Miami Heat guard Pelle Larsson had a career game in Friday's win against the Atlanta Hawks
Miami Heat guard Pelle Larsson is drawing raves from teammates after his latest performance.
In Friday's victory against the Atlanta Hawks, he scored a career-high 21 points on 9 of 13 shooting. He also had six rebounds and five assists.
"He’s a gamer. Not only a gamer but a game changer," Powell said. "With his energy, effort on both sides of the floor… Putting his face in the plays, getting fouls, we missed that about him. He continues to make winning plays whenever he’s on the floor in his minutes”
Larsson was back in the lineup after missing some time with an ankle injury. The difference was noticeable. He gives the Heat another scorer and is a player who can fill the stat sheets.
“We’re so happy to have him back in this lineup," Heat forward Jaime Jaquez said. "He’s the ultimate energy guy — really just gives everybody life and a spark that we desperately needed…just shows how much of a hard of a worker and a great of a player he is.”
Larsson said he is just excited to be on the floor again. He provides another dimension.
“It's been frustrating watching on sideline," Larsson said. "I've been rehabbing my ankle, but rest of my body has just been resting so I had a lot of energy to come out here and be an impact."
For his effort, he was applauded by Couper Moorhead of NBA.com. Here's what Moorehead wrote:
"Game ball goes to Larsson for an excellent all-around game in his first appearance back from an ankle injury, 21 points on 13 shots including a pair of buzzer beaters in the fourth that effectively put Atlanta away, and it remains clear as ever that Larsson has a long career ahead of him as a tough, versatile role player, but the story of this one is Miami putting together a night where, for the first time in a while, everything looked easy."
Here's all the info for tonight's game against the Indiana Pacers:
TV: FanDuel Sports Network Sun (Eric Reid, John Crotty, Will Manso); WPLG
Radio: WQAM FM 104.3 & The Heat Audio Experience (Jason Jackson, Amy Audibert)
Spanish Radio: WAQI 710 AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda, Joe Pujala)
Series Notes: The Heat and Pacers meet for the first of three regular season matchups. Last season the teams split the series, 2-2. The HEAT are 58-76 all-time versus Indiana during the regular season, including 43-25 in home games and 15-51 in road games.
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of HeatRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com