DENVER — The Quiet Man has no time or need for the gesticulations that at times can define today’s look-at-me NBA.
For Miami Heat forward Andrew Wiggins, the game is as simple as a work to be done, games to be won.
So there stood Wiggins at the 3-point arc with 2:23 left in what would turn into a120-119 Heat victory Monday night over the Los Angeles Clippers, coolly, calmly, collectedly launching a tiebreaking 3-pointer as if it was a shooting drill in an empty gym in August.
Dagger — with Wiggins maintaining his outstretched arm for a moment before retreating impassively, as if all that had been done was the expected.
The Heat would not trail the rest of the way.
“You love that about him,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said while surrounded by media in the locker room afterward, as Wiggins dressed quietly and alone alongside. “He’s very even-keel, but you see the emotion every once in a while and he does the little things that people probably don’t even know.”
Adebayo then paused, smiled, and turned to his teammate.
“So kudos to Mr. Andrew Wiggins.”
In a moment that called for quiet efficiency, Wiggins had delivered the second of his fourth-quarter 3-pointers, his six points in the quarter desperately needed in a period the Heat scored only 17.
But to coach Erik Spoelstra, that almost was besides the point.
Instead, it was the relentless work put forward by Wiggins against Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, who had been unstoppable at times earlier, but was limited, in part by Wiggins, to just 2-of-7 shooting in the fourth quarter. The respect was there to the degree that the Clippers made a point of getting Wiggins switched off Leonard before Leonard was off with what would have been a game-winning 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
“Wiggs has been the hero in a lot of situations for us this season,” Adebayo said.
In each instance, quietly.
“I think when he’s at the top of his game, he’s one of the elite two-way players in this league,” Spoelstra said. “We knew he could guard one through five.
“The things that Wiggs can do are uncommon.”
As Adebayo continued his postgame media session, duly celebrated after his 25-point, 10-rebound effort, Wiggins spoke almost in a monotone alongside.
“I feel like I just try to let the game come to me,” he said after completing a 17-point effort built on 7-of-12 shooting. “I try not to rush, or play out of rhythm. I feel like when it’s my time, it’s my time.”
Acquired in the trade that sent Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors at February’s NBA trading deadline, Wiggins in many ways is the anti-Butler, work that comes without bravado, without bombast.
While Butler hit the ground running with the Warriors, Wiggins stumbled to the finish last season, the type of complementary presence that first has to assess how best to complement.
This four-game trip that concludes Wednesday night against the Denver Nuggets has gone a long way toward that assessment, with 24 points in the loss to the San Antonio Spurs, 15 points and nine rebounds in Sunday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, and then Monday night’s decisive effort against the Clippers.
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“I mean, for sure, I feel like that comes with chemistry and just growing as a team,” he said of fitting in to a greater degree. “Training camp is a big part of that. That’s when we grind. That’s when you’re going through hard times to get to where you’re at now. You kinda build that foundation in training camp and now we have to keep building on it.”
With a coach patient enough to let it come around.
“Offensively, he’s going into the game with so much confidence as the season goes on, getting comfortable in our offense,” Spoelstra said. “He hit that big three. Everybody wants him to be aggressive. But he’s already had a knack for big shots with us.
“He’s starting to get a little bit more comfortable, getting in a better rhythm. We all know he wants to play really well for the group. I love where his heart is.”
