Miami Heat's Kelly Olynyk continues progression
Miami Heat center Kelly Olynyk can now be mentioned in the same sentence as legend Dwyane Wade.
Olynk scored all 20 of his points in the fourth quarter in Saturday's 125-105 victory against the Denver Nuggets in Orlando. Wade is the only other Heat player to accomplish the feat. He did it five times in his career, the last coming in 2009.
"He brings us a skill level at the center position that's unique to this league," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "His training camp has been very good. He's had a lot of moments like this where he's played some of the best basketball. On any given particular day, he's been one of the top three players."
Olynyk was 8 of 11 from the field, including four 3-pointers. He also had five rebounds and three assists. The difference for Olynyk of late has been health. He spent the first half of the season recovering from a knee injury he sustained playing for Canada in the FIBA World Cup. It wasn't until March when Olynyk regained form but his progress was interrupted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"You like to see guys that have really worked hard behind the scenes play well," Spoelstra said. "He's really put in the time. You could pull up a picture of what he looked like three, four years ago compared to what he looks like right now. It's remarkable the transformation of his body."
FACEBOOK: Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MiamiHeatSI
TWITTER: @ShandelRich
