Kendrick Nunn was Heat’s Game 1 bright spot. He’s probably about to become very important
There’s a chance Goran Dragic’s torn plantar fascia in his left foot might not end his season. Even if it doesn’t, Kendrick Nunn is about to become much more central to the Miami Heat’s plans in the 2020 NBA Finals.
Nunn, who started every game he played in the regular season, was pressed into action for just the 10th time in the 2020 NBA playoffs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday. After Dragic went down with the injury in the second quarter, the rookie played a postseason-high 20 minutes and scored 18 points — more than doubling his previous single-game high in the NBA playoffs.
In the Heat’s 116-98 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, Nunn was the only real bright spot and Miami might need him to sustain his level of play if it has any real chance of rallying out of a 1-0 series hole in Lake Buena Vista.
“You’re always rooting for him. This has been a tough playoff for him,” coach Erik Spoelstra said Wednesday. “The human side of it, you want to get him in there, you want him to play well and, based on where we are, we could use his scoring punch, and you have to guard him and he’s very skilled, so we’ll see where we are for the next game.”
It’s a surprising, sudden development only because of what has happened in the playoffs. Nunn was the runner-up for the NBA Rookie of the Year Award because of his play in the regular season and then he fell out of the rotation as soon as the postseason began. Dragic took over as the starting point guard and Nunn didn’t play until Game 4 of the Heat’s first-round sweep of the Indiana Pacers in August.
After a bout with COVID-19 just before the seeding games began, Nunn took time to build back up to full speed and he has struggled throughout the 2020 NBA Bubble. In five seeding games, Nunn shot 33.3 percent or worse four times. In his first nine playoff games, Nunn never scored more than seven points and only hit 50-percent shooting once.
At the same time, Dragic emerged as Miami’s third best player behind All-Star forwards Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, even leading the Heat in scoring throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs. He only played 15 minutes Wednesday, scoring six points on 3-of-8 shooting before leaving the game. Rookie wing Tyler Herro started in Dragic’s place in the second half, leaving the Heat without any true point guard in the lineup.
The third-quarter lineup provided a glimpse of what a starting lineup could look like if Dragic isn’t ready to go in Game 2 on Friday, but Nunn may be a necessity as bench options thin and he fills a need.
“That’s what he does,” Butler said Wednesday. “He stayed ready, he’s working on his game and he’s in it to win it. Whenever his number and name’s called, he’s ready to play. He knows the schemes and it looks like he’s going to be in this rotation. I sure hope so because he definitely showed what he can do on the big stage tonight.”
All Nunn’s minutes Wednesday came in the second half, when the blowout win was effectively already decided. Still, he went 8 of 11 from the field, 2 of 4 from three-point range, grabbed five rebounds and handed out two assists in his first Finals game. He gave Miami a much-needed scoring punch after the Heat conceded a 13-0 run to end the first quarter and spent much of the second half trailing by more than 20 points.
This alone was enough to elicit a little bit of joy from Nunn after a frustrating loss. This time last year, he wasn’t even guaranteed to make Miami’s roster as a former undrafted free agent, who spent the entire 2018-19 NBA season in the G League. He ultimately forced the Heat’s hand with monster performances in the preseason and early in the regular season, and Spoelstra stuck with him as his unlikely starting point guard.
Miami’s depth, though, was so good it could afford to ditch him almost entirely in the playoffs despite him averaging 15.3 points per game in the regular season. On the NBA’s biggest stage, the Heat’s depth is being put to the test and Nunn is probably back in the mix.
“It feels good just to get back to my playing style and the way I play the game,” Nunn said Saturday. “I had some rough games prior to it, but I stuck with it. That’s something you’ve got to do, always be ready when your number gets called.”
