The Miami Heat had a game on Monday at home against the Houston Rockets, but that wasn’t the story. In his first game back in over 300 days, Victor Oladipo made his illustrious return to the Miami Heat lineup.
Though the Heat, as a team, would start the game slowly, they would eventually get things together in this one. Largely, on the back of a huge Tyler Herro first half, he would score 21 of his eventual 31 points in the second quarter alone.
On top of that, Jimmy Butler continued to set the pace for his team, keeping them afloat after the Rockets got off to a scorching start that included Rocket’s rookie, Jalen Green, making four of his first four attempts from three-point land.
Again though, the story was Victor Oladipo adding to what has already been an extremely deep Miami Heat team and bench.
The Miami Heat got a win over Houston Monday, as they should have, but that wasn’t their biggest win of the night. Victor Oladipo’s return takes that title.
In his first action since he reaggravated his knee injury during last season after being traded over from Houston, ironically enough, Oladipo had himself quite a game in his first one back.
He would finish with 11 points, four rebounds, and an assist.
Though the numbers weren’t explosively strong, the impact of knowing his situation made them just that much more impressive. Even deeper than that and so Miami Heat-like, one of his first sequences of the game was the taking of a charge on defense.
There is no more fitting of a way to re-establish yourself in a Heat jersey than to one, do it on defense but two, to take a charge. That’s especially appropriate there, as that’s an area that the Miami Heat lead the league in.
Again though, this was the Houston Rockets, one of the youngest teams in the league and one of the worst this season. However, if this is any indication of the things to come for this version of the Heat, those that support them have quite a bit to look forward to.