Heat’s coach Erik Spoelstra highlighs the reason why he named ONE particular Heat’s star ‘the hero of the game’ following an unexpected triumph over the Kings. [Full story link in comment]
It is an understatement in saying how huge of a win it was for the Miami Heat Monday night as they upset the Sacramento Kings on the road despite missing key players due to suspensions and injuries like Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, and more. Besides the multitude of contributions from the team, there was one “player of the game” for Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra and it was the new addition in guard Delon Wright.
Despite not having played a game for Miami, he started the game and was exceptional in the 35 minutes he was in as he scored 13 points, recorded five assists, had two steals, and one block. He was also a pest on the defensive end of the ball as Spoelstra described his performance as playing “winning basketball” according to Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel.
“The player of the game for us in the locker room was Delon,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t think his stat line was spectacular by people probably on the outside. But, man, he plays winning basketball. “He guards. Offensively, he just has a great knack for knowing how to make the right play — 35 minutes, didn’t turn the ball over, and made some big plays. The threes, but also the playmaking and the free throws down the stretch were really important.”
Wright talks about getting more minutes with Heat than previous team
This was a change of pace for Wright as he had been seeing limited time with his former team in the Washington Wizards until he was bought out and signed by Miami after the NBA Trade Deadline. He acknowledged this after the win where he said that Monday night was the first time in a while where he “really got minutes in about a month.”
“My first game that I really got real minutes in about a month,” Wright said. “So I just wanted to come in and play how I know how to play – take care of the ball, play good defense, get deflections and then I knew the rest was going to take care of itself.”
Delon is the brother of Dorrell Wright, a former NBA player who has been with the Heat which marks the third set of brothers to have played with the franchise joining Goran and Zoran Dragic, and Willie and Shandon Anderson. He talked about his shooting performance as he made three of his five attempts from the field, two of the makes from three-point range.
”My teammates found me for some open threes, that kind of opened up the game for me once I saw a few go in,” Delon Wright said. “It was just one of those great wins.”
Bam Adebayo’s words of wisdom for Wright
The Heat’s captain and leader in star Bam Adebayo gave his own assessment about Wright’s performance saying that the team “welcomed” the California native to “Heat Culture.” Right from the jump, the big-man was telling him to be aggressive and to “take advantage of your opportunity.”
“We really welcomed D-Wright to Heat Culture. I was being in his ear,” Adebayo said, “telling him to be aggressive, make plays, ‘We didn’t bring you here for nothing. And take advantage of your opportunity.’ I told him from the get-go, ‘Take advantage of your responsibility.’
Wright has bounced around the league after starting with the Toronto Raptors ending during the 2018-19 season where he was with the Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons, Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks, then Washington. During all that time, he has played the Heat a numerous amount of times and “already knew what to expect,” especially when the team was down a ton of key players.
“Going against the Heat over the years, I already knew what to expect,” Wright said. “It’s always the next man up. Whenever we played the Heat and they had guys out, the next person stepped up, and they still played the same brand of basketball.”
“I just knew that me, coming in, I was just going to try to continue doing that and just play good team basketball.”
He did that and more as Wright’s goal is to continue to impact the team as they look to make a run in the homestretch of the season. The Heat are 32-25 on the season, winning eight of their last 10 games, putting them sixth in the Eastern Conference as their next game is Tuesday night against the Portland Trail Blazers.