The first game-winner of the NBA season belongs to the Miami Heat and Kelly Olynyk. One night after falling short in Orlando, the Heat found themselves in yet another close contest with a chance to win at the end, but this time, it was in Washington. The Wizards led Miami by one point with a little more than 30 seconds left in the game and had a chance to extend their lead, but Miami forced a missed shot and had the ball to win the game in the final moments.
In Orlando, Miami had opted to go with Josh Richardson in the closing moments, but he couldn’t get a good shot off. This time, the Heat went with franchise legend Dwyane Wade in the second stop on his retirement tour. He posted up his man, turned around, fired … and missed completely, only to have Olynyk steal the spotlight with a putback layup.
https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/1053118866178691073
It doesn’t have to always be pretty as long as the bucket counts. Olynyk somehow snuck behind all the Wizards on the way to these two points to win the game. It has to be a tough pill to swallow for the Wizards to get out-hustled by a team that was on a back-to-back this early in the season, but in Washington’s defense, it was missing big man Dwight Howard due to a butt injury. The Wizards are forever entertaining if nothing else.
Olynyk’s putback was the Heat’s 22 offensive rebound of the night. They had 55 rebounds for the night in total. Howard has yet to play a game in Washington, but the Wizards could really use his rebounding this season. Until he returns, though, Washington might want to work on boxing out.
