Miami Heat: Kelly Olynyk makes history as they handle the Nuggets

The Miami Heat opened their NBA restart on Saturday in a matinee matchup against Denver. Could they handle the Mile High’s finest?

The Miami Heat opened their NBA restart schedule on Saturday afternoon in a matinee matchup against the Denver Nuggets. Although the injury reports heavily favored the Miami Heat entering the game, with the Nuggets to be down three of their key players, best scorers, starters, and two of their better defenders in that missing trio, the Miami Heat still had to approach this one as if the Nuggets were fully healthy.

If the Miami Heat had gone into this game with the mentality that they could slack off due to the absences of Gary Harris, Will Barton, and Jamal Murray, they would have surely been defeated based on the proverbial blows that Denver was able to land early on. You use “early on” here though because at a certain point in the fourth quarter, you could just see and feel that this one was done.

Something else about this fourth quarter that was different though was Kelly Olynyk. To put it mildly but simply, he was acting really different out there. Maybe not so much though as KO was doing what he did in the scrimmages leading up to this game.

He basically went nuts in the fourth quarter, scoring all 20 of his points in that period, which included going 4/6 from deep. Kelly has simply been a menace when he’s gotten it going as of recent.

Also, as Couper Moorhead of the Miami Heat notes, he is the only other Heat player in history to score 20 points or more in a quarter outside of the greatest player the franchise has ever seen, Dwyane Wade. You also have this tidbit, with a nod to Tim Bontemps for his Tweet, that informed me that Kelly Olynyk is the first Heat player to score 20 points in the fourth quarter of a game since Dwyane Wade in February 2009.

The Miami Heat opened their restart against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday in a positive way! Kelly Olynyk would close the day though with one heck of a fourth period.

Wow, simply, wow! You then also have this little play that was made by Olynyk during the course of his personal run. This highlight reel of a play was, again, in the middle of his 20 point fourth quarter that would only be six fewer points than the Nuggets scored in that period as a team.

Kelly Olynyk was the real Maple Jordan on Saturday. We certainly approve of his play, although he came on late. The rest of the team was very good as well.

Bam Adebayo got back to looking like himself on Saturday, chipping in 22 points, nine rebounds, and six dimes. Jimmy Butler was his usual beastly self as well, taking on the challenge at both ends.

On offense, he forced his way to the cup and subsequently, the free-throw line, at will. On defense, he often found himself guarding the Nuggets big man extraordinaire in Nikola Jokic, to which Butler performed more than admirably. He would finish with 22 points as well, four rebounds, and seven assists of his own.

The Miami Heat would shoot the ball at a 44.8 percent clip from deep as a team when it was all said and done, but that really didn’t balance out until the game was already won it seems. They got it done with hard work on defense and physical basketball on offense, something you just love to see from our Miami Heat.

It was good though to see the distance ball start going late, as that’ll be key moving forward. Saturday was a success though without it early on and that is how Kelly Olynyk made history as the Miami Heat did what they were supposed to do in their handling of the Denver Nuggets.