In an interview with veteran center Brendan Haywood a couple weeks ago, we asked what piece of advice he’d have for the squad’s younger players.
Without hesitation, Haywood – a 12-year vet – responded: “It’s a long NBA season and at some point, your number will be called. Whether it’s somebody getting hurt or whether it’s somebody in foul trouble – there’s going to be a game out of the blue, where you’ll be sitting there, looking in the stands and somebody’s gonna say: ‘Alex, go in the game!’ And you have to be ready.”
On Tuesday night, it wasn’t Alex Kirk or one of the team’s youngsters who got the call. And you can bet that this player wasn’t looking into the stands when he got the call. But when Mike Miller’s number was called – after three straight DNP-CDs – he was ready to roll. And his contribution propelled the Wine and Gold to their fourth straight win.
In both the third and fourth quarters against Milwaukee, Miller came up big.
With the scrappy Bucks leading by 11 midway through the third, Miller took a feed from Kyrie Irving and drilled a three-pointer – keying a 9-0 run that got Cleveland to within a deuce and back in the game.
In the fourth, with just over five minutes to play and the game tied at 89-apiece, Miller blocked a Giannis Antetokounmpo’s short jumpshot attempt, came down with the ball and fed ahead to Tristan Thompson, who hit Kyrie for the layup-and-one. One possession later, LeBron James’ layup gave Cleveland a two-possession lead, but Brandon Knight’s layup cut it back to three. But with three minutes remaining, Miller took a feed from Irving and splashed home his second trey of the night. Milwaukee never got closer than three the rest of the way.
On the night, Miller was 2-of-4 from beyond the arc and finished with six points, a season-high seven rebounds and one big block in 18 minutes of action.
“All you want in any profession is consistency, but it’s tough,” said Miller, after Cleveland’s 111-108 win. “We all have talents. Who knows what the next game is going to bring. I’ll always stay ready. I got a lot of work in today and played some minutes tonight, so we’ll see how it goes next game.”
James, who won a pair of Championships with Miller in Miami, praised Miller effusively after the victory.
“I’ve played with him for so long that I know exactly how he can be effective, and for him to get those minutes tonight show why he’s going to be so valuable to our success,” lauded LeBron. “He gives us so much space and he rebounds. People don’t know how great of a rebounder he is, too. He had seven rebounds in 17 minutes and he hit two big-time threes for us. That just gives us a lot of space for myself and Kyrie (Irving) and Kevin (Love) to work.”
Miller is in his 14th NBA season – having played in 926 NBA games, starting 553 of them. Last year with Memphis, he was the only Grizzlies player to play in all 82 games and finished the season ranked 2nd in the league in three-point shooting at .459.
Throughout his accomplished career, he’s continued to climb the NBA’s ladder among three-point shooters. He ranks 18th all-time in three-point percentage at .409 and19th all-time in three-pointers made with 1,536 – including the pair he drilled in Tuesday’s win.
“(Miller) sort of stabilized us and gave the others confidence, and that’s what a veteran should do,” praised Coach David Blatt. “I gotta give him a lot of credit; he hasn’t played in the last several games and we threw him into a very tough situation and he answered the call in a big way.”
The Cavaliers’ group of veterans have done and seen it all. And, more than anything, they know the importance of staying ready. On a Tuesday night in December, the coach might just call on you get in and beat the Bucks.