{"id":365220,"date":"2025-12-22T20:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/365220\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T20:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:35:09","slug":"knicks-rave-about-heats-kelel-ware-he-was-a-beast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/365220\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks rave about Heat’s Kel’el Ware: ‘He was a beast’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 For years, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has streamlined his evaluation system to the simple notion of, \u201cMake me notice you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday night in New York, Heat center Kel\u2019el Ware took it one step further, he made the opposing coach take notice.<\/p>\n

Closing with 28 points, 19 rebounds and shooting 5 of 7 on 3-pointers can do that, even if the effort comes in a 132-125 loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So before Knicks coach Mike Brown turned his postgame attention to the 47-point effort of New York guard Jalen Brunson, he took time to note how difficult Ware had made the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you, Kel\u2019el Ware, he was a beast tonight on the glass,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThis is one of the very few times we got our behinds kicked on the glass, and a lot of it is attributed to him and the way he rebounded on both ends of the floor, and then he shot the mess out of the basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told our guys he\u2019s been shooting it really well. We just didn\u2019t get to his body. It\u2019s a little tough because he\u2019s seven feet. So, with a guy like that, you almost got to close all the way to his chest just to try to hopefully make him put it on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a night when Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns stood second best, even from the 3-point arc, with Towns limited to two points.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give him a lot of credit,\u201d Brown continued of Ware. \u201cHe\u2019s worked on his ability to shoot the three, and he\u2019s five for seven tonight from the floor and also on the glass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, being gracious comes a bit easier when your team exits 20-8.<\/p>\n

For Spoelstra and the reeling Heat, Ware\u2019s numbers in the end were part of the team\u2019s seventh loss in eight games, dropping them to 15-14<\/a> ahead of Tuesday night\u2019s game against the Toronto Raptors at Kaseya Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just got to be a collective deal,\u201d Spoelstra said of the need to pair Ware\u2019s numbers with a win. \u201cI like the things that he\u2019s doing. I know everybody on the outside will just notice the stats, but he\u2019s doing winning things. It\u2019s not always just about the stats, but he\u2019s come a long way. He\u2019s improving. I want him to play with confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ware said he appreciates that numbers can seem hollow when being discussed in the losing locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I\u2019m just trying to impact the game and win that way,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I\u2019m not putting up the numbers for my, I guess, for my own looks. I\u2019m trying to put them up so we can get some points on the board, especially with the rebounds so we can come out with the win. But it didn\u2019t turn out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ware is 11 of 14 from beyond the arc the past two games, at .480 on 3-pointers for the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s through the flow of the game, through the offense,\u201d he said of such attempts. \u201cWhen I feel comfortable letting it go, it\u2019s just timing and decisions. Making that decision when it\u2019s the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guard Norman Powell cautioned that even in defeat, Ware\u2019s contributions should not be marginalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cKel\u2019el is doing his job,\u201d Powell said. \u201cEverybody has to step up and fill those voids and holes that coaches see and find that competitive edge, whether the shots are going in, whether it\u2019s your night or not. We\u2019ve got to continue to put an imprint on winning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we\u2019re a young team and we\u2019re figuring it out, but we got to hang tough. We got to stay mentally strong and we got to come together collectively to figure out how we can continue to stack wins like we were doing earlier in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 For years, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has streamlined his evaluation system to the simple notion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,3914,7223,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-365220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-miami-heat","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}