The Miami Heat need Goran Dragic to bounce back in Game 5
With a 7-1 record in the NBA playoffs thus far, it’s pretty clear that the Miami Heat has been one of the biggest surprises in the Eastern Conference. Building a 3-0 series lead on the prohibitive favorites to win the East, Milwaukee Bucks, isn’t a small accomplishment.
However, after a huge Game 4 victory in which the Bucks managed to stave off elimination, you can’t help but feel a little concerned for an underdog Heat team that seemed to struggle more with Giannis Antetokounmpo off the floor.
While Giannis’ Game 5 status is still very much up in the air, it’ll be important for the Heat to look more prepared than they did in Game 4 when Giannis didn’t return for the second half. Taking it a step further, there has to be one other area of concern from the Heat. That’s the status of Goran Dragic.
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More specifically, how he’ll feel after playing 40 minutes in Game 4. In an overtime effort, it’s no surprise that Erik Spoelstra stretched his starters a bit more Sunday night. The hope was that they could push their starters with hopes of closing out the Bucks, leaving the team roughly a week to rest and recover.
It simply didn’t play out that way as the Bucks prevailed in Game 4 and now Spoelstra and the Heat must go back to the drawing board for Game 5. Dragic, who has been a key cog to Miami’s explosive offense in the postseason, has shown signs of slowing down over the course of his last three games.
After a sensational Game 1 (after a week of rest after the Heat swept the Indiana Pacers) in which Dragic scored 27 points on 60 percent shooting from the field, he’s had a worse game in every game after.
In Game 2, Dragic was still effective. He scored 23 points on 44 percent shooting from the field. In Game 3, Dragic finished with just 15 points on 40 percent shooting from the field. Then, in Game 4, Dragic really struggled. He finished with 17 points on just 29 percent shooting from the field.
Over the course of his last three games against the Bucks, Dragic is shooting just 38 percent from the field. One potential explanation? The return of Eric Bledsoe.
Bledsoe missed Game 1 with a hamstring injury, but returned for Game 2 and has looked better in each game. In Game 4, he was extremely effective in defending both Dragic and Jimmy Butler late in the game.
Without much, if any, contributions from Kendrick Nunn, who is averaging just three points per game on 31 percent shooting from the field in 11 minutes per game, it has become imperative for Dragic to be extremely effective when he’s on the floor.
After an especially off Game 4 (5-17 shooting), it’s no coincidence that Miami’s offense often looked disjointed even after Giannis, the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year exited the game.
If Goran Dragic has a huge bounce-back performance in Game 5, that could very well coincide with a Miami Heat closeout punch. To a certain extent, esepcially with the lack of depth at the point guard position, the Heat are going to need a big Dragic performance to deliver the knockout punch to the Bucks.
Will that come in Game 5? If not, this series could get a little more interesting heading into a potential Game 6.