On Saturday<\/a>, 22 points to keep the Heat afloat.<\/p>\n\u2013 On Sunday, a sizzling start to get the Heat going.<\/p>\n
\u2013 For those unfamiliar with Larsson\u2019s pathway to this moment, he wasn\u2019t even the Heat\u2019s own selection in the second round of the 2024 draft, when he arrived out of Arizona..<\/p>\n
\u2013 Instead, he actually was part of a three-team trade with the Rockets and Hawks.<\/p>\n
\u2013 In that deal, the Heat acquired the draft rights to Larsson (selected No.\u00a0 44 overall) and cash considerations from the Hawks in exchange for the draft rights to Nikola Djurisic (No. 43 overall) in a three-team trade in which Atlanta sent AJ Griffin to Houston for the No. 44 pick in the draft.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So a roundabout arrival.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But nothing roundabout about this rise to more than draft afterthought.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Only effort, energy and a few whacks in the face along the way.<\/p>\n
\u2013 At the moment, Larsson very much looks like a rotation player for a play-in team.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The next question, when it comes to how he is valued going forward, is whether he can be more.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The past two games, and essentially, this season, have indicated there is something there.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Even from the depths of the second round.<\/p>\n
\u2013 At the moment, there no longer is a debate when it comes to Larsson or Nikola Jovic.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Which, on one hand, is a concern.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But also, on the other hand, an unexpected gain.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Davion Mitchell back but Norman Powell still out, the Heat opened with a lineup of Larsson, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Simone Fontrecchio and Mitchell.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Dru Smith entered together as the Heat\u2019s first two reserves.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kasparas Jakucionis, who had been starting in place of Mitchell, was next off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Ware then entered for Adebayo with 5:13 left in the opening period.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Three early Jakucionis fouls then had Myron Gardner back in the rotation a night after his first NBA start.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Even with it being the third consecutive game against the Bulls, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said it felt like three different scenarios, with so many different player permutations in the three games.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Well, it\u2019s a different team, right?\u201d he said of Sunday\u2019s matchup. \u201cLike each team that we faced in the Bulls is going to be different and we\u2019re a little bit different in each of these games, as well. It\u2019s unique. I love all the different challenges that are presented in this Association.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Of losing Saturday night to the Bulls, Spoelstra said. \u201cWe need to have a response.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 They did.<\/p>\n
\u2013 If any aspect of the unique scheduling was an issue, Spoelstra pointed to having an 8 p.m. game Saturday and then a 6 p.m. start Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cIn terms of the three in a row, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s that particularly, like, crazy in my mind,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it is a quick turnaround for both teams. So we\u2019re both on an even playing field. But when we finish an 8 o\u2019clock game and all of a sudden you see guys warming up right now, that feels a little bit unique.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The cold reality of the NBA is that Jevon Carter helped boost the Bulls over the Heat on Saturday night and then was released after the game, as part of Chicago\u2019s acquisition of Dario Saric.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201dI\u2019m hopeful that something will break for him,\u201d Bulls coach Billy Donovan said pregame. \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t be any more grateful to him, thankful for him, just the way he handled himself, the way he worked, the way he always kept himself ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Donovan added, \u201cSometimes the timing of these things are difficult because you don\u2019t know when it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Donovan said players stressing over Thursday\u2019s NBA trading deadline misses the point.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cIn my opinion, you waste a lot of time worrying or thinking about what may or may not happen, you know,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cAnd these guys work really, really hard. They get a chance to do something they have always done since they\u2019ve been kids. They\u2019ve just been really good at it and worked really hard at it and became professionals. So what we\u2019ve got control over is how we play, how we treat each other, how we play together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Sunday night\u2019s 134-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls: \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,165,189,3880,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-577033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-miami-heat","15":"tag-miami-heat-blog","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116000430757797282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}