The Miami Heat were able to secure a tough win on Tuesday against the New York Knicks. The second of a two-game series with the team from the Big Apple, the Miami Heat came out, fought, and clawed their way through it.
It wasn’t a pretty game, from the purest view or vantage but when thinking about how the Miami Heat typically go about winning, it was still beautiful. Not unlike most Miami Heat games, Jimmy Butler did the heavy lifting.
What was surprising here though is who his number two was for a lot of the night. Here’s a hint, it only became Bam Adebayo as the game winded down.
Kelly Olynyk, of the Miami Heat, is often the target of criticism, but when he’s good… crickets.
Kelly Olynyk was one of the guys that kept the Miami Heat in it on Tuesday. He has the ultimate green light from Coach Spoelstra and Tuesday night’s game showed you exactly the reason why.
He got the Heat off to the start that they did with 5 quick points and quite a few more of their first 20. KO would finish with 20 points on 7-10 shooting from the field and 6-8 from three.
He would also add in three boards across his 31 minutes of action. Here’s the thing about it all though.
Shots will fall and shots won’t fall, that’s the name of the game. Even when they aren’t falling for Kelly though, he tries as hard as anyone and will always give you 150 percent of everything he has.
Often, you see people criticize him for things that everyone else on the court is guilty of at some point or another. What makes Olynyk different?
If you just don’t like him, that’s one thing, but to say that he doesn’t help this team and even when his shot isn’t falling, that’s just ludicrous. To tie a bow around it all, Coach Spo obviously can appreciate what Olynyk brings to the table, as he’s the starting guy.
You can also see that Jimmy Butler appreciates the way that Kelly Olynyk approaches the game. It’s really as simple as this.
He may not be your cup of tea, he may make mistakes(as they all do), but he is always going to be one of your most fiery and dedicated guys on a night to night basis. That’s just the truth of it all.
And even with that though, how many guys his size can shoot it, handle it, create, and manipulate things on the court, such as spacing, the defense as a whole, or his own defender, the way that he can? Not many, that’s the answer.
So, while it doesn’t matter and as again, Spo has chosen him as the guy, it’s worth noting that we notice. Your praise for Kelly Olynyk isn’t as loud as your criticism is and that’s fine, he’ll just keep working hard and giving you all he’s got.
That’s just, kind of, what he does.