Miami Heat's Hassan Whiteside (21) drives past Brooklyn Nets' Jared Dudley (6) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II))
Miami Heat star Hassan Whiteside reportedly had a $50,000 rifle stolen from him during the summer.
Soon after he bought the weapon on July 5, Whiteside was robbed of the Colt M16 assault rifle, ammo, a rifle bag and a silencer after someone snatched the items from his Rolls Royce, according to AM 640’s Andy Slater. Whiteside reportedly left his doors unlocked while at the University of Miami working out and believed that's where the theft occurred.
But a few weeks later, while he and his attorney were talking to detectives, Whiteside reportedly remembered he left the doors of the car unlocked -- and the weapons unattended inside -- when he was called back into the gun store at the time of the purchase. It was determined the firearm was stolen at that time and not at the University of Miami, according to Slater.
The gun, ammo and silencer were discovered weeks later inside a stolen car in North Miami, Slater reported.
“I have a license for the gun that was stolen from me over the summer,” Whiteside said in a statement to the Miami Herald. “I should have secured it better and I’m glad it was recovered. It won’t happen again. It is now locked in a safe and I only use it at the gun range.”
The Heat determined Whiteside didn’t break any team rules and he wasn’t disciplined for the incident.
Dwyane Wade has found his fountain of youth, and it includes a lot of sweating.
In his 16th and final NBA season, the 36-year-old Heat guard is still constantly looking for an edge.
What’s working for Wade this season? Extra work behind the scenes, outside of shootaround, practices and games.
In advance of Monday’s win in Detroit over the Pistons, Wade made time for hot yoga even before the start of morning shootaround. It’s that extra sweat he’s chasing this season, and it’s working.
“He had a big time workout today, yoga and working out before our shootaround,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, with the Heat moving on to begin a four-game home stand Wednesday against the Spurs. “And our shootarounds aren’t the easiest. But he’s found the fountain of youth, and he’ll continue to get younger because of that work ethic.”
Wade, who signed a one-year, $2.4 million veteran’s minimum deal to return to the Heat this past summer, finished Monday’s contest with 18 points on 8 of 15 shooting. The performance included three dunks, which is two more than he had over the first eight games of the season.
Wade had not converted three or more dunks in a game since the Heat’s playoff win over the Raptors in Game 4 of their second-round series on May 9, 2016.
“I went to hot yoga this morning. I think it was the yoga,” Wade said with a smile. “As [Udonis Haslem] said, it was fast breaks, so I should dunk them. But, you know, I just had an opportunity. I’m getting my legs under me now. I’ve definitely been feeling a lot better over the last week and a half, so I’m getting my legs back.”
Feeling better and playing better.
Over the past three games, Wade has averaged 18.7 points on 55.3 percent shooting from the field and 46.2 percent shooting from three-point range to go with three assists. He’s now scored at least 18 in five of the Heat’s past seven games.
Wade, who has played as the first reserve off the bench in most games, is averaging 14.3 points, four rebounds and 2.9 assists this season. And he’s played in each of Miami’s first nine regular-season games, including both ends of the team’s first two back-to-back sets.
Among bench players who have played in at least five games this season, Wade’s scoring average ranks 10th.
Related stories from Miami Herald
Wade is getting his points a little differently this season, too. He’s averaging a career-high four three-point shot attempts per game and is making the shot at a career-best 41.7 percent rate.
It’s just part of the evolution of Wade’s game. Even in his final NBA season, he’s still making tweaks and looking for an edge.
“I love seeing this version of Dwyane over the years and how he’s evolved and how much work he’s put in behind the scenes that nobody sees,” Spoelstra said. “The fountain of youth is a bunch of work, a bunch of sweat, a bunch of pushing your body to exhaustion when nobody is watching just to keep that edge.”
Whiteside’s MRI negative
An MRI on Heat center Hassan Whiteside’s injured right knee returned negative. He’s listed as questionable for Wednesday’s home game against the Spurs.
Whiteside missed Monday’s win over the Pistons because of the injury after hurting his knee in Saturday’s loss to the Hawks. It marked the first game he’s missed this season.
Whiteside missed 28 games due to various injuries last season. But 18 of them were because of two separate bone bruises on his left knee.
This time, the right knee is the one bothering Whiteside.
The Heat remains without James Johnson and Dion Waiters, who have yet to play this season and will not play Wednesday. Johnson is recovering from May hernia surgery and Waiters is recovering from January ankle surgery.
Miami Herald Sports Pass
The Miami Herald is now offering a digital sports-only subscription for $30 per year. This is unlimited access to all Herald sports stories.
The National Basketball Association in 2017 stumbled upon what might have been the happiest jersey-related accident in the league's sartorial history. The NBA gave each team a new, third-jersey option as part of the "City" jersey series. Each team got a jersey designed to reflect something about its "culture" — and while some cities wound up wearing utterly hilarious nonsense, the Heat ended up with a set of glorious pink-and-teal jerseys that are 100 percent without question better than the team's current wardrobe. The script logo even references the sign from the old Miami Arena.
The Heat on Monday released a black 2018 version of the Vice City jersey to similar fanfare. So allow New Times to vocalize what everyone is thinking: Let's just make these the permanent Miami Heat jerseys already.
With both black and white versions of the Vice City jersey now in circulation, the Heat has away and home jerseys sitting and ready for use. You could easily repaint American Airlines Arena when the Heat is gone during a road trip. Just dunk team mascot Burnie in a vat of neon-blue dye and you're set.
Since the Heat unveiled the Vice City series last year, it's honestly been depressing to watch the team play in the typical red-and-black getup. Miami is, to put things mildly, not a boring city. The Heat — led by Pat Riley, a ruthless sports maven who both dresses and acts like Gordon Gekko — is not a boring team. So the Heat does not deserve to play wearing such boring, pedestrian, and, frankly, normal-ass-looking red, white, and black jerseys.
There is no more boring or trite jersey-color combination in professional sports than red and black. There are multiple red-and-black teams in virtually every pro sports league. Such teams include, but are not limited to, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Portland Trailblazers, Manchester United, Chicago Blackhawks, Atlanta Falcons, Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bulls, New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Ottowa Senators, Toronto Raptors, San Francisco 49ers, a ton of other assorted soccer teams, and the Heat.
Plus, the jersey change could symbolize the team's symbolic move away from the Dwyane Wade era. Wade, the single greatest athlete in Heat and Miami sports history (suck it, Dan Marino fans), has announced he'll retire at the end of the year. The Heat will then finally be able to step out of the Wade/Bosh/LeBron/Big Three shadow that's been hanging over the team since James left for Cleveland in 2014. The team — along with the city — could signal it's finally moving on by changing up the wardrobe. Now is the perfect time, especially because the current crop of players is a collection of midsize, largely mediocre swingmen that will never bring a championship to the Magic City. Barring some sort of free-agency miracle, Riley will need to jettison guys such as Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside and find a young, new Wade 2.0 through the draft. A new era requires a new outfit too.
New Times has also been begging a local team to adopt some "Miami aesthetic" jerseys for years. The Marlins, Heat, and Panthers (shudder) have boring, nontropical jerseys that could work anywhere from Vermont to Vancouver. The Dolphins' mascot, though tropical, is a sad beached aquatic mammal trying to play a land-based contact sport. (To be fair, this is a perfect metaphor for Dolphins football.) Miami could also take a page from Pittsburgh, a city where every sports team wears black and yellow to match the city's flag. Miami's culture and natural ecosystem are entirely unique to America and deserve to be reflected in local sports: David Beckham's Major League Soccer team, Inter Miami CF, seemingly took our advice and unveiled an instant-classic pink-and-black logo earlier this year.
Heat owner Mickey Arison, who once teased a switch to Vice-style jerseys in 2015, should follow suit.
More than maybe any other playoff hopeful, the Miami Heat is more reliant on the entire sum of its parts than the single individual pieces. With no clear All-Star on the roster, the Heat needs just about everyone to play well to achieve its goals.
Almost 10 games into the season, Miami is once again hovering near .500, so how have all these pieces been coming together? On the Heat Check podcast this week, David Wilson and Heat beat writer Anthony Chiang hand out the simplest grades possible: thumbs up or thumbs down.
Obviously, wing guard Josh Richardson is thriving and wing Wayne Ellington has vanished, but what about the middle-of-the pack guys? Is post player Bam Adebayo playing to the level he should be? What do we make of forward Justise Winslow’s abysmal shooting percentage, but productivity everywhere else? This episode takes a look at the 11 healthy players who might play an important role in the rotation throughout the season, all the way from Dwyane Wade down to small forward Derrick Jones Jr.
A new episode will be published weekly throughout the season, so be sure to stay tuned as the season goes on and don’t hesitate to pass along any feedback.
MIAMI, Nov. 27 – The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Directors announced that HEAT Senior Advisor of Basketball Operations/Basketball Chet ...
The Miami Heat's "Vice Nights" campaign is about to take a road trip.
The team announced Wednesday that a new version of the team's Florida license plate will be available, with the ability to trade in from the current standard white state-issued versions.
Signups for the new plates will begin at the Heat's Thursday midnight Vice event at AmericanAirlines Arena, continuing at the team's home games.
Per the Heat, the following are required to be issued one of the new plates, which allows for personalization:
-- Driver's license
-- Vehicle registration
-- Proof of insurance
-- Form of payment
-- Cash, check and all major credit cards are accepted.
According to the team, registration fee varies depending on renewal time or replacement, vehicle weight, and other factors.
As for the Heat's midnight event Thursday, included will be:
-- First opportunity to purchase the "Vice Nights" jersey and merchandise collection.
-- Free "Vice Nights" gifts with purchase of jersey.
-- Opportunity to take photo with the new Vice basketball court
-- American Express card purchasers receive custom New Era hat with purchase of a "Vice Nights" jersey.
-- Free shipping in the Continental U.S. on all "Vice Nights" merchandise purchases over $100.
The Heat was without Goran Dragic in Wednesday’s home game against the Spurs.
Dragic was unavailable due to a right knee injury that he tried to play through in Monday’s win over the Pistons. The knee swelled up following the game.
An MRI on Dragic’s right knee returned negative.
“It didn’t feel right,” Dragic said of playing through the pain in Monday’s victory. “But it’s weird because when you have swelling, you can’t extend it and you can’t bend it. It’s not painful, it’s just a weird feeling.”
When he returns to the court, though, there’s a trend he will be looking to break.
Dragic, 32, entered Wednesday averaging a team-high 12.6 drives to the basket per game this season. That’s not the surprising part, as the 6-3, 190-pound point guard has led the Heat in penetration attempts in two of the past three seasons.
The eye-opening stat is the amount of fouls Dragic has drawn with his aggressive style. He has drawn one foul on his 101 drives this season, according to the NBA’s tracking statistics.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’re going to continue to encourage Goran to drive and be aggressive, get in the paint, make things happen. He’s a walking collision when he walks out on the court, and you put a ball in his hands because of his aggressive nature.”
To put those numbers into perspective, Cleveland’s Collin Sexton has drawn eight fouls on 60 drives, and Washington’s Kelly Oubre Jr. has drawn six fouls 50 drives this season.
This is nothing new for Dragic, as he was fouled on just 3.4 percent of his penetration attempts last season (the lowest rate among those in the top 10 in drives). He has drawn a foul on 1 percent of his drives this season.
“I look at it this way, I don’t have control over that,” Dragic said. “I’m still going to do what I do. We’ll see if they’re going to call it good for me, but if not I’m just going to play through it. That’s the only thing I can do.”
While these numbers are hard to explain for a player who gets into the paint as much as Dragic does, one reason for the lack of whistles could be the amount of times his drives end with a pass. Dragic is passing it on 39.6 percent of his drives, which is the third-highest percentage among the 23 players averaging at least 12 drives per game this season.
“I believe eventually he will be rewarded for that aggressiveness,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t want him to stop doing it based on how the game has been officiated. It will turn for him.”
Injury updates
While Dwyane Wade missed Wednesday’s game due to personal reasons, center Hassan Whiteside returned after missing Monday’s win with a right knee injury.
Related stories from Miami Herald
An MRI on Whiteside’s injured knee returned negative Tuesday.
“It feels good. Just feeling better,” Whiteside said. “The soreness went away. Having those days to recoup and watch some film and just being there and seeing my team get a win, it was great.”
Duncan Robinson, who is one of the Heat’s two-way contract players, traveled from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Miami and was active Wednesday against the Spurs. It marks the third NBA day used on his 45-day two-way contract clock.
The Heat remained without James Johnson and Dion Waiters, who have yet to play this season. Johnson is recovering from May hernia surgery, and Waiters is recovering from January ankle surgery.
Vice plates are here
The Heat announced Wednesday that a Vice-themed version of the team’s Florida license plate will be available. There will be a mobile and in-arena DMV at all Vice Nights home games where Heat fans can trade in their old license plate and upgrade to this new Vice Nights version.
A look at the Heat’s new Vice-themed license plates.
Courtesy of Miami Heat
Fans can get the Vice license plate as early as Thursday night at the team’s Midnight Madness event held at AmericanAirlines Arena. The plates can also be purchased statewide at auto tag agency locations beginning Friday.
More information on obtaining a Vice license plate can be found at HEAT.com/ViceNights.
Miami Herald Sports Pass
The Miami Herald is now offering a digital sports-only subscription for $30 per year. This is unlimited access to all Herald sports stories.
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 95-88 win over the San Antonio Spurs (6-4) on Wednesday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
1. Hassan Whiteside’s knee looks fine. After missing Monday’s win over the Pistons with a right knee injury, Whiteside returned Wednesday and was dominant from the start for the Heat (5-5). Miami’s starting center finished the first quarter with a stat line of 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists and five blocks. He ended the first half with 18 points, 14 rebounds, two assists and eight blocks. Those eight blocks set a new team record for most blocks in a half.
At the end of the game, Whiteside had accumulated 29 points, 20 rebounds, two assists and nine blocks in 32 minutes, falling just a block short of recording his fifth-career triple-double. He’s the sixth different player to record at least 29 points, 20 rebounds and nine blocks in a game since blocks started being tracked in the 1973-74 season, joining Hakeem Olajuwon, Bob Lanier, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob McAdoo and Elmore Smith.
“The ball will find energy and he was a bundle of energy on both ends,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Whiteside. “That’s the karma of the game. We ran probably less than a handful of direct plays to him, and he was making guys see him with his force. That’s what it’s all about.”
The Spurs also shot just 2 of 13 within 10 feet of the basket when defended by Whiteside.
Obviously, Whiteside can’t do this every night. But it’s not those stats the Heat is asking him to replicate consistently. It’s the activity level on both ends for a complete game that Miami has been hoping to see more regularly.
“It would have been pretty cool for him to get that triple-double. But the context of his winning plays had nothing to do with the stat line,” Spoelstra said. “When he brings that kind of intensity, competitiveness, the defensive efforts and even the attention to details on the other end, we’re clearly a different team.
“He’s had a lot of really good days this year. And it’s good to see it come out because we’ve seen this in practice quite a few times, and he’s had some really good games and it’s helped us. But this game really has been coming.”
Still, Whiteside wanted that triple-double. After the game, a reporter asked him if he wanted the game reviewed to make sure one of his blocks wasn’t missed.
“We can definitely review it,” Whiteside said. “I would love to review it, so whoever got to review it, review it because I definitely want to make that statement, because I want to be in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation. Y’all gave it to a shot-blocker [Utah’s Rudy Gobert] last year, so we respect the shot-blocker again.”
Either way, it’s a good sign that Whiteside is feeling healthy enough to put together a performance like this after missing 18 games because of two separate bone bruises on his left knee last season. His latest knee injury only kept him out one game, and he was as dominant as ever in his return Wednesday.
And the Heat continues to be a better team with Whiteside on the court. Miami has outscored opponents by 20 points with the 7-footer playing this season. That’s a big improvement from last season, when the Heat was outscored by 79 points with its highest-paid player on the court. Whiteside is now averaging 14.2 points, 15.2 rebounds and 3.4 blocks in nine games this season.
These are all positives for Whiteside, who was a non-factor just a few months ago in the Heat’s first-round playoff series against the 76ers.
2. Just like that, the Heat’s defense is fixed. After allowing an average of 123.7 points on 51.9 percent shooting over a three-game stretch last week — all losses — Miami has turned in two consecutive quality defensive performances. The latest came Wednesday, when the Heat held the Spurs to a season-low 88 points on 33 percent shooting. The last time San Antonio shot 33 percent or worse in a game was on April 23, 2009, when it shot 32.1 percent in a loss to the Mavericks.
Whiteside’s elite rim protection played a big part in the Heat’s defensive success Wednesday (Spurs shot just 12 of 32 from within the paint), but so did Rodney McGruder’s individual defense on Spurs All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan. McGruder defended DeRozan for most of the game, helping to limit him to 18 points on 6 of 15 shooting. DeRozan entered averaging 27.3 points on 51.6 percent shooting this season.
Related stories from Miami Herald
The Heat’s defense has now allowed 101.5 points on 37.2 percent shooting over its current two-game winning streak. It looks like that three-game stretch full of defensive struggles was just a slump.
“It has to be that way for us. That’s the pathway for success for us,” Spoelstra said of winning with defense. “When we get a little bit confused about that, we pay the price. The last two games, everybody’s earned their ice and some of the games haven’t necessarily been pretty. What did we shoot? Less than 40 percent tonight. But the identity of defending, making tough plays, rebounding, that’s how this team can succeed.”
3. The Heat finally played Wayne Ellington for extended minutes, and he picked up right where he left off last season. Ellington started in place of the injured Goran Dragic (right knee), and he made a strong case for a consistent spot in Miami’s rotation. The sharpshooter finished with 20 points and shot 6 of 10 from three-point range in 37 minutes Wednesday, helping to make up for the absences of Dwyane Wade (personal reasons) and Dragic.
It’s been a strange start to the year for Ellington, who missed the entire preseason and the first four games of the regular season with left ankle soreness. Then Ellington was a DNP-coach’s decision for three consecutive games before finally making his season debut in Saturday’s loss to the Hawks. Entering Wednesday’s game, he had logged just 12 minutes of action in two games this season.
But Ellington’s performance against the Spurs is a reminder of his unique skill set that was essential to the Heat’s success last season. He finished with the second-best plus-minus on the team (plus-127), while setting a career-high and team record with 227 made 3-pointers in 2017-18. There’s a reason Miami’s front office decided to go into the luxury tax to keep Ellington in free agency this past summer, and it’s not to keep him on the bench.
“I have great empathy for Wayne because he was really disappointed about being out early on,” Spoelstra said. “He put so much time into this summer and into his work. He’s an absolute pro, and then for him to not be able to have a training camp with the rest of the guys. And because we have a deep team, he had to wait. But he understands how long a season is and how to prepare regardless of what’s going on, and it was a matter of time before he was going to get his opportunity. And he was ready for it.
Miami Heat guard Josh Richardson battle for a lose ball against San Antonio Spurs forward Davis Bertans in the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game at AmericanAirlines Arena on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 in Miami.
DAVID SANTIAGO dsantiago@miamiherald.com
4. This was not a good night for Josh Richardson, but there was one positive takeaway. He kept shooting, even after missing 12 of his first 13 shots Wednesday. In the end, he finished with 14 points on 6 of 22 shooting.
“Stay aggressive and make plays, and how else can you affect the game,” Spoelstra said. “He was a little frustrated, he missed that one layup and stayed back in transition. It’s those plays after that, after things aren’t going your way. He made some plays after that and got himself going with some defensive plays, and then went from there.”
That’s the mentality Richardson has to have if he’s going to be Miami’s offensive leader. He’s not going to be efficient every night, especially in his first season in this expanded role. But the Heat needs him to stay aggressive and keep looking for his shot, even when the shots aren’t going in because the law of averages says they will at some point. Richardson did that against the Spurs.
5. The Heat finally beat the Spurs. Wednesday’s win snapped Miami’s 11-game losing skid to San Antonio, a streak that began in Game 3 of the 2014 NBA Finals. The Heat’s last regular-season win over the Spurs was on Jan. 26, 2014. That means players like Justise Winslow, Tyler Johnson, Rodney McGruder, Bam Adebayo and Josh Richardson had never earned a win over San Antonio.
“We finally cracked the code,” Whiteside said with a smile. “I feel great. We finally got to beat [Spurs coach Gregg Popovich] at a game.”
Miami Herald Sports Pass
The Miami Herald is now offering a digital sports-only subscription for $30 per year. This is unlimited access to all Herald sports stories.
The Miami HEAT host the Indiana Pacers Friday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Get your tickets now! Tip-off is set for 8:00 PM, and television coverage is on ...
The cold reality of NBA travel arrived early this season for the Miami Heat.
What was expected to be a 90-minute short hop to Friday night's game against the Indiana Pacers instead turned into a winter wander land for Erik Spoelstra's team.
Opting to spend Wednesday night in New York after earlier defeating the Brooklyn Nets at the start of this two-game trip, the Heat arrived to Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday afternoon amid light flurries that quickly turned into a significant snowstorm.
Seven hours of waiting on the plane and two de-icing tours later, the team was off to Indianapolis, arriving at 10:30 p.m.
"It was long. The guys were able to catch up on some rest," said Spoelstra, who nonetheless had his team on the court at Bankers Life Fieldhouse for Friday's morning's shootaround. "Thankfully we had five-star food on the plane, a lot of good company. And we didn't get in too late. The most important thing is we were safe."
Spoelstra has decided during several trips that feature days off between games to stay over after games to ease his players' sleep patterns. The Heat initially were scheduled to practice in New York and then fly.
But Spoelstra said Thursday that daytime delays just as easily could have come after a post-game dash to the airport.
"That could have happened at any time," he said. "We've had times where we've had to stay the night, when we were at the airport and it was snowing too hard. That doesn't go into my consideration."
Guard Goran Dragic quipped that cross-Atlantic travel might have taken less time.
"You cannot control the weather. It's just a part of life," he said. "I was joking around, 'Man, I could already be in Slovenia."
Both Spoelstra and Dragic said the experience only heightened the reality that all Heat trips eventually end in South Florida.
"We say it all the time when we're crisscrossing the country during the winter, virtually everywhere we go it's 30 degrees and snowing," Spoelstra said. "And we have an unbelievable opportunity to fly back to one of the vacation destinations in the world. We should always feel grateful."
Dragic is, having called Houston, Phoenix and now Miami his NBA-playing homes.
"At the same time," he said, "I grew up in a city like Indianapolis, with the cold weather. So I'm used to it. But I definitely like the warm weather more."
Wayne's world
Spoelstra on Friday again praised guard Wayne Ellington for the work he does in getting open for 3-point shots.
"He's in such great condition that he'll run 10 routes and nine of 'em will be all fake," Spoelstra said. "But he'll do it just to put stress on the defense and see if they make a mistake. And when they make a mistake, he makes you pay for it."
Spoelstra said the movement and 3-point success go hand in hand.
"When he's on the move, reading defenses, coming off screens, in any fashion, handoffs of doubles or singles," Spoelstra said, "that's when he's at his truest form of who he is supposed to be."
Jones back
Derrick Jones Jr. was back with the team Friday after missing Wednesday's victory in Brooklyn with a stomach flu . . .
The perfect 6-0 start by the Heat's G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, came to an end Thursday with a road loss to the Oklahoma City Blue, who improved to 5-0. DeAndre Liggins scored 25 for the Skyforce, including seven 3-pointers, while Heat two-way forward Yante Maten added 20 points.
