Five takeaways from Heat-Wizards: Looks like the aggressive Josh Richardson is here to stay
Here are five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 113-112 comeback win Thursday over the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena.
1. The aggressive Josh Richardson is here to stay. Just a day after setting a new career-high with 21 shot attempts in Wednesday’s opener, Richardson matched that total against the Wizards.
The 25-year-old finished Thursday’s win with 28 points on 8 of 21 shooting, including 5 of 11 on threes, to go with four rebounds and five assists. He did his best work in the fourth quarter, leading the Heat’s comeback with 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting in the period.
“The offense was running through him,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of Richardson. “That has to be such a boost of confidence going down the stretch of a fourth quarter. The ball is in your hands and you have a Hall of Famer [Dwyane Wade] there pointing to you to say, ‘Make a play for the team.’
“He’s starting to realize what he’s capable of doing on a basketball court. More importantly, what he can do for our team when he’s assertive. He was able to do it two nights in a row and do it consistently throughout this game, particularly there at the end.”
The next step for Richardson is to pair efficiency with his aggressiveness. He’s averaging 24.5 points on 38.1 percent from the field through two games.
2. This is what this Heat team does. After playing in a league-high 53 clutch games — defined by the NBA as a game that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter — last season, the Heat is off to a good start in defending that crown. Miami’s first two games have been decided by a total of four points and have each been decided in the final few seconds.
“These are great opportunities to build some grit. And we do it within 48 hours,” Spoelstra said. “We had a heartbreaking loss last night, not just because it went down to the end. But we had moments we could have done a better job during the course of the game. We didn’t play to our capabilities and that’s this game, that’s this league.
“We had an opportunity to come back tonight. These home opening nights, these are great for your team because they’re probably some of the closest games in terms of focus and intensity you’ll get to the playoffs in the regular season because everybody is all amped up in your first game playing in front of your fans. It was good to see us respond the right way.”
It’s not surprising that Miami would find itself in a lot of close games. It’s a roster that’s full of relentless players who are good enough to keep it close against any team in the league, but not good enough to cruise to many blowouts.
The Heat finished last season with a 29-24 record in clutch games, and it will be important to post another winning record in this department because it’s likely more than half of its games will fall under this category. Kelly Olynyk was the man who saved the day Thursday, with a game-winning putback layup with 0.2 seconds remaining.
3. Derrick Jones Jr. turned in an encouraging bounce-back performance. The opener didn’t go as planned for Jones, as he fouled out after just 17 minutes of action in Wednesday’s loss to the Magic.
But Jones was a difference maker Thursday, with a career-high 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Known as “Airplane Mode” because of his elite vertical leap, Jones flashed his athleticism with his ability to score on putbacks and draw fouls while playing above the rim.
“It was great to see him bounce back after being in foul trouble last night and contributing with a lot of those similar effort, athleticism areas,” Spoelstra said.
Jones, 21, won’t do this every night. He’s still a player who could find himself outside the rotation when Wayne Ellington, Justise Winslow, James Johnson and Dion Waiters return from injury. But Thursday’s performance is what the Heat envisioned when it converted Jones’ two-way contract to a standard NBA contract this past summer.
4. A night after second-chance points hurt the Heat, it flipped the script. Miami finished Thursday with a 55-40 rebounding edge that led to a 27-10 advantage in second-chance points, which helped to negate its turnover issues (finished with 19 turnovers). Olynyk’s offensive rebound and game-winning putback was obviously the biggest rebound and second-chance opportunity.
The Magic outscored the Heat 28-13 in second-chance points Wednesday.
“That’s going to be the constant discussion all year long. Who’s game can get to who?” Spoelstra said. “The constant narrative around the league is speed, space, three-point shooting, quickness. But there still is a place for size and physicality if it’s done the right way. We feel like we have the versatility with our roster to do both, but it takes a big-time commitment. Tonight we were able to scrap for some of those extra possessions.”
5. Next up for the Heat is a stretch it must take advantage of. While Miami was the only team to start the season with a back-to-back set (and both games came on the road), a much more favorable stretch awaits.
The Heat plays eight of its next 11 games at home, starting with a four-game homestand that begins Saturday against the Charlotte Hornets. After a 1-1 start, this should be a stretch that helps Miami build some cushion over the .500 mark.
There shouldn’t be pressure on a team this early in the season, but the Heat needs to take advantage of this part of its schedule. Following this favorable stretch, Miami hits the road for 10 of 16 games, including a six-game trip that starts on the West Coast.
This story was originally published October 19, 2018 at 12:38 AM.