While the Miami Heat did not capture a victory over the Sacramento Kings on Monday, there was one surprise standout off the bench: Second-round rookie Pelle Larsson.
Larsson played 25 minutes in place of Jaime Jaquez Jr., who missed Monday’s one-point loss with a stomach illness. He tallied a career-high 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting and 3-of-5 from 3-point range. He added two rebounds, two assists and one steal, though his impact outside of the boxscore again took reign.
Jimmy Butler was asked about Larsson’s impact after the game, and the Heat’s franchise player spoke very fondly of the 23-year-old rookie.
“He’s comfortable,” Butler said. “He shoots the ball when he’s open. He can put the ball on the floor, get to the basket, get fouled and he also makes the right play. The more repos he gets out there in the game, the more comfortable and the more confident he will become.
“He’s gonna be good. I know he’s on this roster for a reason and we just want him to keep doing what he’s doing.”
Larsson, drafted No. 44 by the Heat in the 2024 NBA Draft, has appeared in three of the team’s six games (45 minutes) thus far. He’s totaled 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting with four triples, adding three boards, four dimes and three steals.
I wrote about this before the draft, but Larsson was one of Arizona’s top glue guys; his raw numbers never told the full story, even though he was an incredibly gifted shooter with above-average athleticism. That showed itself Monday–he knows how to fill a role with the other four players on the floor, which is very important in this context where multiple players need the ball in their hands to be impactful.
Larsson doesn’t. He consistently took the challenge defensively, properly spaced the floor and cut to set up open shots while even draining a few of his own. This biggest challenge for him was finding minutes in the pecking order above, say, Jaquez, Duncan Robinson, Haywood Highsmith and Alec Burks, among others.
Though over time, that will settle itself out. You don’t get called a plug-and-play player by Erik Spoelstra before you step foot on an NBA court for no reason. It’s going to be difficult to maintain a rotation spot moving forward, barring injury. But if Larsson continues to play like he did Monday, there’s a world where he’s eating at a few of the veteran’s minutes, and not the other way around.
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Game thread?
The bright spot of the game.