The Miami HEAT defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 107-103 Friday night at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Dwyane Wade led the way for the HEAT with 24 points.
1. Wade Does It Again in Crunch Time
With Miami in another close game, Wade answered the call down the stretch to come away with the win. The 34-year-old scored 10 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, with nearly all of those coming at the charity stripe. Still, Wade nailed a clutch jumper with 44.5 seconds remaining to put the HEAT up 103-101. Throughout the game, the vet mixed it up with tough mid-range jumpers and aggressive drives to the hoop.
He also made some plays in transition, such as the one he had with 6:58 left in the third quarter. To start that sequence, Wade had a nice back-tap after Greg Monroe missed the shot inside. Luol Deng then came up with the ball and passed it ahead to Goran Dragic. The point guard saw Wade sprinting down the left side of the court and hit him with the pin-point bounce pass, which Wade slammed home.
In addition to his 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting, Wade also had seven assists and four rebounds.
2. Return of the Dragon
Dragic didn’t waste anytime in his return to the court after missing eight games with a calf strain. The Slovenian connected on his first four shots — two mid-range jumpers, an aggressive drive to the rack and a three — and showed no signs of rust. He also did a great job of running the offense, although other guys handled that duty too. Still, it’s no coincidence that Miami looked more fluid on that side of the ball with Dragic back. The 29-year-old led the team with eight assists and also scored 12 points against Milwaukee.
3. Excellent Ball Movement Early
When the HEAT tally 20 or more assists, that’s usually a good sign. Miami came close to that total in just the first half against the Bucks. The team had 18 assists on 23 made field goals through the first two quarters on Friday night and shot 54.8 percent as a result. While Dragic led the HEAT in assists for the game, Josh McRoberts came through with some excellent passes. His ability to make difficult passes look like child’s play never gets old. Let’s take a look at an example of one in the second quarter where he had the hockey assist.
With 11:39 to go in the quarter, McRoberts found Justise Winslow cutting inside from the right wing. Winslow ended up missing the layup, but Gerald Green came up with the thunderous put-back jam.
View the Play
McRoberts had two points and two assists in 16 minutes of action, but his impact goes far beyond the box score.
Other Takeaways:
-Per usual, Deng did all the dirty work against Milwaukee and displayed maximum effort. Deng was very aggressive in the third quarter, where he attacked the basket and grabbed two offensive boards. While he knocked down shots throughout the contest, his biggest one came with 2:26 left on a three to put Miami up 101-98. Deng also had a key deflection in the fourth that led to a Wade attack in transition. The former Blue Devil finished the game with 16 points and seven rebounds.
-Amar’e Stoudemire also continued to be a factor inside. He finished a number of dunks in the first half thanks to great feeds, but he really made his presence felt in the fourth quarter. On one sequence, he grabbed an offensive board, finished a hook shot and then blocked a shot on the other end. In all, Stoudemire tallied 12 points and eight rebounds on 6-of-9 shooting.
Game Notes: Tyler Johnson (shoulder), Hassan Whiteside (hip) and Chris Andersen (knee) sat out.
