when we’ve got a game [Saturday] and I can just cheer for these guys,” he said. “I’m happy for them and seeing guys like Willie Reed coming in and dunking on people.”
Guard Tyler Johnson, who led the Heat with 23 points against the Hawks, said Whiteside was a factor when needed.
“I thought he did a good job of commanding the paint, even though it didn’t show up with his points” Johnson said. “A lot of attention was shown to him, and that’s what freed us to be able to get those open shots.”
Spoelstra also took note of the screens set by Whiteside, something that has been an issue at times with Whiteside’s focus on scoring.
“Hassan was creating some great triggers for us, setting great screens,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s scoring runs to break open Friday’s game. “Those started with the picks from Hassan.”
As pedestrian as Whiteside’s stats stood in Atlanta, he offset Dwight Howard, with the Hawks center having just 4 points and seven rebounds.
“I looked up to Dwight Howard growing up,” Whiteside said. “That was always a big man I always looked up to when he was on the Orlando Magic. When I was in high school, I looked at how he dominated in the paint, how he rebounded the ball.
“He’s a load down there. He’s not an easy guy to keep off the boards.”