When the Miami Heat, fresh off a trip to the Finals, needed a basket in the fourth quarter of their first game of the season, Erik Spoelstra didn’t put the ball in the hands of proven scorer Tyler Herro or playoff hero Caleb Martin. Instead, he called the number of a rookie just nine minutes into his NBA debut.
The Detroit Pistons had cut Miami’s 15-point lead to eight and were threatening to steal an opening-night win on the road. Before the start of the fourth quarter, Spoelstra pulled out his whiteboard and diagrammed a play. Duncan Robinson was to dump the ball off to Jaime Jaquez Jr. in the low post, run off a screen and settle into the open space of the defense. It was Jaquez’s job to thread the pass through the window and hit Robinson in time for the 3-pointer.
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