The Miami Heat dropped their third game of the young season on Monday night. Losing to the Toronto Raptors in the second consecutive matchup between the two teams, this defeat would keep them from securing the series sweep, as they would win the first game on Saturday.
A comeback affair that fell short for Toronto in that first game, the Miami Heat would see theirs snatched back from their grasps on Monday.
On top of the fact that Coach Spo may have left Jimmy Butler on the pine too long, you had an issue with the offense, in general, during the fourth period.
With many of the guys on the floor settling for tough isolation looks and opportunities, as opposed to moving the ball and searching for good team offense, they weren’t able to produce enough to hold on to the five-point lead they carried into the fourth period.
While that was a problem with everyone on the floor, there was a guy that also played a lot of the closing minutes who didn’t really do much at all during the rest of the game either.
Miami Heat: Should Duncan Robinson get the call when Max Strus struggles?
Struggling for two of the four games thus far, Max Strus has been a very good player for the Miami Heat in their games against Chicago and the first Toronto matchup on Saturday.
On Monday however and in their second matchup of the season against Boston, not so much. Hear this though, as this isn’t a poo-poo session on Max, a declaration of lost faith, or anything of that nature.
If a guy is struggling, you continue to go back to him to help instill confidence, however, that all has a limit to it as well.
While you find a balance there, which you are sure a coach as good as Coach Spoelstra can do, it has to be between “keeping him confident” and “giving the team the best chance to win”.
And on Monday night, it may have been time to lean further into the latter. And what that, perhaps, meant on this night was to leave Duncan Robinson in the game.
Miami Heat: Duncan Robinson can help if Max Strus isn’t hitting shots
Scoring 12 points in total in his 15 and a half minutes of action, Robinson would shoot 4-8 from the floor and 3-6 from the field.
Key to all of that, eight of his 12 points would all come in the final stretch of the game, late in the third and early into the fourth—before he would sit and never see another minute of action. Now, while that doesn’t sound like a ton, it would be hard for anybody not named Jimmy Butler to get a good look down the stretch.
And as mentioned, he was on the floor for almost as few minutes as Robinson was in the fourth. Most importantly and to the grand point here, Strus only finished with six points and shot 0-8 from range on the night.
In instances like these, where Strus is struggling, Robinson is going, and especially when the team’s offense isn’t working as fluidly as it could, Duncan Robinson should get the nod. Again, of four games, Strus has had two good ones.
It sounds like a split to me and while it’s that way, so should the time between him and Duncan—especially if he’s struggling.