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Davion Mitchell not backing down from being pacemaker, as Heat seek jolt
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- Davion Mitchell not backing down from being pacemaker, as Heat seek jolt
MIAMI — The perpetual-motion machine hasn't stopped, even when his team has. Davion Mitchell only knows one way.
The early-season issue for the Miami Heat has been the best way to harness that speed without hampering it.
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It is a factor the sixth-year guard appreciates when it comes to having eyes on the rim and eyes on teammates, deciding at speed whether to try to score or assist.
"I mean, I think everyone's still trying to figure out how they can find the best rhythm for them," Mitchell said, with the Heat hosting the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night at Kaseya Center. "I think even for me, trying to figure out how do I get other people involved, to be a better playmaker, get in the paint more, get easier shots for my teammates."
With a pair of double-doubles during the Heat's 0-3 start , Mitchell has mostly met his mandate. But he also appreciates there has to be a payoff to his pace in regard to the productivity of his teammates.
"Because sometimes you can kind of get lost when they don't get shots a couple possessions," Mitchell said. "They don't have rhythm.
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"So I got to figure out how to do a better job of getting them shots and just to get a feel to a game."
To a degree, the degree of Mitchell's scoring has been surprising, including a team-high 22 points in Charlotte, with 18 the previous game against the Detroit Pistons on Friday night at Kaseya Center.
But he also played through the first three games as the lone point guard in the primary rotation, the burden of backcourt playmaking almost solely his own.
"I just have to figure it out," he said, "figure out when to be aggressive, figure out when maybe the right shot is me being aggressive instead of me passing the ball. We just get in the paint, it's going to draw people.
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"I just have to keep doing that throughout the game."
But Heat coach Erik Spoelstra also does not want Mitchell to overthink it.
"We don't want him to not be aggressive," Spoelstra said, with the Heat after Monday night moving on to a Wednesday night road game against the Atlanta Hawks.
The theory in the offseason was that adding Giannis Antetokounmpo would only further up the Heat's speed game, affording Mitchell the option to also run the wing in transition with Antetokounmpo handling.
"Building on last year, we have a little bit more speed getting up and down the court," Spoelstra said when asked about Mitchell's pace making. "He did a really good job of that last year, getting his pitch ahead and finding shooters ahead. He's in better shape now, so I think you're seeing a different level of speed.
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"The next step is finding that balance of when to initiate and really push that tempo and when to sacrifice, run when Giannis and Bam (Adebayo) have the ball."
In other words, Mitchell not doing it alone.
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"All three of them are going to have to find that balance, which they will, because all three of them are very good and efficient at bringing the ball up and putting pressure on the defense," Spoelstra said ahead of the season. "We want to be able to maximize each one of them, and that'll be something new for D-Mitch, particularly when Giannis busts out or we get the ball to him early."
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So a learning process.
While attempting to do it at speed.
"I think the motto of our group is pain, and we're going through pain, and we love that because you learn so much from it," Michell said of the winless opening three-game stretch and the accompanying lessons. "Even the preseason, we were all up and up, and winning games, that was just the preseason. And now we're losing games, and now we learn from each other. Learning from our mistakes is always a second learning curve, so that's the positive."
