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Failure to cancel a reservation at least 10 minutes prior to schedule the part your main result in forfeiting travel funds. Welcome to 5 on the floor. A daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Selvander and Alex Toledo, plus others from the five reason sports network. I welcome in to 5 on the floor live on the five reasons YouTube channel email. So if you're listening to this on the podcast feed, here's today's floor plan. I got Greg Selvander. You can follow me at Greg Selvander. I got Alex Toledo. You can follow me at tropical blanket. You can follow me at Ethan, Jay Skolnick or at five reason sports. Miami Heat and a four-game losing streak. They win in Detroit. Wasn't as easy as maybe it should have been, especially in the first half. But they do pull away in the third quarter. They win 108 to 95, now 35 and 30 on the season. Detroit, which had been playing better, actually did one three of their last four. They're now 12 and 53 on the season. We'll tell you about our sponsors as we go forward here. As always on the YouTube channel, we will take your comments and put some of them up. We'd like you to be part of the show. We also welcome you to check out Playback with us during the game. For those of you who have not done that, it's at playback.tv/5RSN. We just had almost 100 folks on there with us for most of the game. Chillin' with those of us from five on the floor and the five reasons sports network. I'll start with this, guys, before we go forward and get to the gamer of the night and all that. You know, sometimes you just need a game like this. And, you know, the first half was not, I think, what you needed. We were wondering whether or not this was going to be another clutch game at the end. But there were enough guys who made plays in different pockets of the game. And so I'll get to some of the guys who are not gamer of the night, at least in my eyes, but were pretty damn close. Duncan Robinson did have four threes. He's now at 999 threes on his career, which is remarkable. We shouldn't look past that considering where he's come from, not just once in his career. But many times ended up with 16 points, also had some steals and five assists. Pretty good all-around game, terrorist here at 18 points, five rebounds, just want to assist. But didn't make some plays, getting to the basket tonight. Shot's still going in and out a lot. And Bam on a bio had 22 points, nine rebounds on 10 of 14 shooting. Let's go to the gamer of the night though, because I think we should credit somebody else who may. I think at times we haven't credited enough. And now on five on the floor, it's time for the gamer of the night. Sponsored by Rock Esports Center, the place to eat, drink, and play all day. Host your next birthday party with them, located at 15305 South Dixie Highway in Palmetto Bay. They've got a 5500 square foot state of the art center, equipped with all the high-end power, play all day passes, available for just 25 bucks. But if you mention five reasons, it's just $20. So mention five reasons or five RSN, you get to play all day for $20. And now the gamer of the night. This guy's been their most consistent player since the All-Star break. I just don't think there's any question at this point. You look at the way he's shot the ball from three. But to me, it's like the consistent energy and effort. Like you just, you know that when he comes in the game, it's going to spike. Like he just, he changes the way that they play tonight. Kayla Martin, eight of 14 from the floor, 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists. He's done this against the bad teams. He's done this against the good teams. And I don't really know where they would be without him. In the second half of the season, I haven't mentioned Jimmy Butler yet. I expected Jimmy to have a huge game tonight because he's played better against bad teams. The good teams, he came out kind of very aggressive and then not much the rest of the night. He ended up with 14 points, four rebounds, three assists. I thought he was coasting a lot. Kayla doesn't coast, Greg. And I think at this point, we'll talk about the future when it comes and what they're going to do with his contract and all the rest of this. But they had a decision to make, the trade deadline. They could have punted on him. And they didn't. And I think that if you look at all the transactions they've made, whether it's bringing Delaun Wright, who's not really playing right now, bringing Patty Mills, who's playing a lot, or two or zero, the trade for two or zero. Honestly, not training Kayla Martin to me is the single biggest move that they made at the deadline. It's damn close if Terry's not first, but to your point, he's been the linchpin off the bench for them. Like, I think he's found a perfect role and that was something that I think he was maybe searching for initially is like, where's my spot with this team? And he's found it. And so that's really good heading into the stretch run. I've loved what I've seen from him defensively at two steals tonight to go along with the stats you referenced earlier. So to me, yes, he's been awesome. He's a player that they're going to have a decision to make this off season, not for tonight's conversation at all. But you're going to need him down the stretch to play big, because I think he's also going to be leaned on to close. And so then you've got a situation where not only is he your likely or six man, if, you know, de facto six man, if Tyler's back or some dunking goes to the bench, one of those two you could count as well. But ultimately, he's giving them a spark game over game. He comes in and the disposition of the team changes. And they need that right now. So they need to build upon this. This is the Detroit pit, the Detroit Pistons. So let's remember that. But you know what? Sometimes you got to stack victories against the teams you're supposed to be. And Caleb helped lead them to do that. I mean, can you imagine how miserable it would have been if they were stuck in Detroit until Sunday at three o'clock coming off a loss? I mean, at least now things can settle a little bit. They can figure out what the rotation is going to be and how they close this thing out. A couple of things come in from the comments here. One is our guy, Donut Dan, Caleb's games in March, 18, 15, 13, 7, 11, 9, and 18. And I saw another comment here from Jose. Caleb is the balance of the roster no matter who's on the court. That's the thing. He is the guy who can play with anybody. And Alice, let's pivot forward a little bit, not to the off season. But to Tyler's return at some point. And we don't know if Tyler's going to come back as a starter. I think it's looking less likely by the day. I wouldn't necessarily bet against it. But I don't know if it's better than 50% at this point. But let's say that Tyler comes back off the bench. Caleb has kind of asserted himself off the sixth man. Hack has didn't do a lot tonight. Does anything change for Caleb with Tyler back? I mean, yeah, naturally, a little bit less responsibility and less shots. I think it's a natural thing for, if he does, if he were to play off the bench alongside Tyler, I think that would definitely happen. But I don't really think of Caleb as a sixth man even with as well as he's been playing. I think he is just a solid staple in their rotation. And I don't think they need him to be like a double digit scorer every night. But it is absolutely helpful. And I'm reminded of, I want to say like a couple of weeks ago, whenever it was that Spill said, you know, he was asked about Caleb ramping up. And he flat out said, like, oh, he's healthy now, right? And that's not verbatim. I don't remember the exact quote, but he was just saying, like, oh, you know, he kind of deferred that. And that Caleb wasn't healthy to start the year. And I think it's kind of obvious when you watch and play, like he just looks so much more aggressive trying to get to the rim. And it looks very confident out there. Like we know what he can do. We know the types of ways that he can get to the basket and finish, you know, off the second side. I don't think of him as somebody who was creating those shots on his own. And that's fine. And that's why he's so good at his role. Like he got runner up for conference finals MVP playing that role. It wasn't because they started using him as like a star player as like a hub of their offense. He just does a he stars in his role. And like I said, almost got conference finals MVP, you know, runner. As the runner up because of that role. So I think Tyler coming back definitely affects things. But Caleb just being healthy and playing his game is ultimately a positive. I don't think he's going to go away with Tyler being back in. It's just maybe not quite as many of these bigger scoring games for him. But to your point, like for the past three weeks or so, he's averaging 13 points, five rebounds. And you know, I'm not usually one to go to just straight points for games or rebounds for game. But you know, when for Caleb, it's significant because I think he was really up and down to start the season. And then the other side of the ball, man, I think he's been fantastic on defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's that's why it really does feel like he's just, you know, he's healthy again. And because you're seeing it on both sides of the floor, like he's aggressive, you know, getting to his game on offense, but on the defensive and he is howling dudes, you know, whether in the zone, you know, whether he's pressing 94 feet, the times he has, or like just in general, I think he's done a pretty damn good job getting back to level that we expected him. And that's definitely a big improvement for the heat. Well, I think that's had an impact in a couple of ways. I think his improvement defensively has put into the high Smith minutes. I think that's one reason we're not seeing, hey, what is much because Caleb's handling a lot of those responsibilities. And I also think it's affected Hawke as a little bit on the offensive end because Caleb's getting a lot of those cuts. Caleb is doing a lot of those kinds of things. And again, it's fine as long as somebody's doing it. And when we talk about Caleb getting healthy, the conversations I've had with him about it, it's really the physical health that has led to his kind of mental and emotional health, where I think what was really happening early in the season, it wasn't so much that he was so physically limited, it's that he was physically limited enough that he couldn't do some of the things he did before. And I think that's where the hitch came into the shot and some of the lack of confidence and him not playing free. He needs to play free. Like they're just certain guys that just need to be unencumbered and he has been so. And again, you look at his path, it wasn't the easiest path. And now he kind of found the perfect role last year. And then this year was like, okay, they're going to bring him off the bench, but then they kind of needed him to start. And I do think him coming off the bench and kind of knowing, all right, because he told me before he was flying coming off the bench, he just wants to close. So it allows him to kind of see what they need. In that game. And then he's providing, and Jason is right. Nobody in the roster replicates what he does. And it is going to set up this really interesting conversation in the off season. All right, let's get to the two stars tonight and evaluate them. It was another night where BAM was better than Jimmy, right? I mean, are we in agreement on that? So that's for sure. I mean, BAM had the three, BAM had a lot of activity. Gamer in the next box, right. I mean, he was my second choice. So let's start with the more, I mean, I don't want to say negative, but there was not a Jimmy breakout game tonight. It looked early like there might be, and then there wasn't. Why, Greg, what do you think's going on there? I can't call it. I don't know other than, you know, other guys got opportunities, and they got the victory. So I don't think it's a night to poke holes in Jimmy's game too much. But it is weird when you see him drop 26 last time against Detroit, and we didn't necessarily see that same command of the offense. So, you know, we'll continue to watch. They needed this game no matter how the hell they could get it. So I'm tonight going to try to not hyper-focus in on Jimmy's game too much other than to say. I still think he could be more aggressive just all around. It was aggressive early, though, Alex. Man, seven shot attempts in the first quarter, right? Yeah, I mean, it was fantastic in the first quarter. I thought it was going to be one of those games where, you know, he just got cooking early on. He seemed really adamant to kind of throw himself in there. Maybe he felt a little bit free since he's finally playing a team that wasn't pressuring the hell out of the paint. Like, I feel like even the wizards were doing that to a certain extent the other night. And honestly, it was good to see him do that. But then, like you said, it just kind of faded away. And, you know, sometimes I don't mind that from Jimmy. We know that he's going to do that stuff during the regular season. Like, he's not going to give you four straight quarters of, you know, bullying to the rim and really trying to be the number one. We know he's not going to do that in the regular season, especially not versus the Detroit Pistons, right? Like, but I'm just glad that he was able to, you know, do that in the first. And I think he probably would have had to turn it up a little bit. If it, you know, if the game kept going at that rate that it was going, I want to say it laid in the third when the Pistons that kind of brought it back. And if it ended up being a clutch game, I believe that Jimmy would have, you know, thrown himself back into the mix a little bit. But it just didn't, like, they beat the brace off of them in the fourth quarter. And then it was just kind of not necessary. But, you know, I think he was okay. He didn't have a great game or anything. It was just good to see Jimmy and Bam, you know, not have, you know, bad games consecutively. And simultaneously, because I feel like they were both okay last game, you know, okay or a better last game. And then kind of the same, this game. So just breaking that little slump that they've had as of late is good enough for me. Any comments here about how he struggles with size? I did think Isaiah Stewart gave him some problems tonight again. It's not always just length. Sometimes it's bulk. He did the other night, too, when they played at home. He did. I said there are certain players. There seems to be a consistent thing with that. And look, if Jimmy recognizes it and realizes he, okay, I don't have it going against this guy tonight. I'm okay with him aggressively setting up others. And by that, I mean, like being part of the play, but making the game easier on others. What I don't like is when he recedes completely. I thought he was more active defensively tonight, that he's been in some of those games where he wasn't offensively. You know, he missed another free throw tonight. I said tonight, he's going to end up missing out on 50-40-90, because he's missing free throws lately. Even though he was under 50 percent tonight, he was 5-11 overall. But it looks like he's probably going to get that. I thought BAM's game was encouraging tonight. And they got a good young big on the other side, who gave him some problems, had a bunch of rebounds against him. But there was a stretch. There were takeover stretches from him. The free throw shooting has got to get fixed, though. I don't know what's going on there. It's gone to the point where it's in his head. I was listening to Eric and Kratty. They talked about it tonight. So it is seeped into their consciousness. And they mentioned him being under 50 percent in his almost last 30 attempts. I don't know, is the form look different? Because we keep talking about they got to get to the line more often, and neither of them making their free throws the way that they have in the past. Yeah, it's a tough situation for them, because they're two top guys are both missing bunnies and missing free throws on certain situations, at least the team's missing bunnies. But BAM specifically, I thought he was more encouraging tonight, that he had those stretches that were good. But ultimately, the free throw shooting is the last part of the cleanup. And when we talk about BAM getting back to his game completely, because it seems like he is kind of turning a corner and improving and getting out of the funk that he was in. It's just now the final step to that is cleaning up the free throw shooting. And so you have these games against Detroit. I think this is great competition for him. You have a young big who is on a similar trajectory as BAM was at that same age. And so that's an interesting matchup for him. And so he needs to take pride in that. Come out in the next one, have another good game. And then you're continuing to see him kind of get out of the funk that maybe the free throw shooting will be the last thing to leave. Well, look, obviously in Philly, you're not going to see him beat. But in Cleveland, you will see Jared Allen. And that's a guy that I want to see BAM go up against. And he's had some pretty good games against him in the past. But we got to mention it, let's go to the play of the night, because obviously he features into this one. And now it's time for the insurance by Lynette Play of the Night. Sponsored by insurance by Lynette.com and a aggressive insurance agency. You can reach out to our friend Lynette at 954-581-8800. That's 954-581-8800 or insurance by Lynette.com. That's insurance by Lynette.com with two N's and two T's. Your best play for auto insurance, homeowners insurance, condo insurance, life insurance, or retirement program. Reach out to Lynette@insurance by Lynette.com. First time in his career, first time in his career, BAM made threes in consecutive games. Let's go. It's a streak. It's a trend. It's not necessarily what I wanted to see. I'll say that. Like I keep talking about, I want to see the stuff towards the basket. I want to see the stuff towards the basket. But then again, I was the idiot who said that Chris Bosh shouldn't shoot threes and Koot Morehead and I used to argue about it all the time on press row. And then Chris Bosh became an elite three-point shooter for the Heat during their run. So it's not that I don't think BAM can do it. I've seen him do it. In practice, I just don't. To me, that's not the focus for what this team needs. But it's good to see him step into it. Like, you know, when it goes, it's kind of like, because I feel like it's not just in progress. It's that mentally, I feel like he's happier when he does it. Like, it's like even in the All-Star game, right? It's like, I could do this, okay? And the whole thing of the All-Star game, though, someone should tell Spo because we talk about his mindset all the time. We talk about his emotional state, you know, where it matters with him, like it does. And so if this is something, making a three every other game or whatever is going to make him happy and keep him focused on the other stuff, I guess I'm okay with it. And it's always from the same spot it seems like right there at the top of the key, it even was at the All-Star game. And so I don't know. I think just look out for that shot as teams sag off of him in the playoffs and they're dropping back, dropping back, dropping back, keeping him honest. I wouldn't be surprised if you see him tee one of those upcoming playoff time. Well, that's the shot that Spo said two years ago that he was comfortable with band taking, the above the break three. That's the one that he wants him taking. I want him developing some post moves. Like maybe that's maybe I'm old school on that. I think if you ask Pat, honestly, what he would prefer, it would be the latter. But again, if he's going to make an occasional three, it's fine. All right, Alice, I'm going to let you pivot here to somebody else tonight because I mentioned him at the top of the show. Duncan's the one who actually broke this game open. Yeah, he had a great game and it was it was sorely needed because that first quarter, or no, actually the first half really where I think they ended up with was three of fourteen from three at the half. And they didn't finish the game shooting great from three either. But Duncan was the reason that they were able to, you know, I think kind of get some momentum that eventually turned into building a lead and then building a bigger lead and all of that because it was getting kind of ugly and in the mud there. It was three three pointers made as a team in the first half. And I believe Simone from tequille had three on his own in the first half, which by the way, that guy is just something else. Italian Duncan, he's going to be on the heat in a couple in a few years, right? I mean, he is. He's going to be one of those guys they cycle back to because he kicked their ass. Yep. And I said it on playback to Italian Duncan and that comment. And it's just like, it totally feels like somebody they cycle back to, not only because he kicks their ass, but it's like, he kind of fits that exact role that they have done playing it, not saying to, you know, to replace Duncan, nothing like that. But like, I could totally see him playing that role in the future at some point. It's like, yeah, this guy can do that, right? And he's like six, nine, you know, not like skinny or anything, doesn't stand out too much on the I could totally see best besides the point. He was like the one guy who really killed him tonight. And I thought Jinder and had a really good game as well. The Heat's defense was solid. They did a good job. I think keeping Kate, keeping Kate and Ivy away from the rim and not getting easy stuff. They both kind of struggled a little bit there. And on the offensive side, Duncan was just huge, man. He was really gunning for that 1000 three pointer made for his career. And he didn't get it. He was really taking some undunking like shots towards the end of that game since it was a blowout and wasn't able to get it. Unfortunately, but you know, he were able to outscore the Pistons by 11 in the third. And I think all of that was possible because of Duncan kind of opening things up for everybody else because he really got that offense going, man. Other than Bam, it was, I think, I mean, Jimmy had a nice first quarter, right? But I think Duncan was the biggest reason things started to kind of flow. And then, you know, you look at it now, Bam had a good game. Duncan had a good game. Terry didn't shoot well, but got to the free throw line at 11 times, which really helped make up for again another trend that I didn't mention before when I was talking about Jimmy, you know, five free throw attempts for him tonight. So shout out to Terry for, you know, making up for that. Shout out to Duncan for all the shot creation. He just brings on a night to night basis. Caleb stepping up. I mean, Jaime, I thought like, didn't have a great game or anything, but five rebounds for us is one steal. Like he's active and making stuff happen. And I think this is the type of team effort you need, right? Like just a lot of guys touching the ball, a lot of guys making their impact, especially when, you know, game in the game, you might not, you're not getting the best of Jimmy Butler. So, you know, got to give credit to Duncan for, I think, making all of those possible. Yeah, I would expect it, Duncan, just going to try to get that thousand pretty early in this next game. If there's anywhere that he would want to get this done, other than Miami, it probably is Detroit. After all, he did go to Michigan. I would think, you know, either that or in Boston, obviously, because of the Northeast eyes. But, you know, to get it done in Michigan, I think would be significant for him. And it's incredible. I mean, when I talked to him about it, and this was on the podcast, I think maybe we should rerun that podcast after he gets the thousandth. But he talked about it. There was no way he was going to pass stuff for a thousand. But I mean, if you look at the paths of him versus the others who are up in this stratosphere, I mean, it couldn't be more different. And, you know, again, you're talking about a guy who, A, wasn't supposed to be in the league to begin with. Well, first, he wasn't supposed to be in a major university to begin with. I had to go from Williams, obviously, to Michigan. Wasn't drafted, has to fight his way into the heat. And then after he establishes himself, has pushed back to the side. And now he's re-emerged as a different player with the thousand threes. It's a great story. All right. Let's close with this. And this will be more interesting than usual, because I know everybody wants to talk about this. Let's get to the injury report. And now it's time for the official five on the floor injury report sponsored by our friend, Eric Rubenstein, the personal injury attorney, born and raised in Lauderdale, Florida, lives in Miami, went to St. Thomas. He's a South Florida guy and a huge Miami heat fan. But the important thing is he can help you get your money that you deserve when something happens to you. So reach out to our guy, Eric Rubenstein, again, Eric Rubenstein.com or ask about me. I got you on Instagram. And now the injury report. All right. So there's a lot of stuff out there right now about Tyler one way or the other when he's going to be back. I obviously, I saw this in the comments and people have mentioned it that that someone who tends to be talking a lot lately, who's tied to Jimmy Butler said something I saw it today also about have maybe back a week before the end of the regular season. The reality is, I don't think anybody knows. I'm going to start with that. I was you know, I was talking to the beat guys before about this. They, the guys who would know the most, okay, they don't know. I think we were all kind of, okay, you know, I thought Kevin was going to make this trip, honestly. So, you know, and he hasn't. The only thing I was told was just because they didn't make the front end of the trip doesn't mean they couldn't join the team in Philadelphia or Cleveland. And obviously with Kevin's ties to Cleveland and the fact that he missed, he's missed a couple of games up there since he's left. It wouldn't stun me if he joined them up there. But I know more of the focus is on Tyler here. All I'm saying is time is running out. I just, I just, I'm just going to keep saying that time is running out on them to integrate him in the starting lineup. And I have repeatedly said when he comes back, he's a starter. But that's before this latest injury, before this latest injury has taken longer than I've, we believed it would at the very beginning. And we were talking about this on playback today. And I'll just, I'll let you close the loop on this, Greg. And then we'll, we'll do more tomorrow. And on Sunday, I don't really think the issue with Tyler is as much the number of injuries he has. It's the amount of time it takes to come back from them. And it just, I mean, you're looking at a season where he's going to end up playing 45 games. I mean, that's kind of where we're at. And Jimmy, who we, who we have dogged for not playing enough games, even in the lockout shortened season got to 50. I mean, even in his lowest, or the excuse me, the COVID shortened season, not the lockout shortened season, sorry. So to me, it's a situation where they need him back ASAP, or else you got to go into the playoffs feeling like you can't rely upon him to be a key cog. Like, that's, you got to make alternate plans. And then he's incremental to the total. Once you get there, because you're getting too close to, to game time, to be making lineup swaps and stuff like that, you got to go with the lineup and run with it. So they're running out of time there. And I remember Pat Riley back after Jimmy missed three against Boston, he brought up soft tissue injuries and he kind of alluded to pain tolerance. And I just wonder if that's going to end up being a conversation where they wonder, you know, is this Tyler hero not wanting to get back on the court until he's absolutely 1 million percent ready from a pain perspective. And look, this is all about the playoffs for him. It was last year, he knew it. And so I understand if there's been a pivot now to saying, make sure he's 100% by the playoffs, because that's what matters. But let's say that he doesn't come back until five or six games. Let's say it's the last week of the season, like someone speculated today, and then he comes back and then they're out of rhythm. Okay, that's no better than him being hurt for the playoffs. In fact, in some ways, it's worse. I'm at the point now where if he's not back right after this road trip, Duncan Robinson, you're starting to start the playoffs, no matter who they face, I just, I just don't think you can make the change. And then the question becomes, is Yovitch, you know, firmly in that starting lineup? And I feel like, I suppose going to lean that way. But what we've talked about tonight with Caleb is Caleb is the Swiss army. Caleb is the one who's going to have to try to, he's going to be plugged into fix, whatever it is. Okay. So if it's not working with you all, which is starting a lot, you throw Caleb out there, if you need a little bit more offensive production, even in the back court, I can see you putting him out there with rosier. Okay, if that was required, it's going to be, Caleb has proven you can rely on him. And that's reliability, availability is an ability. And we started a show with Caleb, we'll close the show with Caleb. We're going to have conversations this off season. And I think they're going to look very seriously at resigning Caleb Martin, because they know that ultimately, yes, I know the beginning of the season was choppy and he was hurt and all the rest of it then, but he ramped up and he got himself in a position to be a factor this year on a consistent basis. And it's just not the case with 14 at this point. And that's going to be, it's going to be something to watch. So anyway, we'll let everybody enjoy their Friday night. We appreciate you guys hanging with us on playback, on here. We will do a podcast at some point on Saturday and then also Sunday at three o'clock. Have a great weekend, everybody. Thank you for listening to the five on the floor on the fibers and sports network. After all, someone needs to listen to my dad. [BLANK_AUDIO]
