Over the years, together with the Miami Heat’s 35 seasons, it has not been uncommon for NBA groups to carry grueling practices as a method of getting gamers to sweat the alcohol out, with {that a} explicit Pat Riley method when Heat gamers reveled a bit an excessive amount of within the wake of the workforce’s 2006 NBA championship.
But Thursday evening’s recreation in opposition to the visiting Milwaukee Bucks took booze and basketball to a unique degree, considerably staggering Bucks ahead Pat Connaughton.
During the sport’s preliminary possession of what would flip into the Heat’s 108-102 victory, Connaughton stumbled into the primary row whereas fouled on a 3-point try by Heat ahead Haywood Highsmith.
And, so, welcome to cocktail hour.
“I fell into the guy and the tequila like fumbled in his hands and went right into my eye,” Connaughton mentioned of his go to to Margaritaville 16 seconds into the sport. “I smelled like tequila all game.”
Oh, and the incident seemingly additionally added salt to that wound.
“I was burning. I don’t drink so I don’t know what it was,” Connaughton mentioned postgame, nonetheless a bit salty. “It was in my eye and it wasn’t the place it was speculated to be.
“Never seen that one.”
He then transformed the primary of the three free throws awarded, earlier than lacking the subsequent two.
“It didn’t do great for my free throws right afterwards,” he mentioned. “But I was trying.”
With the groups having a break day earlier than assembly once more Saturday on the Heat’s court docket, there not less than can be ample time for dry cleansing.
“I probably still smell like tequila. My jersey does for sure,” he mentioned following Thursday’s loss, after closing with 9 factors on 3-of-10 capturing, together with 2 of 8 on 3-pointers.
Now the query would be the diploma of day consuming on Saturday, with the nationally televised rematch tipping off at 1 p.m.
Two-man recreation
Among the extra intriguing components of Thursday evening’s victory was the chemistry between Victor Oladipo and Gabe Vincent as a reserve backcourt tandem, with Vincent closing with a career-high 28 factors and Oladipo with 14, together with 9 within the fourth quarter.
“In training camp, we played them a ton of minutes together, and a lot of possessions together, to try to build that chemistry,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra mentioned. “Sometimes it simply clicks. And for them, they only have a extremely cool understanding of like who could be on the ball, who could be off the ball, they usually can simply flip that seamlessly.
“I didn’t need to overcoach it or over-teach it or stress out about it, such as you most likely would in loads of locations within the league. Everybody desires to be on the ball. And the 2 of them have only a cool synergy about them and may work seamlessly, based mostly on the strain of the place we are able to get the ball. They each really feel snug and assured that they will affect both manner. “
The two have performed 168 minutes collectively over 9 video games, with the Heat outscoring opponents by 5.9 factors per 100 possessions when on the court docket collectively.
“And as they both get healthier and get more confident in being aggressive, they’re not getting in each other’s way,” Spoelstra mentioned. “It’s quite the opposite. They’re able to complement each other, and that’s a beautiful thing to see.”
Streak ends
The Heat had transformed 55 consecutive free throws over a three-game span earlier than Jimmy Butler missed the workforce’s penultimate try in Thursday’s 15 of 16 effort. The 55 in a row is probably the most for the reason that league started monitoring such play-by-play in 1996-97. The solely different workforce to make not less than 50 straight since 1996-97 was the Portland Trail Blazers (final season, Nov. 17-23, 2021) . . .
With Thursday’s victory, the Heat have break up their final 14 regular-season video games in opposition to the Bucks, successful the previous 4 in Miami.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com
