Caleb Martin again looking like his previous Miami Heat self
MIAMI – Three losses in the past five games are not optimal. But as Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, that doesn’t mean there weren’t gains made during the extended run on the road that ended Saturday.
Arguably at the top of that list could be the play of forward Caleb Martin, who continues to make strides in his return from 10 games off due to knee soreness.
If there were doubts about Martin’s left knee, an emphatic response was offered Saturday night, when he closed with 22 points and seven rebounds in 30:33 in the 112-97 loss to the Nets at Barclays Center. It not only exceeded his previous longest outing of 26 minutes, but there had been only 31 total points in his six appearances this season prior to Saturday.
“You’re seeing more of the quick twitch and that explosiveness laterally or in the gaps and all of those different things that he provides that are X factors for us,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I probably played him more minutes than I wanted to.
“But it was good for Caleb to go through all of that, as well, and come out of it – knock on wood – that he’s still feeling good.”
To Martin, it still remains somewhat of a work in progress.
“I feel good. I feel good,” he said, with the Heat idle for two days before hosting the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night in their finale of pool play in the NBA In-Season Tournament. “I know I’m just going to keep working, keep figuring things out with the guys.”
He said he appreciated what Spoelstra noticed.
“Yeah, the more I’m out there, it just comes with reps,” he said, “the more scenarios, situations I’m in to do that. It’s one of the things that I just got to put more confidence in my body, believe in my body more, kind of just play more free.
“I feel like I’m a little bit overthinking, a little passive on certain things due to coming back, which is normal. But as the season keeps going and games keep going by, I’ll continue to trust it.”
Centered thoughts
With Bam Adebayo sitting out for the second time in three games Saturday with a hip bruise, the Heat got only two points and one rebound in Brooklyn from replacement starting center Thomas Bryant in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, another option at center, Orlando Robinson, was putting on an elite performance with the Heat’s G League affiliate on Saturday night in South Dakota, with 21 points (9 of 12 from field), 17 rebounds, five assists, one block, one steal in 33:53 in a Sioux Falls Skyforce victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves’ affiliate.
Spoelstra said had he known earlier about Adebayo’s absence there could have been a revised itinerary.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t until we found out about Bam,” he said. “I mean, Bam is such a competitor. He’s like, ‘Let me see how I feel tomorrow.’
“And this is always a balance. We want to get guys playing. We don’t want guys idle. So is it always going to be perfect? No, but we want them to play, we want them to compete.”
Spoelstra said it is a balancing act.
“Player development is a big part of what we do and those games in Sioux Falls are really important for all of our young players,” he said.
“If, for whatever reason, if Orlando would have played their game in the Northeast, he would have been with us.”
Another step
Saturday was another step forward for rookie wing Jaime Jaquez Jr., who found his way to 18 points, five rebounds and four assists despite a jumbled rotation that was without Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Duncan Robinson and others.
“He has a knack for the ball and a knack for the play that needs to be made offensively,” Spoelstra said. “He can do it with the ball in his hands or he can comfortably play without the ball with his off-ball cuts and timeliness of his cuts. That will get better, too, within our system.”
In other words, as the productivity rises, so do the expectations.
“He still has to make some strides improving his cutting game, screening game, filling in those kinds of gaps,” Spoelstra said. “But he has the mind for it. He has the instincts for it. It’s just a matter of getting more comfortable with it.”
