Gabe Vincent answering the call for short-handed Heat in playoffs: ‘They’ve empowered me’

When Gabe Vincent first signed with the Miami Heat in January 2020, he was a combo guard with a score-first mentality that averaged 20.9 points on 10.3 three-point attempts per game in the G League that season.

Since then, the Heat’s player development program has helped transform Vincent into a 3-and-D weapon with the mentality of a point guard.

But with the Heat losing guards Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo to injuries early in the playoffs, Vincent has returned to his gunslinging roots to average 15.1 points while shooting 41.3 percent on 13.1 field-goal attempts and 40.4 percent on 8.1 three-point attempts per game through the first seven playoff games.

“With the injuries that we’ve had with Tyler out and Vic out, we frankly do need Gabe to be more aggressive and he’s doing it within the context of our offense,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But we do need him to put some points on the board or at least make the defense play him and maybe they make an adjustment next game. He’s fit in as a facilitator long enough that he’ll be able to play in that role, as well. It’s a credit to the work he’s put in and how much he’s improved in the last three years.”

Vincent has been especially aggressive in the last three games, beginning in the Heat’s Game 5 series-clinching win over the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round and continuing in the first two games of the second round against the New York Knicks, averaging 21 points while shooting 39.3 percent on 18.7 field-goal attempts and 36.1 percent on 12 three-point attempts per game during this stretch.

In the first two games of the second round against the fifth-seeded Knicks, Vincent totaled 41 points on 9-of-24 (37.5 percent) shooting from three-point range while also flashing his improved point-guard skills with 10 assists to just one turnover to help the eighth-seeded Heat steal home-court advantage and bring the series back to Miami for Game 3 on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ABC) tied 1-1.

“Jimmy [Butler] has been yelling at me, honestly, a lot of times since I’ve been here when he passes me the ball to shoot it,” said Vincent, who turns 27 on June 14. “Especially now, we got guys out and we need to be more aggressive and take shots when they’re available. He’s been encouraging me, Bam [Adebayo] has been encouraging me, the staff has been and my teammates have given me their full support. So I’ve just been trying to be mindful of taking good shots and going from there.”

For perspective on how unique this stretch has been for Vincent, he matched his NBA career-high for three-point attempts in a game of 12 in each of the last three games. He has now finished seven games during his four-year NBA career with 12 three-point attempts.

Vincent also set a new NBA career-high for field-goal attempts in a game with 23 shots in the Heat’s Game 5 win over the Bucks in the first round on April 26.

“I just give the credit to my teammates and the staff for allowing me to play that way and giving me that confidence,” said Vincent, who will be an unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason. “It’s been fun, in that regard, to go out there and hoop and have guys want you to take those shots or want you to be aggressive when you’re thinking you’re already being too aggressive. So it’s been fun and hopefully it just translates to wins.”

It has, so far.

With Vincent playing as the starting point guard for the last three months, the Heat is 5-2 in the playoffs and just three wins away from becoming the second No. 8 seed to make it to the conference finals since the current 16-team NBA playoff format was instituted for the 1983-84 season.

Butler has deservedly received most of the attention during the Heat’s improbable playoff run, but Vincent’s aggressiveness and efficiency have become important aspects of the team’s winning formula this postseason. Of the six players on teams still alive this postseason who entered Friday averaging more than eight three-point attempts per game in the playoffs, Vincent is shooting a league-best 40.4 percent from three-point range on a list that includes Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Denver’s Jamal Murray, Philadelphia’s James Harden, and Golden State’s Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry.

Vincent is a big reason why the Heat entered Friday with the NBA’s best team three-point percentage in this year’s playoffs (41.3 percent) after closing the regular season with the league’s 27th-ranked team three-point percentage (34.4 percent). He shot 33.4 percent on 5.1 three-point attempts per game in the regular season.

“I think the thing that has really been impressive is he’s embraced the role of being aggressive offensively,” said Heat guard Kyle Lowry, who began the season as the starting point guard before Vincent stepped into that role. “I think if guys don’t know Gabe, he’s an offensive guy, he’s a talent. Many people don’t know what his abilities are. If you watch him with the Nigerian national team, he was unbelievable. He’s a scorer, he can shoot the ball, he can pass the ball.

“I think just the presence of always being there and being in the moment has been great for him. I think nothing has gone too fast. I think he’s letting the game come to him but he’s taking all the shots that he works on and he’s able to make.”

Herro, who averaged 20.1 points on 16.6 field-goal attempts and eight three-point attempts per game in the regular season, is not expected back until the NBA Finals, at the earliest, if the Heat makes it that far. So Vincent will need to continue making up for a chunk of Herro’s output by generating efficient offense at a high volume in the playoffs.

The pull-up threes, spot-up threes, midrange shots, drives to the basket — the Heat needs Vincent to keep doing it all, and coaches and players are making sure he knows it.

“They’ve empowered me time and time again and I’m just grateful for that,” Vincent said.