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The Miami Heat finally pulled out their first win of the 2022-23 season on Sunday night, outlasting the Toronto Raptors in a 112-109 affair at FTX Arena. However, the W wasn’t attained without enduring some wild twists and turns along the way.
With just under eight minutes remaining in the third quarter, Heat forward Caleb Martin and Raptors rookie Christian Koloko were involved in the first big tussle of the season, an incident that altered the game’s progression in a big, bad way.
After Pascal Siakam missed on a three-point try, the ballers got tangled up at the arms while battling for the rebound and Koloko ended up on the hardwood. Martin clearly took exception to the physicality, though, and decided to hover over the Raptors center. When the youngster finally found his feet, Martin tackled him into the first row of seats, clearing the benches.
Upon the game’s completion, both Martin and Koloko sounded off on the altercation, which resulted in both players getting ejected.
Martin & Koloko React to Their Melee
Martin looked and sounded the part of a person who regretted their actions in the locker room after the game. Although he assigned partial credit for what transpired to the physical nature of the game, he also made it clear that he needs to be better when emotions get elevated.
“I just think that there’s a lot of plays leading up to it. It was a chippy game,” Martin said. “That’s typically how the game goes with Toronto — it’s chippy back and forth. But, ultimately, I just think that emotions were high and the game was a close game of back and forth.
“Overall, I gotta be more professional in that and the way I handle those types of situations.”
For his part, Koloko was taken aback by the scuffle.
“I was as confused as you are,” the big man told reporters. “He just stood there looking at me like crazy. I just stood up. I don’t know… He was looking at me aggressively so I just stood up.”
Coach Spo Gives His Take on the Fight
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra didn’t attempt to sugar-coat the situation, expressing his regret for the way in which things unfolded.
“It was unfortunate. Caleb feels bad about that, he was playing a great game and it got pretty intense under the backboard,” Spoelstra said. “I wish it didn’t come to that, but we were able to respond.”
Over his 22 minutes, Martin scored eight points, grabbed five boards, dished out two assists and added a steal. Meanwhile, Miami outscored Toronto by 17 points when he was on the court. Alas, that effort gets overshadowed when a melee ensues, especially when it’s one that elicits images of a rowdier time in the Association.
“I don’t want to make light of it, but it’s different than the ’90s — though, of course, that’s where I immediately go. I’m thinking about getting everybody off that baseline. I thought Malik [Allen] did a great job of keeping everybody on the bench and… it’s just one of those emotional things that happen and thankfully it didn’t escalate.”
For Coach Spo, the larger takeaway from the incident was the way that his team was able to close out the contest with a win.
“I wish it didn’t happen that way with Caleb, but it did and then we had to manage
that. They had some energy and the swing momentum after that. It could have looked a lot worse, but we were able to respond and make some big plays going down the stretch.”
