Miami Heat Game Day Observations: Kelly Olynyk against Pacers

The Miami Heat may have fallen short 110-102 to the Indiana Pacers yesterday, but Kelly Olynyk still shined bright.

Welcome to another installment of Game Day Observations; today we’ll take a look at how Kelly Olynyk impacted the Miami Heat in their 110-102 loss at home, to the Indiana Pacers.

Olynyk was a huge spark off the bench and led the Heat with 20 points. Despite that, the Heat fell to 5-6, and lost the game on their shiny new Vice Nights court.

(It’s beautiful by the way, and so are their black Vice uniforms.)

As for Olynyk’s performance last night, let’s dive a bit deeper.

First Quarter

Although Olynyk did not start, he came into the game with four minutes left in the opening quarter; a quarter that was marked by sloppy play.

However, the big man still went to work right away, trying to contest a Darren Collinson shot, connect with Hassan Whiteside for a lob, guard T.J. Leaf on a drive and stop Corey Joseph from scoring on a fadeaway.

Unfortunately, the 7-footer wasn’t successful at any of the above, but at least the effort was there.

Second Quarter

Olynyk finally records a stat, when he cuts baseline to the basket and scores on a layup from Josh Richardson. He then picks things up on the defensive end, grabbing a rebound off of a missed Domantos Sabonis layup.

Things start to improve even more when he makes one from downtown, off a pass from Richardson, and then fakes Sabonis out for a layup, off a mid-air dish by Wayne Ellington.

The center even slams one in, after Richardson goes baseline and finds him open.

(Straight definition of Filthy McNasty.)

Still, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

Myles Turner dunks one over him. He turns the ball over a few times, on boneheaded plays. And then the flagrant foul happens.

Thaddeus Young inadvertently elbows Olynyk in the jaw, while he’s holding ball. While it didn’t look intentional at first, upon further review, it’s upgraded from an offensive foul to a Flagrant 2; which results in an immediate ejection.

(I disagreed with the call, but goodbye anyways Young.)

Olynyk finishes with 14 points and two rebounds at the half.

Third Quarter

The big man enters the game for Hassan Whiteside at 4:51 and throws a sweet lob to Derrick Jones Jr. for a made layup (and surprisingly not a dunk).

But the streaky play continues. Sabonis scores twice on Olynyk, after which he misses a wide open 3-point shot.

(Yikes).

Then with just 41.6 seconds remaining in the third, he is taken out and replaced by Bam Adebayo, because he’s bleeding from the arm. He makes his return with 31.8 to go, to split a pair of free throws and miss a half court shot at the buzzer.

Fourth Quarter

Olynyk is now starting.

And the night gets even more aggressive for him.

He fouls Tyreke Evans and takes a knee to the midsection in the progress (ouch). He’s down for a while, and then has to be escorted back to the locker room. The good news however is that the foul is reviewed, and the call is reserved to an offensive foul on Evans.

Eventually he returns to the bench, but doesn’t come back into the game until there are just 32.1 seconds remaining. The Heat are down by three, and he replaces Whiteside.

He commits an untimely turnover off a pass by Richardson, and with 11.1 left in the game, he’s taken out for good.

In the end, Olynyk didn’t have the most rocky steady of nights, but he still finished with a team-high 20 points, four rebounds and two assists, having shot 6-for-8 from the field (including 3-of-5 from downtown).

Who will step up tonight against the Washington Wizards?