Heat’s Strus has key role in playoffs

Max Strus probably couldn’t have envisioned this.

A Division II player when he started college, he ended up at Depaul and went undrafted. Bounced around a couple of summer leagues. Went to training camp with Boston and didn’t make the team. Signed two-way contracts with three different franchises. Spent time in the G League. Played all of six minutes as a rookie in the NBA two seasons ago.

And now, he’s a starter on a team going to the Eastern Conference finals.

For the ninth time overall, and for the sixth time in the last 12 seasons, the Miami Heat are in the NBA’S Final Four. A 9990 win in Philadelphia on Thursday night gave the Heat a 4-2 series win in an East semifinal series, sending the Heat into the conference final against Boston or Milwaukee.

“It’s one of the biggest moments, not only in my career, but in my life,” Strus said. “This is the moment you want to be in being a basketball player and doing what we do for a living. And I’m super excited and want to start tomorrow.”

Strus was playing a role for the Heat until late March, when Miami coach Erik Spoelstra decided it was time for a bigger role.

The No. 1 seed in the East was beginning to slip away from the Heat and Spoelstra made some rotation tweaks, the most notable one being putting Strus in the starting lineup over Duncan Robinson.

“He’s gotten so much better from the time we started this year,” Heat forward P.J. Tucker said. “He’s definitely our most improved. He’s really stepped up to be a guy that we count on, not only to make shots but to be aggressive . ... Even if he didn’t believe it in himself, we believed in him.”

The Heat are 14-3 when Strus starts since.

“He did everything last year and this summer to put himself in position to be able to take on a bigger role,” Spoelstra said.

The Associated Press