The Miami HEAT fell to the Denver Nuggets 103-99 Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Dion Waiters led the way for the HEAT with 15 points.
1. BAM Comes Alive In The Fourth
After a little bit of a slow start to the contest, Bam Adebayo simply went off in the fourth quarter.
How so?
Well, the 21-year-old scored a team-high 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the fourth, with no bucket as awesome as this reverse alley-oop jam courtesy of Dwyane Wade:
That said, Adebayo also did his thing on the defensive end and made things as tough as possible on Nikola Jokić.
On this play early in the fourth, he fronted the Serbian quite well and forced a turnover on Monte Morris:
Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough in the end.
When it was all said and done, Adebayo had 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, four rebounds and an assist.
2. Waiters Dazzles In Home Debut
With the HEAT needing a jolt of energy in the first half, Waiters provided it and made an immediate impact in the second quarter.
Throughout the period, Waiters showed a quick first step and either finished plays for himself or found his teammates cutting to the basket. For a perfect example of both, just check out these two plays:
Explosive.
And while he tallied nine points on 4-of-5 shooting and three assists in the quarter, he wasn’t done there.
As the game progressed, Waiters started to find the range from deep and knocked down a couple treys, including this tough one over Trey Lyles in the fourth to tie the game at 87:
In addition to his team-high 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, Waiters also amassed four assists, one board and one steal.
3. Whiteside Sharp In The Third
Although Hassan Whiteside got off to a quick start, he really made his presence felt on both ends of the floor in the third quarter. Not only did the big fella finish plays inside, but he also swatted two shots in the period, including this Mason Plumlee attempt that had him really fired up:
Whiteside finished the night with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting, a team-high 11 rebounds and a game-high three blocks.
Game Note:
-Goran Dragić (Right Knee Surgery), Yante Maten (Sioux Falls Assignment) and Duncan Robinson (Sioux Falls Assignment) were inactive.
Looking Ahead:
-Up next for the HEAT are the Boston Celtics on Thursday night at 7PM. Tickets for that game at AmericanAirlines Arena can be found here.