Miami Heat Open Summer League With Win | Jakučionis Quiet In Debut | Larsson & Kel’el Ware Flourish

Miami Heat Open Summer League With Win | Jakučionis Quiet In Debut | Larsson & Kel’el Ware Flourish

Welcome on in guys. Tobin here with you and thanks for checking out the channel. The summer league opener is in the books and the champs picking up right where they left off. An 8269 win over the San Antonio Spurs today. I mean, let me tell you something. That was an ugly start to this game. Not just the fact that uh there wasn’t much scoring, but you had like a clock malfunction. I I mean, it must have taken it felt like a half hour. I think it the real time ended up being like 8 minutes long, but they couldn’t get the damn scoreboard fixed. And so the game just started off in its uh just a just a just a complete sputter, which was not great. Off the bat, let’s talk about Casper Yakonis. Pretty quiet debut for the Miami Heat. First round pick. Not a lot of highlights to bring home for uh KJ. Now we got two KJs on this team. You know, I I’m I’m calling him Ghost. Yeah, I can’t Kesha Johnson’s KJ and then, you know, Cass is going to be Cass and Ghost for me. But Yakonis, uh yeah, not a game you’re going to remember. This is not going to be one that’s exactly going to be uh recalled when they rise raise his jersey to the rafters 20 years from now. But that’s okay. Who gives a rat’s ass? It’s his first summer league game. There’s going to be some jitters. um he didn’t get the three ball going, but basically everybody who wasn’t Eric Stevenson did not hit a three today for Miami. Uh they shot 6 for 29 from downtown. Here was your offensive performance. 6 for 29 from downtown uh which is under 21% for the team. And uh from the field today, 36.6%. But Casper Yakonis um yeah, not a lot of pizzazz on it. I’d say probably his best. He was found on a nice cut from Pella Lararsson that he couldn’t finish. Then Vlad Golden ended up finishing on a dunk. He ended up getting a little bit of a leak out fast break bucket to get on the board for his first field goal. Uh and he got one free throw today. So there was that. He had three turnovers. A little Helter Skelter with the ball. I would say the best thing honestly that Casper Yakon has brought today and I think the Heat are actually going to fall in love with this. um he had three plays today where he got extra possessions for Miami and that was actually something that really stood out today. You have two teams here, Heat Spurs. Two teams known for their culture. And I think that the Heat probably had to be proud of of a lot of guys all over the place. Sean Fowls, particularly the guy who really set the tone for Miami, and that’s who we’ll get to here in just a second, and that was their second round pick from last year, Pella Larson, who was absolutely fantastic today in just intensity, uh, demeanor, bringing everything to the game. But Yakonis had three plays on a tussle on the loose uh loose ball on the floor that ended up being ending up being Miami’s ball. Right out of halftime, he gets a deflection that gets Miami back the basketball. And then towards the end, I think when Kell was taking his final free throw, he ends up saving that, throwing that off of Spurs. So, you know, one of the things we heard from Brad Underwood, if you guys listen on the radio show this week, his college coach says just a very high IQ player. This is a guy who’s very very aware and sees things and so that awareness very much there. Um not even a game where I would say he had the ball in his hands a ton. I think that that that Pella really dominated that front today for Miami and deserved. I mean Pella Larson is, you know, probably the veteran of this team and uh you could see that he kind of walked around that game with a swagger to him. Um and also did a great job on the intangibles. Pella Larson, I think he had two charges drawn today and probably should have had two more. He was flying all over the place. I mean, he really was. And and I think from my standpoint set the set the tone for this game, driving downhill, um just really setting the tone there. He got to the free throw line a bunch today. 10 of 11 from the free throw line for Pella Larson today for old Swedish swish. um finished off with 18 points, three rebounds, and you know, just in a game that had a I mean, I I read you the the overall percentages, but just especially early on, like things definitely settled down there in the second in the second half of this game, but in the first half, it was a it was a rough rough wash for everybody who uh parttook in this one. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, San Antonio didn’t crack 20 in the first. You had 12 to 13. They out they outscored Miami 13-12 in the first quarter. They scored 16. Actually, they didn’t crack 20 in three of the quarters today, San Antonio. So, they had an even rougher game offensively. I mean, hell, they had 69 points. Um, but Miami did really start to uh to settle in and and I think that was kind of uh you know, that’s probably the the word that goes more more to it. But in that second half, um, you know, I would actually say like probably like Kyra Lewis Jr., you know, looked at pretty pretty strong going to the basket at this former first round pick of the New Orleans Pelicans. Had a knee injury. Kind of derailed his career a little bit. So, he’s almost in that Josh Christopher role this year of like, hey, can he find something with Miami? Maybe he gets a two-way contract. I don’t know. But, he had a nice good game. And I would say he probably had the play of the first half where he gets a steal and then just sets up Keshaw Johnson for an absolute hammer to uh to put Miami up 30 to 25. So that was uh that was I would say probably the uh the most impressive play. Pella, he closed the first half with 11 points. Um looking really really strong. I mentioned the Casperis uh the Casperis uh play out of halftime. So he had that going for him. Um Kel Wear kind of a slow start. I mean I think that was the the thing that was interesting. You know if you guys heard yesterday he he gave some quotes to the reporters there or Eric Glass who by the way his hair is pristine. That thing is that is that is a that is a good looking head of hair on the top of the Heat uh summer league head coach who by the way I think he had like three drops out of bounds to set up Miami for buckets. So shout out to Eric Glass. He was uh he was doing his thing if uh if he was uh you know he was doing his thing. He was getting his spo on with with some of those drops out of the huddle. But uh yeah, Kell in the third quarter had a really sick turnaround, bucket and foul. Definitely his prettiest move of the game after getting off to a slow start. Again, as I mentioned, nobody really had their three-point shot. So, if you look at if you look at Kell’s numbers, you’re going to look at that that field goal and you’re like, um, and I would say that for for Kell, it was probably was until we got to the fourth quarter because I think that he and Keshan Johnson like really put the hammer down on this game defensively. And I don’t know if that was just uh you know he is a look when you’re playing in in the NBA and you got to go to these summer league games. Would you like to see him dominate quarter to quarter wire to wire? Certainly. But I will say it definitely felt like when he got him for his last stint there in the fourth quarter that intensity went up for Kell wear and he looked very very impressive. But overall today, you’d look at his five for 14, finishing with 14 points, you be like, but he did go 0 for four from downtown. So, he got up a good amount of shots from downtown. Nothing really going for him. He did get to the line a handful of times. Um, but for me, it was the uh the three blocks, two steals, and especially there in that fourth quarter, really just cranking up that intensity. And I just thought that he looked uh he looked real strong. KJ2, Keshot Johnson, uh, just kind of all over the place. I would say up until the, uh, the steal that Kyle Lewis had that led to the hammer dunk. My favorite play of the game. Keshaw Johnson had a block. I mean, I’m sorry, excuse me. My favorite part of the game was KL Wear had himself a block. Spurs keep it, keep possession, and then Keshad blocks a three, loose ball. I think Warren ended up with it. Um Bryson Warren ended up with it and he set up Keshaw Johnson for a a fast break bucket and that put Miami up double digits and that felt like the you know pretty much the hammer of the game. Miami got a little queue. Pella Larson was trying stuff from Stephan that wasn’t that wasn’t going. But then Kell gets another block and then Kell his probably most individual effort of play of the game where he gets a steal that leads to a bucket. Miami’s up 15 and that was uh pretty much all she wrote. He uh he he looked pretty fantastic to end that fourth quarter. I thought really changed the perception of his performance. And I get it. It’s summer league. You guys are sitting here saying, Tobin, that was way too much breakdown of summer league. I love it. I miss this basketball team so much. Mind you guys, we’ve been bounced from the first round in four games. It was a long time since we’ve seen anybody with Heat jerseys actually do basketball stuff. No rumors, no fodder, no talking about trading max players. Will we do a video about it? Probably. But um not that I agree with it, but this one today uh I thought that yeah, the the the the story of today, Casper Jaconis didn’t look fantastic. Didn’t look bad. Had some good effort plays, but nothing that really popped for the kid. Kell, Pella Larson, your your draft class from last year. Pella set the tone of this game. He got everybody settled down. he would I would say was player of the game. Khal Wear looked fantastic. And then Kesha Johnson who some are questioning some of the game I just thought he was relentless. Nine points, nine rebounds, four blocks today for uh for for KJ. And um you know just kind of brought that relentless strength and I like the fact that his impact was defensively cuz honestly I think that that is how he’s going to make his way in the rotation. He’s going to have to be an absolute hound dog defensively if he is going to be Do people like hound dogs? They’re kind of like droopy. Do junkyard dog. I just junkyard dog. It makes me a little sad. I think about Duncan and you know like everybody uses I feel like DaVon is bulldog and bulldogs are typically smaller. He’s a moose. Hound dogs though like like you think about like the droopy. You want to know something? He’s just a dog. That’s what he is. That’s what that’s what Keshot Johnson is and I enjoy watching him. As far as like the supporting role characters, Eric Stevenson today, he came out, he lit it up. He was the only guy who could hit a three ball today. He was four for four from downtown. Um I was just looking at uh yeah, nobody nobody from the Spurs hit more than one today. Those are some rough looking numbers. Um Vladislav Golden. Vlad Golden. Yeah, Vlad Golden had some moments today. Um he had some moments today. He had some good follow-ups, some good rebounds. He actually had his his best play probably his pretti fakes a a dribble hand up, which he was, by the way, really good at. He opened up some shooters on that as well. So, um I thought that was kind of an encouraging thing if he does end up finding his way getting any minutes this year. Seems like a a pretty shooter friendly center. Um, but he had a nice fake of one that led to a a pretty bucket where he like he has the little pump fake there off to the uh to the side on the baseline. So, that was uh that was his most impressive action from today. But certainly I thought of of like the guys you don’t know that well, you know, him and Stevenson probably had the best games. Ky Lewis, I mentioned he had some moments today. Javvante Cook first half uh shined a couple of times, but overall I think today was, you know, mostly about the players you you most know between Yakonis’s uh slow, not a great debut to write home about and then also the sophomores all really coming through and they they kind of kicked ass. I mean, Pella looked great setting the tone. Keshaw Johnson uh and and Kel Wear felt like they really shut the hammer down. Put the hammer down. shut the door, put the hammer down. It’s summer league for analogies, too. Uh came in there and it felt like they, you know, really wanted to they they took it home there in the fourth quarter as we’re trying to take it home on this recap, everybody. So, it’d be curious to see they got a backto-back. They play the Lakers tomorrow. We’ll be curious to see what coach Glass does with some of those sophomore minutes because all those guys played a pretty good chunk today. Um, there was a guy today, let me see, there wasn’t there a guy on the Spurs that had nine fouls. Osai Usifo, he had nine personal fouls today. Anybody on the Heat get those numbers? No. Eric Stevenson had five, buddy of four threes, so there was good there. All in all, uh, liked the game, especially after we got out of that dog bleep first quarter. Settled in. Good to have the summer league team back and uh good to start recapping these things

Tobin recaps the Miami Heat Summer League win over the Spurs. Kasparas Jakučionis had a quiet debut. Kel’el Ware, Pelle Larsson and Keshad Johnson balled out to start off the California Classic.
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