The Miami Heat were able to come up strong 95-88 over the San Antonio Spurs yesterday.
Welcome to another edition of Game Observations, where we take a look at who had the best performance in the latest Miami Heat game.
Today, we will look at Hassan Whiteside‘s 29-point, 20-rebound, nine-block game against the San Antonio Spurs. Whiteside missed the previous game against the Detroit Pistons with a knee injury, but came back strong for his ninth career 20-20 game.
First Quarter
Whiteside gets the start at center and wastes no time getting active, as he tips in a missed shot by Rodney McGruder. Tasked with covering LaMarcus Aldridge for most of the game, Whiteside is pulled away from the paint to contest an Aldridge shot that misses. Clearly, he’s engaged both offensively and defensively.
Josh Richardson, who unfortunately had a bad shooting night, missed one of many shots in the paint, but Whiteside is there to gobble up the rebound. It’s always a next-man-up mentality with this team.
Then the blocks start, as Aldridge tries a running hook but Whiteside stops it in its tracks.
The big man even recognized a good assist when he saw it, having passed up a running hook to swing it to Wayne Ellington instead, who makes a quick 3-pointer.
More blocks take place, this time on Bryn Forbes and DeMar DeRozen.
And later, on Jakob Potl.
Whiteside is starting to show off, and everyone is loving it. Especially when his performance includes connecting with Justise Winslow for a lob.
He finishes the quarter with 10 points, eight rebounds, two assists and eight blocks in nine minutes.
Phew.
Second Quarter
After Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo give Whiteside some much needed rest, he’s back, and ready to get down to business once again.
Which apparently includes getting a rebound on a missed shot by Forbes, starting a fast break and then Euro-stepping to the rim. The shot is blocked, but it doesn’t matter because it’s called to be a goaltend anyways.
Excellent.
Whiteside then starts to mess with Marco Bellinelli, first by way of grabbing the rebound off his missed 3-point attempt, and then by contesting an attempted layup.
The Heat center keeps connecting with teammates too, as Ellington (who is mid-air) finds Whiteside hungry in the paint, resulting in a successful basket.
The beast-mode play continues on both ends of the floor, until just like that, it’s halftime.
Third Quarter
Now the Spurs are getting frustrated, and doing whatever they can to try and stop Whiteside, including a hard foul by DeRozen. It was all for the sake of stopping the play though, and after review, the call stands as a common foul.
Winslow sees another great opportunity to feed his big man, who pays it forward to the team with an and-one on a dunk; he made the free throw too.
The fouls continue, as he is bodied in the paint by several members of San Antonio. Unfortunately for them, he’s feeling himself at the charity stripe too.
It’s once again time for Whiteside to get a little, well-deserved rest, as Olynyk comes back in for him.
Fourth Quarter
Adebayo gets a little tick now, as Miami feels like it has a good handle on the game. It doesn’t last long though, because nothing is over, until it’s over. And the Heat aren’t losing this one, for anything in the world.
Whiteside is clearly tired, as marked by a missed jumper and jump hook, but the effort and will to win are still there.
The Spurs almost make a comeback, but time is running out. So the foul game starts. Including Aldridge being forced to send the center to the line; Whiteside isn’t too fatigued to make those though.
In 32 minutes, Whiteside posted 29 points on 10-for-18 shooting from the field (going 9-of-11 at the free throw line), 23 rebounds, two assists and nine blocks.
To say he was the hero of the night, would be an understatement.
What a way to start a homestand.
The Miami Heat host the Indiana Pacers on Friday, November 9 at 8 PM ET, as they start round two of their Vice campaign.