Miami Heat: The Duncan Show in 5th straight win (in Wemby World) | Five on the Floor

Welcome to the latest episode of Five on the Floor by the Five Reasons Sports Network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Red Circle, also the Five Reasons YouTube channel. Make sure you hit like, subscribe, and turn the notifications on. Also, check out the new Off the Floor. The description is right here on the podcast feed, also on YouTube and on the top of the Five Reasons Twitter. That's where you get updates from the host during the game, between games, 24-7 chats, all kinds of cool stuff, just $2.99 a month. That's the new Off the Floor. And now, today's episode. Welcome to Five on the Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA, featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sylvander, and Alex Toledo, plus others from the Five Reasons Sports Network. Welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here's today's floor plan. I got Greg Sylvander. You can follow me, Greg Sylvander. I got Brady Hawk. You can follow me, Brady Hawk. 305. The Miami Heat win 118-113 against the San Antonio Spurs. Fifth straight win. Another win on the road on this trip. They go to Charlotte next. Players in and out. Hasn't seemed to matter. They fell behind again. Didn't seem to matter. And there were different heroes tonight than the other night. So we'll get into that. But we've got to start here, Greg. Loaded. And now on Five on the Floor, it's time for the Gamer of the Night, sponsored by ROK Esports Center, the place to eat, drink, and play all day. Host your next birthday party with them. Located at 15305 South Dixie Highway in Palmetto Bay, they've got a 5,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art center equipped with all the high-end power. Play all-day passes, available for just $25. But if you mention Five Reasons, it's just $20. So mention Five Reasons or Five RSN, you get to play all day for $20. And now, the Gamer of the Night. 39 minutes, 26 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 8 of 16 overall, 4 of 7 from 3. And that's after he missed, I think, his first 4. Or his first 3, 3-point shots. And his first 4 shots overall. Duncan Robinson was their best player tonight. And Duncan Robinson has been one of their 3 or 4 best players this season. And that is just a miraculous thing to say at this point. Because this guy's career in Miami seemed done. He was not a rotation player for long stretches of last season. He only really played in the playoffs because Hero was out, and they were shorthanded, and then he ended up outplaying Max Struess. But it's the way he's playing. And Brady, I'll go to you first on this because it's like we're taking it for granted right now, but then he's elevating his play. Like, he is applying more rim pressure right now than Jimmy Butler is. There's just no other way around it. He is. And he's making reads while in the paint. And he, in some ways, single-handedly brought them back into this game three different times. They fell behind by double digits. Every single time they got back into it, Duncan Robinson was a part of it. Why is this happening? I don't think I have the answer as to why it's happening, but it is happening. I'll say that. I'm glad you mentioned that the multiple runs because the heat, I said it on the playback, it was literally every time that they were making a run, it started with a Duncan bucket, a Duncan drive, a Duncan sequence of events. Everything just began with Duncan. He was the reason they got into an offensive flow with certain pockets of the game. In a game that started, I did not believe that there was an opportunity for them to find an offensive flow because that's how bad things looked. I was saying on playback the first quarter, are they going to hit double digits? I did not have much confidence in that. He turned that around. 100%, you're right about the rib pressure. That is the most fascinating thing about all of this because he 100% probably is a top three rib pressure guy on this team right now. If you were to say that to Heat fans a couple of years ago, can you imagine what they would be thinking this player was at this stage? He is literally doing it off the ball, making good reads, cuts, just getting right in the right pockets, knowing when to cut. It's also the fact that he's just simply just getting the ball at the top of the key and just getting past people. He's just making moves on people and getting to the rim. He had a nice floater. His finishing always is great. He's drawing fouls. We always talk about gravity and the fact when he comes off a screen, he has two people to space. Now there's gravity. When he gets in the paint, they're helping off the corner. That's where we're getting to now. It's just- I see dribble on the baseline. I didn't want to say anything for the play of the game. I was saving it, but there was two massive plays. We're going to go with someone else because there's someone else who deserves credit, but literally we could do six play in the games on Duncan Robinson. How about when he pulled the chair on defense so that the ball ended up going out of bounds? Like you mentioned the fouls. He only had one foul. He's not even picking up fouls anymore. No turnovers in 38 minutes. We can't call a foul on him. That's Jerry West. We can't call a foul on that guy. Brady, you hit on it, but Greg, we got to go to you because literally everybody wanted this guy traded. Just throw it in, dump it, attach a pick. No, he's in an integral part of what they're doing. They're better off just- he's more valuable to what they're doing when he's playing like this. The leap doing the two-point stuff, nobody expected, but just the fact that he's back to hitting threes, his confidence is there. For him to be able to be trusted to play 38 minutes and get through that and not be somebody who they say, oh gosh, watch, he got hunted three possessions in a row down the stretch, et cetera like that. That's the evolution of Duncan Robinson that I think is huge for this team. And he is without a doubt the gamer of the night. Yeah, I don't think there was any question. And look, that comes- and maybe we're taking this other guy for granted now, but that comes on a night where Bam went for 24, 11, and six, continuing his incredible run. But when he does 24, 11, and six going up against Wenby, and we're like, okay, I mean, whatever. It just is what it is. Well, meanwhile, on the other side, Wenby, who did turn it on a little bit late, but ended up with 18, 11, and seven. Thank you for hitting my prize picks. Seven turnovers. Don't forget that. Seven turnovers, two of nine from three. Stands out at the three-point line too much at this stage. He missed his first seven before he made a couple. But to, again, not even sort of go to Bam because Duncan has been so tremendous. And here's the other thing, and we will touch more on Jimmy as we go forward, but Jimmy's supposed to take these games over, or Tyler was supposed to take these games over, or Bam is supposed to take these games over. And the two guys who made the most plays for them down the stretch tonight were Duncan Robinson and the guy we're going to get to in the play of the night as we go forward here a little bit. But just to close the loop on Duncan here, okay? I'm just personally happy for the guy. I just am. Because I think if you've seen it wear on him over the past three years, it looked like he just didn't fit at times with this group, and that they were looking for reasons to move past him. We know that there wasn't unilateral agreement in the organization about the contract. We know that Spoh is the one that banged the table to keep Duncan, but even he wasn't playing him in critical moments. Like you said, Greg, couldn't play him in the fourth, looking to move him out of the rotation. And this isn't just a hero being out thing. Duncan earned a rotation spot before Tyler got hurt. But now you're seeing this is sustainable, I think. Maybe the shooting is going to go up and down. We know that. But the playmaking is a core part of his game at this stage, and I don't really see it going away. And when you look at Caleb Martin coming back, we're not even considering the possibility of Duncan Robinson coming out of the rotation, even Tyler back. It's going to be somebody else. It's not going to be him. There's just no way at this point. And he is he's at very least a neutral asset at this point. And even with the contract seems like a positive asset at this stage. All right, Greg, I teed it up here a little bit, but there's another guy we should give some credit to because we talk about someone who doesn't always make plays down the stretch of games he did tonight. Let's get to the play. And now it's time for the insurance by Lynette play of the night sponsored by insurance by Lynette.com and a aggressive insurance agency. You can reach out to our friend Lynette at 954-581-8800 that's 954-581-8800 or insurance by Lynette.com that's insurance by Lynette.com with two n's and two t's your best play for auto insurance, homeowners insurance, condo insurance, life insurance, or retirement program. Reach out to Lynette at insurance by Lynette.com. There's actually a couple of guys we should cite here because they've gotten a lot of heat from heat fans lately. And I thought both of them gave them important minutes tonight. One of them was drew Smith, by the way, who played 27 minutes was four of nine from the field to five and three, 12 points, four rebounds, three assists was trusted with handling the ball quite a bit with Kyle Lowry sitting. We'll get into that a little bit later in the pod, but also look, I mean, with Josh Richardson, we've had this debate, it seems like for seven years before he left. And then obviously now that since he's come back on like how playable Josh is down the stretch of games, because we talked about him as a potential closer. He really struggled to start the season and it started to bring back memories of struggles that he had in the past when too much responsibility was put on him as a primary scorer, primary player and mistakes were made. Let's just say it. Okay. Stepping out of bounds, other things that he went through tonight, there were a couple of plays. I don't know which one of them you guys want to choose tonight, but he helped put this game away tonight. Brady, which one sticks out to you? Definitely the first shot by Josh. Cause it was kind of the half court was a swing swing. It's about like seven seconds on the shot clock and he shoots it over Victor Wiminyama. Like he shoots it on a tight contest from Webby and hits that shot out of all shots. Like that one specifically seemed like the shot. And let me just say real quickly, cause I know we want to talk about Josh, but I still, I don't know if I'm leaning Josh for play the game with the two plays that we saw from Duncan and how you cited them quickly. But I just want to mention aside from the half spin baseline into the, into the lay-ins, the one where he sends a pump fake on the left wing dribbles in pulls back to the corner, pump fake side steps and shoots. Like he was getting in his bag tonight. So the fact that he's not playing the game is wild, but credit to you for going to Josh because he has not had the loudest and brightest of moments in general. And the fact that, you know, he had that down the stretch and he had that kind of sequence of events, but that first shot I thought was big. We were talking about on playback. He had decent moments defensively in this one where he was just kind of getting in the way. It felt like he was just kind of running around on the perimeter and in a game where they needed that because you make it too easy for this team to get the ball inside to these lengthy or offensive players. Like it's going to be, you're going to have real trouble. So you better kind of get cut it off the perimeter. Josh did a good job of that. So I thought that was a, we talked about it literally yesterday. We said the most important thing from yesterday's game was Josh Richardson. Why? Because I said, he's a rhythm player. Like he plays off when he sees shots go in, he finds a rhythm and he finds a flow. That's why the yesterday's game was so important. And I think you saw that in this game. Like once he saw kind of found himself a little bit, he trusts his shot enough that he's going to take shots even if it's over a Wembley contest. So I've just definitely noteworthy because it's a guy that we've been talking about it when we keep mentioning if, when Caleb comes back or all this stuff, he's still not back and we still have not got any clarity on that situation. So for now it's Josh Richardson. It's Duncan Rock Robinson. It's Jaime Hawkins and all three of them seem to be playing pretty well. Yeah. Hawkins tonight. I'll go through some of the numbers, 32 minutes for Jaime tonight. It's becoming pretty common for him to play 25 plus 11.6 rebounds, three assists, four of 10 shooting did some Jaime things you know, some of the cutting, the defense and all of that. And he did make one of two open threes. And again, I mentioned Drew Smith, man, like, you know, here's the thing. It's like we keep doing this. We keep saying we don't, we don't see it with this guy. We don't see it. I still don't completely see it on the offensive end. Yeah. I do see it on the defensive end though. I see what's bolster is tapping into there. He trusts him defensively and he was not mistake prone tonight on the offensive end and in a game that they didn't have Kyle Lowry. They needed some of that really only a nine, a sort of an eight and a quarter man rotation tonight. Kevin Love gave him 12 points tonight and it was two of seven from three, but he gave him 12 points in 14 minutes played ahead of Thomas Bryant who got the one stint in the first half, not the second half. He was kind of the ninth man tonight on nothing for Orlando Robinson or Jovich. Let's pivot to this quickly. Cause I feel like this is going to be a complete podcast, Greg, in the next couple of days. And we've got a couple of lined up. We've got some topics now because the team has gotten a little bit more interesting. Jimmy Butler tonight, five of 14, one of three from three, 19.6 rebounds for assists. I mean, dealing with a personal thing that he came into, you know, San Antonio day of game wasn't with them in Atlanta. There were a couple of bursts. There was the one that the, the elevation for the dunk, which was emphatic, but it's like, we're having to find them. You know what I mean? Like he made a big defensive play at the end of the game. We should credit him for that. He's sometimes he wins games with his defense and he forced to turn over there at the end, which was critical, but they they're not winning because of him. No. And who knows, maybe that's actually healthy. I'm spinning it that way because Jimmy can't just be put your cape on and win all the time. I would say, you know, maybe there's moments where it looks like he is lacking the same level of aggression, but then you look at the end of the box score and he has nine free throws. So he can't be, he's not being that unaggressive if if he's getting nine, you know, free throw attempts. So ultimately Jimmy is just, I think picking his spots and he recognizes that certain guys are going. I, I trust that they'll figure out how to manage that. Ultimately. Yeah, you're right. There aren't those plays. The pick six is that I like to see the steals that lead to quick action. Some of those have happened, but not a ton, not like we're used to seeing from Jimmy when, you know, he's locked in. And I just, I think that they'll come eventually. I don't want to make too much of it this early if it's Christmas and we still haven't seen these pops at all. Maybe then we start having the dialogue a little further. Brady, how many games do you think that he's played in a high level for him? I just said on, I literally just put out there. I said the and Jimmy Butler doesn't even care about basketball yet. Like that's the point this team is at. So how many games he played above average for him? I mean, none of them pop off the top of your head. I think that's why you're asking this question. Like I'm trying to think of a game specifically. There has not been that one game. And we were talking about that before. I think that's the difference between this year and in past years with Jimmy and his play is the even if it wasn't consistently, you know, he's never just carried for 82 games throughout a season. He was going to play that way, but he always had like a game or two where he would just kind of show you that he still has it in the tank. He shows you, he still has that burst. If it's a game in Boston, if it's a game against those teams, that's not been the case this year. He's just kind of doing his thing and kind of floating. So yeah, I don't know if that's been the case, but there was a game. I mean, the one thing I'll give him credit for, and I've been giving him credit for is even though he doesn't have those like pick sixes and everything, I feel like he's been really good defensively, like in his minutes, like he's been active. He's taken most teams, best players. And I've been noting that after each game, like that's not something he's done a lot of, like, even though he has that competitive spirit, he takes the best player in the fourth quarters. He takes the best players in the playoffs doing it. That's the start of a random Tuesday night, regular season game has not always been his thing. So the fact that he's doing that this year got at least credit him for that one, but yeah, it's not been allowed Jimmy Butler season so far. And Hey, that's the positive because they had Tyler hero. Who's out there, Jimmy Butler, who doesn't care about basketball yet. And they're sitting in the tide for third. Well, they've got seven guys in double figures tonight that, that helps, you know, to score one 18. You know what Jimmy reminds me of a little bit right now. He reminds me of kind of Chicago when Rose was still there, Jimmy Butler, which cause he was a very good on ball defender and he would kind of opportunistically score. And that's sort of what he's been this season. I thought his best stretch was in the Laker game. Honestly, it feels like the LeBron thing, he gets up for that, particularly when they're against each other. But I guess the question will be, and I think you hit on it, Greg, about a month from now, are we still not seeing it? And we still seeing these kind of 19 to 17 to 21 point performances on low efficiency. I mean, he, his efficiency, he's shooting about 42% from the field this year. That's not him. I mean, that's, that's what it was after he turned the ankle last year in the playoffs. He started shooting in the, in the low to mid forties, he was shooting in the high fifties prior to that, which was outrageous. Nobody's expecting to continue that, but you want him somewhere in that 48 to 51% range, somewhere around there with a lot of free throws and filling up the rest of the box score and the flashes. We haven't seen it, but again, they're six and four and they really should be seven and three because that Brooklyn game still sticks with me at this point. And they haven't had Caleb and they have, who was supposed to be their fourth most important player this season. And now they're without their third most important player, uh, over the past three games and they're three and Oh, and I'm going to say it again. I'm going to try to get it right for the listeners to say, I always get it wrong. Correlation is not causation. So we're not saying that they're three and Oh, because Tyler is out. They've adjusted. They've done some good things. And, uh, and I thought this was a good win tonight on the second night of a back-to-back against a team with a lot of talent that needs a point guard to put it together. And eventually Popovich will get that. All right. We're going to close here with our last sponsor and our last bit of content. We're trying to build the content around the sponsors these days. So we'd give you something until the end of the pod, uh, the injury report. And now it's time for the official five on the floor injury report sponsored by our friend, Eric Rubenstein, the personal injury attorney born and raised in Lauderdale, Florida lives in Miami, went to St. Thomas. He's a South Florida guy and a huge Miami heat fan. But the important thing is he can help you get your money that you deserve when something happens to you. So reach out to our guy, Eric Rubenstein, again, ericrubenstein.com or ask about me. I got you on Instagram and now the injury report. All right. So as we mentioned, Jimmy Butler was back tonight. So, uh, it doesn't seem to be a lingering concern there. Kyle Lowry sat rest again, second night of a back-to-back he's played a ton of minutes to start this season, much more than we thought he was going to, or I thought they wanted him to. So make sense. Kayla Martin remains out with a knee injury, but he is on the trip still. And I tend to believe that he, if they didn't think he was going to play soon, he wouldn't be on the trip. They don't typically bring the guys with him. They leave him back at the facility to work, especially because they've got a home game coming up on Thursday. So we'll see if maybe in Charlotte, uh, he gives it a go or gets upgraded, um, in some way Jovich was healthy today, just a healthy scratch. And again, Kevin Love got back in the rotation here, uh, beyond that, you know, the story with Tyler hero. So it's mixing and matching right now. It's more minutes for Hawkins. It's more minutes for Robinson. That's been a good thing. I'll say this too. The two of them continue to look good together. The majority of runs lately have come with Duncan Robinson and Jaime Hawk is both on the floor. Yeah. But my closing thought is this when your center is going against the number one pick of the draft, who is hyped as the next big thing. And I think he is by the way, needs to put on some weight, needs to get inside a little bit more, but I think when he's going to be terrific and he gives you 24, 11, and six on 50% shooting. And we're like, he's a superstar. We'll probably podcast on Monday. Have a good night, everybody. Thank you for listening to the five on the floor on the fibers and sports network. After all someone needs to listen to my dad.