Practically 48 hours after the Miami Heat’s frontcourt made history in their 124-98 win over the Brooklyn Nets, they made more history in their second of two-straight against Brooklyn.
However, this time, it was a one-man show. A one-man wrecking crew, rather.
Heat second-year big Kel’el Ware had his most impactful two-way performance of his career. He scored 16 points and 11 rebounds on 7-of-9 shooting.
That’s not the catch, though.
How Kel’el Ware made history (again) in win over Nets:
Kel’el Ware must love playing the Nets.
In addition to his 16-point, 11-rebound stat line across 32 minutes, Ware totaled five steals for the second-straight game while also rejecting a career-high SEVEN shots in the team’s 126-110 win.
Ware is the first player in Miami Heat history — and the 20th player in NBA History — to record at least 15 points, 10 rebounds, five steals and five blocks in a single game. However, he is the first player in league history to record that feat off the bench.
The last time that a single player tallied at least five blocks and steals in a single game was Victor Wembanyama, who had 25-9-7-5-5 in a game against the Utah Jazz in October of 2024.
The 7-footer became the first Heat player to ever record that feat. He joins Wembanyama and five other centers to tally five steals in consecutive games while also becoming the seventh Heat player to do so.
No Heat player has ever done it three straight games.
- Tim Hardaway, March 3-5, 1996 — 2 games
- Eddie Jones, Nov. 24-25, 2000 — 2 games
- Eddie Jones, Dec. 14-16, 2002 — 2 games
- LeBron James, Feb. 23-March 1, 2012 — 2 games
- Dwyane Wade, March 10-12 — 2 games
- Josh Richardson, April 8-10 — 2 games
- Kel’el Ware, March 3-5 — 2 games
Funny how Ware’s stretch is exactly three decades after Tim Hardaway first did it.
Ware was as engaged on both ends in Thursday’s win as he has been in any single game all season. His defense — body positioning, hand activity, mobility — is oftentimes hit or miss, but it was a hit in all caps against Brooklyn.
He was deterring shots around the rim when he wasn’t swatting them away and helped ignite the team’s fastbreak with his activity. Should he play with this degree of motor each night, the ceiling is endless. That’s a big if, but let’s hope this game — as well as his recent efforts — are parlayed into a strong end to his second season, and perhaps more.
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As predicted, things are getting tight. Here’s where the teams with a little over 5 weeks to go.
At this point, it is anybody’s guess where the teams will end up at the end of the season. It will depend which teams get hot down the stretch.
Thanks for the standings update. Toronto is no lock for avoiding the play-in either anymore. But, I’m wondering , do we still have any weaker schedule advantage? The amount of tankers on each schedule, along with head to head meetings, will be a big determiner of where everyone shakes out.
The answer is- After I counted every winning team or play in contender as a contender (for example, I counted the Bucks as a tanker, even though they may not fully be):
Orlando plays 14 out of 21 contenders. Toronto plays 12 contenders. The Hawks play 12. The Sixers only play 12. The Hornets play 14 contenders. The Heat play 14.
So the Heat do not carry any schedule advantage anymore. All the schedules are pretty even. BTW, almost every team has a head to head meeting with every other team in the 5 seed to 10 seed rankings.. Those will be big games, starting tonight.
The Heat has the NBA’s 11th most difficult remaining schedule, highest among the six competing teams. Miami will need to get a playoff spot the old fashioned way; they’ll need to earn it.
A John Houseman Smith Barney reference? You are the man!! And we are old farts!
Earned it?
Wasn’t that something people does a century ago?
If you are positive, you really want something, the universe will surely take care of that, with a help of God, his Apostol’s, things delivered by purple unicorns.
You must be really old.