MIAMI — This certainly has been a unique Miami Heat experience for Josh Christopher. The veteran NBA guard has yet to play a single regular-season game for the Heat, but already has competed for two championships in the team’s colors.
Having earned a two-way contract after leading the Heat’s entry to the Las Vegas NBA Summer League championship in July, Christopher found himself chasing a second championship in Heat colors on Sunday night at the G League Showcase in Orlando.
Through it all, the former 2021 first-round pick of the Houston Rockets went into the week yet to appear in a game for the Heat, unlike the team’s other two-way players, guard Dru Smith and forward Keshad Johnson.
So, instead, Christopher has played as the anchor of the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Sunday that meant coming up short in the Showcase championship game, despite scoring 31 points, his 13th consecutive game with 20 or more, tying a G League record.
“Man, that’s not a bad look,” Christopher said of consistently chasing championships in Heat colors. “That’s not a bad look.”
The look being sought, however, is something more, with his last NBA regular-season action entering the week coming in the 2022-23 season with the Rockets, when he appeared in 64 games.
From the moment he arrived in the Heat’s G League program last season, the 6-foot-4 guard appreciated patience would be paramount. That, he said, hasn’t changed.
“Just trying to be a sponge and not take the opportunity for granted,” he said, “but just take advantage of it and learn as much as I can, and use the minutes as an opportunity just to grow and help win ball games.”
That he has done with Sioux Falls. And because the Skyforce are now idle until Dec. 30, there is the bonus of getting to spend time with the Heat, including Monday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets at Kaseya Center.
For Christopher, the dual realities of life as featured player in the G League and potential supporting piece for the Heat were magnified by Sunday night’s nationally televised loss to the Knicks’ G League team in Orlando, when he closed 11 of 25 from the field. That shot volume assuredly would not translate initially to time for Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.
The former Arizona State standout addressed that while spending Saturday night’s game with the Heat in Orlando.
“I don’t even approach it as that,” Christopher said of playing as an alpha for the Skyforce, where he is the fourth-leading scorer in the G League, at 26.4 points per game. “I just approach it as doing whatever is needed to win the game, and it’s a lot down there, in Sioux Falls.
“So here I won’t have to do as much, so it’ll make my job almost easier, in a sense, and really just understand the value of winning and making winning plays.”
Spoelstra consistently has made time to take in Skyforce games, either live on television or scouting game video, including doing so ahead of Saturday night’s loss to the Magic. Christopher’s ease of offense has been difficult not to notice.
“Josh is becoming consistent in that role, as a number-one option, to be able to take on a lot of different schemes,” Spoelstra said. “And teams are trying to hold him down, and he’s able to find different ways to be offensively aggressive and efficient.
“His defense is improving and his role with us will look different. But he’s embracing that part too, of how it would look different and how he still could be effective.”
Typically, the Heat cycle through their two-way players based on need. This has been somewhat of an atypical season in that regard, with Smith fulltime with the Heat, Johnson bouncing between Sioux Falls and Miami, and Christopher heading into this week yet to take the court for the Heat.
Still, there is an appreciation for the two-way opportunity, one that opened up in the offseason when the Heat elected not to re-up with Alondes Williams and Cole Swider on their two-way contracts, those two now on such deals with the Detroit Pistons.
“I’m playing basketball. So it could be a lot of other things I could be doing with my time. But the thing that I’m doing is basketball and I’m grateful for it,” Christopher, 23, said. “And the group of (Skyforce) guys we’re playing with is doing well and we’re winning games and it’s fun, so I have no complaints.”
In Sunday night’s Skyforce 125-119 loss to the Westchester Knicks in the Showcase championship game, the Skyforce also got 10 points and 10 rebounds from Johnson and 28 points and 10 rebounds from NBA veteran Nassir Little, who was with the Heat in training camp in October. The Skyforce also got 13 assists from Heat summer and camp prospect Isaiah Stevens, who continues on a G League record assist pace.
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