Five Stars: Fried Hawk

Five Stars is a Hot Hot Hoops exclusive where we dig into the box score of each Heat game and pick apart the numbers under the numbers. The top five players are the Five Stars, regardless of which team they player for. I used the GameScore metric, with a slight adjustment for plus/minus to rank the players. This article is about Miami’s 108-90 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night.

First Star

Tyler Johnson (MIA) 27.7

Johnson, making his 21st Five Star appearance with his second First Star, led Miami with 23 points on an ultra-efficient nine-for-11 performance in 26:04 on the floor. He drained three-of-four three-pointers, both of his free throws, and added five rebounds, five assists, a steal, a plus-16 rating and an approximate PER of 33.8. His 198 offensive rating ranked second on the team, behind last night’s Third Star.

Everybody feels like they're in rhythm when everybody's touching the ball on every possession. - Johnson

Second Star

Dion Waiters (MIA) 17.4

Waiters made good on six-of-19 shots from the floow and two-of-five from outside, with a game-high 10 assists, three rebounds, two blocks, and a steal to go with his 14 points in 30:42. He had a PER of just 13.4, with a game-high plus-30 rating despite an offensive rating of 97 and a defensive efficiency of just 94. It was his 15th Five Star performance of the year.

Third Star

Rodney McGruder (MIA) 13.8

McGruder played 22:37 all told, and made every shot he took. He went three-for-three from two-point range, two-for-two from three-point range, and one-for-one from the foul stripe to finish with 13 points. In his sixth Five Star game, he also pitched in with three rebounds and a plus-9 rating, for an in-game PER of 19.1. His 242 offensive rating was the stuff of legend.

Fourth Star

Paul Millsap (ATL) 11.4

Millsap represents the Hawks lone Five Star contributor for the night. He scored a team-high 21 points in 27:50, making six-of-nine field goals and nine-of-14 free throws., with four rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a minus-19 rating. His 19.7 in-game PER was also the best Atlanta had to offer.

They put a lot of defensive pressure on us. We need to sharpen up - Kent Bazemore

Fifth Star

Goran Dragic (MIA) 11.3

Dragic, making his 33rd Five Star appearance, scored 17 points on five-of-16 shooting. He made two-of-six from outside and all five of his tries from the charity stripe, with six boards, three dimes, and two blocked shots. He had a 13.1 approximate PER in 29:14 overall.

Five Stars Standings

Hassan Whiteside 227
Goran Dragic 198
Tyler Johnson 122
Dion Waiters 100
James Johnson 90
Willie Reed 33
Wayne Ellington 33
Josh Richardson 26
Rodney McGruder 21