Miami Heat: Nemanja Bjelica fine but sometimes the matchup is just bad
The Miami Heat were able to get a win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night, but it wasn’t pretty. Losing Victor Oladipo in the process of salvaging the results of the game, they managed to walk away with a six point victory when it was all said and done.
While that was enough to get Miami Heat fans and supporters flustered in itself, there were a few other things that could have been taken from Thursday night’s performance. If you really paid attention, you noticed a, somewhat, fleeting face on the court amongst the Heat’s rotation.
It almost seemed as if Coach Spoelstra went to Precious Achiuwa on Thursday night, over Nemanja Bjelica. To be deadly honest and brutally correct, Achiuwa didn’t outpace Belly on Thursday from a minutes perspective, but he did outplay him, from a performance perspective.
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The Miami Heat needed athleticism on Thursday night and Precious Achiuwa offers more than Nemanja Bjelica, that’s all.
Bjelica clocked in at 9:36 of playing time, while Achiuwa logged 9:18. When Bam Adebayo was burdened with foul trouble at the most inopportune times, it really did seem as though Spo had grown tired of watching Bjelica plod around.
And that’s truly what it was and all it was. The way that Bjelica moves, his body right now, and his athleticism don’t allow him to be as explosive, vertically or horizontally, as he would have needed to be on Thursday.
In order to counter the quickness, pop, and athleticism that the Lakers were able to throw at Miami, Andre Drummond in the middle in example, the Miami Heat and Coach Spoelstra had to go with the guy that could, somewhat, match that explosiveness, vertically and horizontally. That’s why Precious got the nod, if you even want to call it that.
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While the real fear right now is Victor Oladipo’s status and the health of his knee, have no fear about one of the other new Miami Heat acquisitions in Bjelica, it was situational and Spo plays chess. While he should continue to get into better shape, Miami Heat shape one should imagine, he just won’t be the best matchup in certain scenarios right now and that was the case on Thursday.