A week ago, Caleb Martin was making Trae Young earn everything as the Miami Heat pushed past the Atlanta Hawks during the Heat’s regular-season home finale at FTX Arena, holding Young to 3 of 12 shooting from the field in the second half.
Starting Sunday, that again could be Martin’s challenge, with perhaps even a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
While the Heat won’t know their opening-round NBA playoff opponent until Friday night’s winner-take-all play-in game between the visiting Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers, it was Young and the Hawks who knocked Martin’s twin brother, Charlotte Hornets forward Cody Martin, out of the playoffs Wednesday in a play-in first-round game.
“I talked to him [Wednesday],” Caleb said of Cody. “Everybody worked so hard to get to that point, and obviously it didn’t go well enough to advance. So it’s always a bad feeling when the season ends early.”
At some point, Caleb said after Thursday’s practice, he expects his brother to be offering support from the stands during the postseason.
“I mean, he’ll probably take a little bit of time,” Caleb said, “But I know he wants to come here and watch me play, too. So I’m sure he’ll come here as soon as he feels ready to watch basketball again. When the season ends early like that, you don’t feel like watching nothing.”
And if it’s not Caleb Martin being unleashed on Young after a Hawks win Friday, then he’ll likely be set loose on emerging Cavaliers guard Darius Garland, should Cleveland win against Atlanta.
Coach Erik Spoelstra said the Heat hardly could have forecasted they were getting a potential playoff lockdown defender when they added Martin in the offseason, after the Hornets released Caleb earlier in the summer.
“For any of us to say, ‘Hey, we predicted any of this,’ that’s not authentic,” Spoelstra said. “But we also didn’t want to put a ceiling on anybody. You wanted to just be open-minded. We were just getting to know in September, in training camp.
“We really liked his competitiveness and he’s a gamer. He’s proven that over the course of his college career and early on in Charlotte. He has a wide range of skills on both sides of the floor. He’s got exceptional quickness. He’s coachable. He’s competitive. That’s the most important thing. You can mold guys when they have that kind of makeup.”
Waiting game
Spoelstra said the Heat remain limited in playoff preparation, although he did acknowledge similarities between the Hawks and Cavs.
“You want me to go through the whole scouting report?” said Spoelstra, who didn’t. “Yeah, there’s some basic things that no matter who your playoff opponent would be that you have to tighten up defensively. And then we’re just continuing to work on our conditioning and rhythm and our flow offensively. You can never work on that stuff enough.
“And it’s been really beneficial to have this practice time, to get a little bit more detailed. And then we’ll find out who we will play all at the same time.”
The waiting has been the hardest part.
“Whoever our opponent is, we’ll be ready for ‘em,” guard Tyler Herro. “And we’ll be watching on Friday and we’ll see what happens and we’ll go from there.”
Tucker works
Power forward P.J. Tucker, who missed Sunday’s season-ending road loss to the Orlando Magic with a calf strain sustained last Friday against the Hawks, again went through vigorous drills after practice.
“He had a lather,” was a far as Spoelstra was willing to go about Tucker’s status.
Center Bam Adebayo remained away from the team, after being placed in NBA health-and-safety protocols Sunday.
“I’ve been in constant communication with him,” Spoelstra said.
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