Victor Oladipo

Ira Winderman's perspectives and other items of note from the Miami Heat's Tuesday night NBA playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks.

Victor Oladipo, who spent the first three game of the series on the bench, was given a starting spot in absence of Jimmy Butler.

I could’ve stopped, or I could have ran right through it. “We all human, we all get to that point. “I’ve been fighting even before I was born.

An emotional Victor Oladipo spoke his heart out after his Game 5 heroics in the Heat's series-clinching win vs. the Hawks.

Right now, however, Oladipo has emerged as a key x-factor for Miami and he could just be the player that takes this team over the edge this season. "We all human, we all get to that point… Victor Oladipo was the unlikely hero for a shorthanded Miami Heat team on Tuesday night that had both Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler in street clothes as they looked to take out the Atlanta Hawks in Game 5 of this first-round series.

Victor Oladipo scored 23 points, Bam Adebayo added 20 points and 11 rebounds, and the Miami Heat moved into the Eastern Conference semifinals by beating the ...

The Heat had a 21-0 run in Game 3 at Atlanta, and the 17-0 run on Tuesday was the third-largest in team playoff history. Miami beat Atlanta in a series for the first time in three tries. Miami pushed the lead out to 67-52 on a score by Adebayo with 2:55 left in the third, and the lead was 75-64 going into the fourth. Hawks: Clint Capela, who missed the first three games of the series with a right knee injury, left in the third quarter of Game 5 because of continued knee issues. ... The Hawks went 2-7 against the Heat this season. The Heat swarmed Young from the start of Game 1 to the end of Game 5, holding Atlanta's high-octane scorer to a 15.4-point average in the series on 32% shooting. ... Martin left just before halftime with an injury around his left hand or wrist, but returned for the second half. “Those guys compete every second that they're out on the floor and I have a great deal of respect for how they play." That's how the final minutes went: Atlanta made a charge, Miami would hold it off, all the way to the end. The Heat already knew they’d be without Lowry, who missed his second consecutive game with a strained left hamstring. Hunter fouled out with 41.6 seconds left, Miami clinging to a three-point lead at the time. “They're a good defensive team," Young said.

With Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry sidelined with injuries, Victor Oladipo was inserted into the starting lineup and led the Miami Heat with 23 points in a ...

Leach commented on Gunn's defensive ability, moves off the dribble and high-flying dunks thanks to a newfound level of confidence.CLICK HERE This could lead to a potential matchup between two Hoosiers, Oladipo and OG Anunoby of the Raptors. Anunoby has had an impressive series so far, scoring 99 points across five game. Oladipo led the Heat with 23 points in this game, finishing 8-for-16 from the field and 3-for-6 from 3. "Around this time last year, I was sitting in a dark room by myself and just broke down," Oladipo said. This heady play by Oladipo, leading to a thunderous slam dunk by Adebayo, gave the Heat a four-point advantage and a lead they'd never relinquish. Clinging to a two-point lead with a minute remaining, Miami Heat guard Victor Oladipo blew by Kevin Huerter and entered the lane.

It took a while, but the Victor Oladipo breakout performance finally happened. Yes, I'm aware he had a nice brief run with the Miami Heat last season before ...

But there comes a time in each marquee guy’s career when he faces a moment of truth, and it’s usually when a superior team with championship-level defense forces said player to re-assess how he operates against the best counters the opposition has to offer. There was the foul on Trae from behind that sent him to the line with under a minute to go and Miami up by 4. It’s my 9th game, so I got a lot of room to improve.” There was a switch on defense he was late to react to which allowed the hot-shooting De’Andre Hunter a clean look from deep during Atlanta’s late-game comeback. The physicality and different looks bothered Young so much that his body language looked all out of sorts. Tyler Herro converted a number of tough, contested fadeaway jumpers that were crucial in keeping Miami ahead. “Not because I quit but because I was at the lowest point I could be at. Even when Lowry and Butler return, there’s a strong case for Oladipo to remain in the rotation. It was fitting that the game’s most crucial basket, an Adebayo dunk, was courtesy of an Oladipo pass. around this time last year, I was sitting in the dark room by myself and just broke down,” Oladipo shared post-game. The Hawks entered the series almost as an “I’ll zag instead of zig” pick in some bracket predictions. Oladipo finished with 23 points on 8-16 shooting, including 3-6 from deep and 4-4 from the foul line.

Victor Oladipo scored a team-high 23 points to lead the short-handed Miami Heat to a narrow Game 5 win over the Atlanta Hawks, wrapping up the first-round ...

Hawks forward De'Andre Hunter scored 18 of his game-high 35 points over the final 12 minutes. The Heat will host the 76ers or Raptors in Game 1 of their second-round matchup on Monday at FTX Arena. The Raptors host the 76ers in Game 5 of their series at 7 p.m. EDT Thursday in Toronto. "Everybody that played had their fingerprints on this. The Heat led 54-42 at halftime in Game 5, but was outscored 52-43 over the final 24 minutes and managed to hang on in the fourth quarter. "There is still a lot more basketball left. The top-seeded Heat advanced to a second-round matchup with either the No. 4 Philadelphia 76ers or No. 5 Toronto Raptors. The 76ers lead that best-of-seven game series 3-2.

1. You've probably heard the phrase 'Basketball is a game of runs', but this has been the series of runs. We could tell you that Miami went on a 17-0 run ...

3. With Butler and Lowry out, Victor Oladipo joined the starting lineup and continued to make a strong impression as he jumped out to eight points in the first few minutes of the game – all of them coming on drives into the paint. But what’s getting Oladipo minutes, one would think, isn’t just the creation and the scoring, it’s that he’s playing as hard as the HEAT demand players to play in a postseason context. Even if that solution only matters for one or two or three possessions – the same as P.J Tucker’s two post-ups in Game 4 – that’s enough to spark a run and make a difference. Instead, it was something of a fake-out, with two players pushing up on the inbounds and dropping all the way back into a zone, the purpose being to shrink the opponent’s shot clock and give them less time to identify and attack a different defensive look. With the threat of Bam Adebayo’s switching constantly looming and Miami’s load-up defensive spacing – which the Hawks just didn’t have the personnel to overcome despite the best efforts of De’Andre Hunter (35 points tonight, single-handedly keeping the Hawks around) and Bogdan Bogdanovic – the HEAT took a dominant, singular offensive All-Star and made his impact look ordinary. Like Games 2 and 3, the Hawks punched back, tonight getting within three in the final minute with a chance to tie with five seconds left.

It was about a year ago. Victor Oladipo was sitting alone in a dark room. The realization that he needed a second surgery on his right leg was settling in.

He returned a year later, good but clearly not the same, and Indiana traded him to Houston in January 2021. The Heat already was pretty set in its ways on who was playing where and when. I couldn’t control the circumstance, but I could control my approach. He was in and out of the rotation, a frustrating thing for a former All-NBA player. He scored 21 points in a win at Toronto on April 3. The Rockets didn’t keep him long before moving him to Miami, with whom Oladipo played four games in March 2021 before getting hurt again. That moment is clearly not forgotten: Oladipo gave his recollections of what went on in that room Tuesday night, to illustrate both where he was and where he is. Many did, including Oladipo, who needed two surgeries to fix a right quadriceps tendon, spent basically a year rehabbing after each of those procedures, and has been limited to 66 games in the last three seasons combined. But with Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry sidelined, the Heat needed someone to step up in Game 5. The realization that he needed a second surgery on his right leg was settling in. Victor Oladipo was sitting alone in a dark room. It was about a year ago.

On Tuesday, he proved he was back. Oladipo had 23 points in the Heat' 97-94 victory against the Atlanta Hawks in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference first-round ...

"I couldn’t control the circumstance, but I could control my approach. Not because I quit, but because I was at the lowest point I could be at. I have a lot of room to improve.” “It’s a blessing at the end of the day to be able to play the game I love," Oladipo said. I can’t really explain why I’m here today, but I’m staying in the moment and making every moment mean something. I was sitting in a dark room by myself and just broke down.

It was about a year ago. Victor Oladipo was sitting alone in a dark room. The realization that he needed a second surgery on his right leg was settling in.

He returned a year later, good but clearly not the same, and Indiana traded him to Houston in January 2021. We always tell him, ‘stay ready so you ain’t gotta get ready.’ ... The fact that he was ready, and he performed, that reminded me of the Indiana Victor a little bit." The Heat already was pretty set in its ways on who was playing where and when. He was in and out of the rotation, a frustrating thing for a former All-NBA player. He scored 21 points in a win at Toronto on April 3. That moment is clearly not forgotten: Oladipo gave his recollections of what went on in that room Tuesday night, to illustrate both where he was and where he is. He always comes in with a smile on his face and lifts people up." Many did, including Oladipo, who needed two surgeries to fix a right quadriceps tendon, spent basically a year rehabbing after each of those procedures, and has been limited to 66 games in the last three seasons combined. I do, for this journey for the last three seasons where he’s been dealing with injuries and frustration, and then really working to make himself available for us without a guarantee to play," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. But with Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry sidelined, the Heat needed someone to step up in Game 5. The realization that he needed a second surgery on his right leg was settling in. Victor Oladipo was sitting alone in a dark room.

Bryan Fonseca writes on the importance of depth in the postseason and how Victor Oladipo's big Game 5 was a perfect example of it.

And if the overall offense lacks a scoring punch, Oladipo’s there to provide another threat — one who specializes in nothing, but can be effective in everything. “I was sitting in a dark room by myself and just broke down, not because I quit, but because I was at the lowest point I could be at. Victor Oladipo, who didn’t play in Games 1-3 and primarily played in Game 4 because the offense had trouble getting going without Lowry. Vic started in place of Butler — alongside Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, PJ Tucker and Bam Adebayo — to close out the Hawks in a gentleman’s sweep. In the Heat's case, Lowry was out with a hamstring injury, and Butler didn’t play in Game 5 on Tuesday night because of right knee inflammation. But in the annals of league history, champions haven’t only been littered by the Michael Jordans or LeBron James’ of the world, because even they needed awesome role players and deep rosters to accompany them. In the NBA, people think that you need multiple stars, with one superstar as the head of the snake, in order to get into the dance.