Before the Miami Heat host the Golden State Warriors Wednesday at AmericanAirlines Arena, let’s take a walk down memory lane and re-live the Twitter beef that makes tonight’s matchup must-watch television.
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The Warriors have won 13 of their last 14 games and looked pretty good in the team’s 102-92 win at Atlanta on Monday. Dragic has unleashed the inner dragon in him and has been on a roll lately – putting up an average of 21.6 points, 7.6 assists and 6.6 rebounds – in the three games since the All-Star break. If not, Whiteside revisited it today with Golden State coming to town for a game tomorrow.
The Miami Heat fought hard and earned a third straight victory with a 101-93 overtime win over the Indiana Pacers on Monday.
Wade made two free throws with 4.5 seconds left to put Miami up one, but was called for a foul on a pass by Ellis with 0.8 seconds remaining.
The Blue & Gold started the game up 11-0 but couldn’t close out against a beat up Heat squad. Miami pulled to within three points at 44-41 at the half thanks in part to an 11-0 run of their own, but also thanks to the play of Hassan Whiteside. He is the fastest player in Heat history to reach that milestone, accomplishing the feat in 95 games. Sometimes we’re way more cognizant of what’s going on in social media than the people we’re analyzing, and that can lead to us projecting motivations and schemes onto those players and their actions.
The two did share the court last season when the Warriors smashed the Heat by 15 points in January, but Whiteside didn’t play in the team’s earlier meeting this year due to a knee injury.
Paul George led all IN scorers with 31 points while Rookie Myles Turner finished with 16 points as well.
“They play a totally different style”, Spoelstra said of the Bulls and Warriors.
NOTES: Heat PG Beno Udrih sustained a foot injury, but X-rays were negative.
Meanwhile, Miami point guard Goran Dragic scored five of his team-high 24 points in the extra session.
While the 26-year-old has become a force, leading the National Basketball Association with almost four blocks per game, he has not proven trustworthy to the Heat just yet and it is clear the team are unsure about how to move forward.
Deng had 13 points and 16 rebounds for Miami.
“It’s the same story every time we’re here”, said George, who has played in Miami 18 times – and left a victor only twice.
The Heat are also benefiting from this because they get a much larger burst off the bench. “He was like, ‘Can you score?’ and I said, ‘Guard me and you’ll find out.’ I don’t know what money’s got to do with it, but OK”.
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“He basically said he’s got more money than me and that I play in the D-League”, Whiteside said Tuesday of his war of words from last August with the 6-7, 230-pound power forward over small ball and whether it would work against a traditional center.
