Vincent & Oladipo take over as Miami defeats Milwaukee again

Even with Giannis Antetokounmpo & Khris Middleton out for a second straight game, it is hard not to be encouraged by the Miami Heat's 111-95 wire to wire victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. With this win, Miami is 12-5 in their last 17 games as they have finally started to gain some traction in this rollercoaster of a season.

Once again this game belonged to Gabe Nnamdi Vincent, who had 21 of his 27 points in the first half. This comes just two nights after he set his career-high of 28 points in the win against these same Milwaukee Bucks. It got to a point where Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer had seen enough and put Jrue Holiday, one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, on Vincent to slow him down. Didn't do much because while he only scored six points in the second half, his defense made things difficult for Holiday on the other end and he was a thorn in the side of the Bucks all game long. He added three rebounds, two assists and five (!) steals to his game-high 27 points. There were moments in this game where you saw Holiday trying to use his size on Gabe in the post, but the Nigerian guard held his ground on multiple occasions. The recent emergence of Gabe's all-around game raises a very important question. Should he replace Kyle Lowry in the starting lineup if a move isn't made by the trade deadline?

How about Victory Oladipo?! It was not too long ago when we were looking at this Oladipo project as a failure after he suffered a set back in the off-season and was unable to play at the start of the season. Now he's playing consistently and better yet, he's starting to look like a revitalized version of himself. His performance through the first three quarters were solid, but he took over in the fourth quarter alongside Bam Adebayo. He scored 11 of his 20 points in the quarter and added three assists and two steals as well. A great game from Oladipo as he had a huge part in this dominant win for Miami as his strong play continues. In the last eight games, Oladipo is averaging 17.1 PPG on 44.2 FG%, 4.9 APG, 4.3 RPG and 1.9 SPG. No surprise that the Heat are 6-2 in that stretch. He's giving Miami the kind of two-way ability off the bench they were expecting from the start of this season and it's translating into winning basketball for the team. If there is any thing to pick at it's his turnovers, but I'll take that all day considering where we were a few months ago.

Also, I want to acknowledge the growth of Bam Adebayo. Started this game as poorly as you could expect as he picked up two early fouls that took him out of his rhythm. Brook Lopez was winning the matchup through the first three quarters as Bam had just six points on 3-of-8 shooting and six rebounds. Then the fourth quarter happened. Adebayo dominated both ends of the floor as he had 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting to go with seven rebounds and two blocks. He was relentless on the glass and his energy became too much for Lopez to contain. He ended the game with another strong double double at 20 points and 13 rebounds. In previous seasons, whenever Bam was taken out of rhythm due to foul trouble or defensive schemes you would rarely see him overcome these obstacles and finish the game strong. That is not the case with this new version of Bam Adebayo, who is sure to gain the second All-Star appearance of his young career. He's been the best player for the Miami Heat this season, and it isn't particularly close.

We can't end this recap without talking about the rest of the roster as we got contributions from every one that played in this one. Probably the biggest takeaway for me from this game is the fact that Jimmy Butler did not play a single minute in the fourth quarter and finished with just 16 points, four rebounds and an assist in this blowout win. When was the last time that happened this season? Max Strus was also big in this one as he played a team-high 42 minutes. He didn't shot the ball well, scoring 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field, but he impacted the game in other ways by grabbing seven boards and dishing out four assists while also playing good defense. Lastly, we got solid contributions from the young trio of Haywood Highsmith, Jamal Cain and Orlando Robinson. They all provided the energy and effort on the glass with all three having at least seven boards while also scoring efficiently as the combined to shoot 7-of-12 from the field.

No matter who was in or out of this game, it doesn't deny the fact that this was one of the best performances of the season from the Miami Heat to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks for a second straight game. They now take this momentum into their Monday afternoon matchup against the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena.