it came against the Wizards<\/a>, with Ware afforded the opportunity to play 35:49 after being held to 15 or fewer minutes the previous three games.<\/p>\nSo a meaningful step forward, or the type of empty calories some perceived with Adebayo\u2019s 83-point breakout?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had three practices in the last ten days. And I would venture to say that these are the three best practices this year,\u201d coach Erik Spoelstra said of Ware\u2019s recent work away from the games. \u201cAnd those were coming off of some tough games against tough competition. A lot of that was being fed through a firehose, playing against good teams that are playing at a high level and things not necessarily going the way he wanted them to.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019s really been intentional of trying to get better at some things, his technique, getting his hands up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, something that simple unlocking the playing time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHands up,\u201d Spoelstra said, \u201cthat gets him in a better position to now react to blocking shots or making plays on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
So seven blocked shots against the Wizards, tying his career high (the initial box score showed eighth, but was later updated upon standard review).<\/p>\n
\u201cGet both hands up,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cBut he\u2019s drilling on it, he\u2019s working on it, he\u2019s watching film on it. He wants to get better at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, it also was against the Wizards.<\/p>\n
Next up are the Toronto Raptors, a bigger team with bigger goals than lottery combinations.<\/p>\n
So all Spoelstra asks is Ware back up Saturday\u2019s performance, with matchups Tuesday and Thursday night\u2019s in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow,\u201d Spoelstra said, \u201cthe next challenge will be doing it against a physical team on the road. And I\u2019m looking forward to seeing him respond.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, the familiar Spoelstra-Ware push-pull continues, Spoelstra pushing Ware for more, or pulling his minutes.<\/p>\n
Ware said the recent practices allowed him to recalibrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt comes to just putting in the reps, just working on and emphasizing going to go block shots,\u201d Ware said, \u201cjust being a force on the defensive end to help our team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants more from me, better from me. He just wants to see me perform at a higher level.\u201d<\/p>\n
No matter the opposition, Ware said the minutes are embraced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always feels good to go out there, you know, hoop freely and be able to help us win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s double-double was Ware\u2019s career-best 24th of the season and second in two games against the Wizards. It was his eighth 20-point game this season. In his two appearances against Washington this season, he is averaging 21.5 points and 16.5 rebounds.<\/p>\n
While many question Ware\u2019s playing time, more specifically the lack thereof, Adebayo knows some of those decisions come based on what is delivered on the practice court.<\/p>\n
To that end, Adebayo said it was apparent that Ware was poised for Saturday\u2019s two-way breakout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say he\u2019s just been truly engaged,\u201d the Heat captain said. \u201cObviously, you\u2019ve seen he had what, seven blocks, eight blocks?\u00a0 That was a crazy stat line. But you can see what he can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can get eight, nine blocks in the game, probably even ten if he really goes for it. So, with that being said, he\u2019s been really locked in. We need that version of Kel\u2019el if we\u2019re going to do something special or attempt at doing something special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 For hours, days, even weeks, Bam Adebayo found himself battling the asterisk when it came to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,165,189,6,66,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-699564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-miami-heat","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-washington","14":"tag-washington-wizards","15":"tag-washingtonwizards","16":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116352264671284051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699564","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=699564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}