The Miami HEAT defeated the Indiana Pacers 95-89 Wednesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Hassan Whiteside led the way for the HEAT with 26 points and 22 rebounds.
1. 20-20 for Whiteside
With the size advantage on Myles Turner, Whiteside went to work early and often in the post. In fact, the 7-footer tallied a double-double before halftime and absolutely feasted on the offensive glass.
In addition to some of his usual put-backs, Whiteside also converted some smooth hook-shots and a few thunderous alley-oop jams.
Let's take a look at one of those alley-oops in the second quarter. With 4:13 to go in the period, Tyler Johnson threw up a perfectly-placed lob for Whiteside, which the big fella slammed home.
While Whiteside did the majority of his damage in the first half, he got the team started off on the right foot against Indiana. In addition to his 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting and 22 rebounds (six offensive), the former Marshall standout also blocked two shots.
2. J. Johnson Keeps Up His Strong Two-Way Play
After one of his best performances of the season against the Wizards, James Johnson once again brought energy off the bench for Miami. With the HEAT's offense a little out of sync, Johnson put together an eight-point second quarter to get things rolling.
One of his better plays of the period came on a nice play with T. Johnson, whom he's shown a good rapport with this season. With a little under 10 minutes to play in the second, J. Johnson passed it to T. Johnson at the left wing, set a screen for him and rolled to the basket. T. Johnson then found the forward with the nice bounce-pass for two.
As the game progressed, J. Johnson continued to make plays, including a gorgeous finger-roll in the fourth quarter where he showed some fancy footwork against Thaddeus Young. While that was great, the 29-year-old's most important sequence came on the defensive end when he recovered well after a pump-fake to force a miss from Turner with 24.9 seconds left to play.
Otherwise, J. Johnson was his usual versatile self and defended Young and Al Jefferson at times throughout the contest in addition to Turner. J. Johnson finished with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting, three rebounds and a team-high six assists.
3. T. Johnson = All Hustle
From the second he checked into the game, T. Johnson made an impact against the Pacers. Early on, the combo guard knocked down a bunch of jumpers and kept things moving in the right direction for the HEAT. Later in the game, T. Johnson attacked the basket and led the team with six points in the fourth quarter.
On the flip side of the ball, the 24-year-old made some excellent stops in defensive transition.
In other words, he was up to his usual tricks on Wednesday night. In all, T. Johnson scored 15 points, grabbed five boards, dished out three assists and blocked four shots.
Other Takeaways:
-As a whole, Miami played very well on the defensive end and held Indiana to just 37.1 percent shooting, including 27.8 percent in the fourth.
Game Note:
-Dion Waiters (pectineus tear) sat out.
Looking Ahead:
-Next up for the HEAT are the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night at 8:00 PM. Tickets for that game can be found here.
