Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Whiteside: Foes avoiding blocks ‘as impactful’ as his actual blocks
MIAMI — Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside was in the zone blocking shots in the first half of Wednesday night’s 95-88 win over the San Antonio Spurs at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Setting a franchise record for blocks in a half with eight, he wasn’t able to maintain that pace in the second half. Whiteside added just one more after halftime to finish with nine blocks, one short of accomplishing his trademark “doing it with blocks,” as in a triple-double with the third stat being blocks after already posting double figures in points and rebounds.
The Spurs and coach Gregg Popovich made an adjustment, for sure. They weren’t going to allow Whiteside’s block party — and the residual crowd excitement and momentum that derives from it — to continue in the second half.
While Whiteside does enjoy racking up the blocks — he’s reached his career high and franchise record of 10 four different times — he said affecting an opponent’s offense to the point where players intentionally look to avoid him is “as impactful” defensively.
“They got the [box score] just like [the media] got the [box score]. I had eight in the first, and I had one in the second half. So something changed,” said Whiteside, who also had 29 points and 20 rebounds on Wednesday.
“You seen a guy literally take a shot, let the ball go — just so I won’t block it — got a turnover. When guys are doing things like that, it’s like, ‘What do you do?’ You run into that, guys throwing the ball out of bounds, but I just do what I can. I’m in their head.
“I have no control over that. If I had control over it, I would have 15 a day — or 20.”
When Whiteside is impacting the game defensively, he feels he leaves his imprint on it, regardless of if he gets offensive touches.
“I feel like if I do that, I don’t need the ball,” said Whiteside, who is fourth on the team in scoring at 14.2 points per game.
“You can be an over-rebounding guy or an overdefensive guy. Nobody’s going to ever tell you, ‘Hey, man. Stop playing so much defense. Stop rebounding so much.’ ”
Said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, noting how much Whiteside contributed in ways that don’t show up in the box score, “The context of his winning plays had nothing to do with the stat line.”
He even had two firstquarter assists — a byproduct of guard Wayne Ellington’s shooting in his season debut as a starter. Two of Ellington’s six 3-pointers came off a Whiteside pass, playing the inside-out game.
“When you got a shooter around you, assists come easy,” Whiteside said. “Ask Golden State players, assists come easy. When you got someone who can shoot, assists ain’t nothing.”
Whiteside has set a personal goal of leading the league in rebounds and blocks in the same season. He’s done each before, but separately – rebounds in 2016-17 (14.1 per game) and blocks the year before (3.7).
The last time that was done was by Dwight Howard in the 2009-10 season with the Orlando Magic. That was during Howard’s streak of eight consecutive All-Star Game appearances. Whiteside has yet to be selected to play in any NBA All-Star Game.
Whiteside currently leads the NBA with 3.4 blocks per game, one-tenth ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans’ Anthony Davis, and Whiteside is second in rebounds, his 15.2 trailing the Detroit Pistons’ Andre Drummond by 1.4.
As much as the individual accolades motivate Whiteside, who has long desired greater consideration for Defensive Player of the Year voting and wants to play in his first All-Star Game this season in his hometown of Charlotte, contributing to the team defense is key.
“I want to make sure we’re a top-five defense,” Whiteside said. “I put that on my shoulders. That’s one of the things I want to do. Guys are defenders in here. We’ve got a lot of defenders. We’ve got to get back to that.”
The only other time this season the Heat held an opponent under 100 points, let alone 90, was Miami’s 110-87 win over the New York Knicks on Oct. 24. Whiteside’s defense was a major factor.