What has changed for Rozier during three-game surge? Also, Love’s return and Heat injury update
The Miami Heat has pushed guard Terry Rozier to be himself since he joined the team following a trade in late January. But the transition has been tricky at times because the Heat has also needed Rozier to be somebody he wasn’t prior to the trade.
With the Charlotte Hornets, Rozier was a high-usage player who was tasked with creating offense for himself and others off the dribble.
With the Heat, Rozier is a secondary option as part of an offense built around the leading duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.
“It’s taken him some time to get comfortable here and we wanted to show him a little bit of grace through that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said ahead of Thursday’s high-stakes matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “But we had a ton of moving parts and I think by now he knows that everybody wants him to be that aggressive. You hear that, ‘Hey, go be yourself.’ But what does that actually mean?”
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With the Heat, it’s meant stay aggressive even if the shots are different than the ones Rozier took with the Hornets.
In Rozier’s 30 games with the Hornets this season before the Jan. 23 trade, more than half of his three-point attempts came off the dribble — attempting 4.8 pull-up threes to just 2.9 catch-and-shoot threes per game.
In Rozier’s 28 games with the Heat this season after the trade, the catch-and-shoot threes have outnumbers the pull-up threes — attempting 3.1 catch-and-shoot threes and 2.6 pull-up threes per game.
And Rozier’s catch-and-shoot volume has spiked during the current three-game hot streak he’s riding, culminating with a 34-point performance to lead the Heat to a 109-99 home win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. It marked the most points he has scored in a game since joining the Heat.
Rozier has averaged 27.7 points per game on 56.9 percent shooting from the field and 19-of-32 (59.4 percent) shooting from three-point range during this three-game surge. He has taken seven catch-and-shoot threes per game during this stretch, shooting an absurdly efficient 14 of 21 (66.7 percent) on those opportunities.
“Y’all don’t understand how much Spo has been on me about catch-and-shoot since I’ve been here,” Rozier, 30, said. “It just takes a little time to get adjusted. Coming from Charlotte, I always got the ball in my hands and a lot of my threes come off the dribble and that’s just kind of how I play. So I had to get back to my workouts, catching and shooting and stuff like that. So it’s just a matter of time. But I’m just happy to be knocking down my shots.”
While Rozier won’t always hit nearly 70 percent of his catch-and-shoot looks, the push from Heat teammates and coaches to stay aggressive will continue to be there regardless of whether the shots are going in or not.
“My teammates are super supportive always,” Rozier said. “That’s why I always give them credit. My coaches and my teammates, just allowing me to be me and making sure that I understand that I can go out there and be myself and things will work out. Just trying to read the game and see how our offense can get easier points while I’m still being aggressive.”
THE RETURN OF LOVE
Veteran Kevin Love returned to his backup center spot in the Heat’s rotation in Tuesday’s win over the Knicks, logging his first game minutes in more than a month after missing 14 straight games with a bruised right heel.
Love recorded eight points on 2-of-7 shooting from three-point range, three rebounds and three assists in 16 minutes off the Heat’s bench.
“It felt really good,” Love said after playing in his first game since Feb. 27. “Obviously, I felt like I worked hard to get my foot right. It’s just with that heel, it was so tough to actually get back out there and just get that heel bruise, it was pretty severe, to just heal back up and get back out there on the floor. But the last two weeks were huge for me and I was available tonight, got my chance and just went out there and felt good.”
Love was also available for the two games prior to Tuesday’s victory over the Knicks, but he did not play in either game despite being in uniform. Instead, the Heat continued to play Thomas Bryant as the backup center in Friday’s win against the Portland Trail Blazers and Sunday’s victory over the Washington Wizards before Love returned to that role in Tuesday’s win against the Knicks.
With Love back in the Heat’s rotation in his usual backup center role, Bryant did not play on Tuesday. It marked Bryant’s first DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) since March 10.
“This is what depth is all about,” Spoelstra said of the Love-Bryant decision. “Obviously, we’ve used all of our depth, but the depth becomes a little bit more complex when you have more guys available. And [Bryant] has really given us such tremendous minutes the last six weeks while Kevin was out.
“Kevin gives us something different. It spaces the floor in a different way. You get some overreactions that lead to open shots, either for him or for somebody else that you can’t necessarily script or make a play call for. And he just has such great veteran experience for these kind of games, these kind of matchups and then hopefully for what’s ahead for us in the playoffs.”
Whether Love again plays as the Heat’s full-time backup center like he did prior to his injury or Bryant and Love split that role depending on the matchup is still to be determined.
“You got to tip your hat to TB,” Love said. “He’s been playing awesome, really stepping up and finding a groove in there. So I think it will probably be game to game. Tonight was a night where we needed that spacing for guys to operate, especially because the Knicks bring that third defender.”
INJURY REPORT
The Heat ruled out Tyler Herro (right foot medial tendinitis), Josh Richardson (right shoulder surgery), Orlando Robinson (G League), Cole Swider (G League) and Alondes Williams (G League) for Thursday’s game against the 76ers. The rest of the Heat’s roster is expected to be available.
The 76ers listed Mo Bamba (illness), Joel Embiid (left knee injury recovery), Tobias Harris (left knee hyperextension) and Tyrese Maxey (left hip tightness) as questionable for Thursday’s game in Miami.
Out for the 76ers against the Heat: Ricky Council IV, Robert Convington, Jeff Dowtin Jr., De’Anthony Melton and Terquavion Smith.
