MIAMI (AP) — The last time Miami guard Dru Smith faced the Cleveland Cavaliers, he badly hurt his right knee in an awkward fall and couldn't play again for nearly a year.
Things came full circle on Sunday.
Smith — facing Cleveland for the first time since getting hurt on Nov. 22, 2023 — played a big role off the bench for the Heat in their 122-113 win over the team that has the best record in the NBA so far this season. He had a season-high 11 points in 26 minutes, including a big 3-pointer late in the fourth to cap a possession where he kept the ball alive twice with offensive rebounds.
“I think it's definitely full circle,” Smith said. “It was just nice to have those moments.”
The possession that everyone took notice of came with about 4 1/2 minutes left. Bam Adebayo missed a 3-pointer, and Smith got the offensive rebound. Then Tyler Herro missed a 3-pointer, and Smith got the rebound off that as well. He wound up in the corner by the Heat bench, took a pass from Jimmy Butler and connected on a 3-pointer that pushed Miami's lead to 112-99.
Miami's lead was safe the rest of the way.
“That's what he does," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “When you classify winning plays, it’s tough to define it because sometimes it is an offensive rebound, sometimes it’s a cut, sometimes it’s a deflection, a steal, a stop, a rotation. Sometimes they show up in a boxscore, a lot of times they don't. That was a possession where anybody could notice, ‘Hey, that’s winning basketball right there.’”
Smith hurt his ACL when he slipped off a raised portion of the floor in front of the Cavaliers’ bench in the November 2023 game. He had been part of Miami’s rotation to that point, appearing in nine of the team’s first 15 games.
The Heat waived Smith last March to make room for the signing of Patty Mills and brought Smith back this summer on a two-way deal. He doesn't even have his own stall in the primary Heat locker room — and had to be talked into going into the team's postgame interview room by Adebayo, the team captain, on Sunday night.
“Captain's orders,” said Adebayo, who raved about the spark Smith gave Sunday.
“I think we’re always lifting each other up, just celebrating each other,” Smith said. "No one’s really telling me to do anything necessarily — just go out there, be yourself and just try to have an impact on winning.”
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Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press