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Dewayne Dedmon and Goran Dragic were the leading scorers for the Miami Heat in Game 2. They were arguably the best players on the court, too. So it’s only natural to consider putting them both in the starting five, right?
Dedmon provided palpable energy in 21 quality minutes, something not lost on head coach Erik Spoelstra. He said you could “feel it” on both ends of the floor. The proof is often in the pudding and Spoelstra allowed Dedmon and Bam Adebayo to play long stretches together during Monday night’s blowout loss. He didn’t rule out the duo seeing more time in tandem on Thursday night. Neither did Adebayo.
“That’s one thing about Spo. In the playoffs, he’s willing to switch it up,” Adebayo said. “So it’s good minutes to be in there with Dewayne. You never know, you might see more of that.”
Dedmon finished with a team-high 19 points and nine rebounds on 8-of-11 shooting. Meanwhile, starting forward Trevor Ariza struggled for a second straight game. He went scoreless in Game 2 while posting a forgettable minus-25. That was worse than the eight-point effort (minus-7) he accounted for in Game 1. Start Dedmon.
“He finds himself in the right spot around the ball, quite often,” Spoelstra said of Dedmon. “I think he gave us quality minutes. His energy, you know, you feel it on both ends of the court.”
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Making the Case for Starting ‘The Dragon’
Dragic has been another guy providing immeasurable minutes off the bench. He scored a team-high 25 points on Sunday afternoon against Milwaukee, then dropped 18 points last night. The veteran guard is shooting 15-of-28 (42%) for the two-game series, with six timely three-pointers to his name.
He’s also pushing his teammates to play better. Maybe the 35-year-old deserves the starting spot over second-year guard Kendrick Nunn.
“I mean, this is what it’s all about, I love those games,” Dragic said after Game 1. “I know the preseason is important but this is what we play for. I just want to be out there help my teammates and be there for them.”
Nunn hasn’t been atrocious: nine points in Game 2, 10 points in Game 1. But the Heat needs some kind of spark to get them going. Anything, really. Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel chimed in with his opinion on whether inserting Dragic into the starting five might help, saying that a “jolt certainly could not hurt.”
The concern with starting Goran Dragic is you then could lose Kendrick Nunn as a contributor, as well as again force Tyler Herro into too much of a playmaking role with the second unit. But at this stage, the Heat also can’t wait for Tyler. So, yes, I believe that moving Goran into the first unit, after his two solid games this series, could be a way of also reviving Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. In other words, why not?
Bucks Star Responds to Ariza’s Dirty Foul
It was bad enough that Ariza unsuccessfully tried to prevent Giannis Antetokounmpo from scoring a easy lay-up by tackling him to the ground in Game 2. Then he compounded the infraction by physically pressing down on his pelvic area as he did a push-up move to gather himself back up.
The play was odd and borderline dirty, hence the refs handing him a flagrant-one foul. After the game, Antetokounmpo took the high road by saying the Bucks “just play through” that type of stuff. They aren’t going to get into a physical back-and-forth with the Miami Heat.
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