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By and large, Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside was a non-factor all throughout the first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers. He even saved his worst performance of the series and showed it in the last game on Tuesday, when he pumped out a mere total of two points to go with a solitary block and three personal fouls in only 10 minutes of action during Game 5’s 104-91 loss to Philly that eliminated the Heat from title contention.
When asked about an explanation for his underwhelming play in these playoffs, Hassan Whiteside lamented the limited playing time Miami gave him in the series, per Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel.
Article Continues Below“Not being out there. Not being out there,” he said. “At least give me a chance to fight. At least give me a chance to fight. I can understand if I was playing 30 minutes and I played bad. At least give me a chance.”
Whiteside clearly was not happy with the way Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra utilized him against Philly. While his counterpart, Sixers big man Joel Embiid flourished, Whiteside wilted and finished the series barely making an impact to his team.
“It's different, it's definitely different,” he said of the freedom granted to Embiid. “But we played a style of play Coach wanted. He wanted to utilize more spacing I guess in the playoffs, so that's why he did it.”
In five dates with the Sixers in the playoffs, Whiteside was only able to produce 5.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks on 15.4 minutes.
It’s going to be an interesting offseason for Whiteside, who has two more years left on his current deal with the Heat.
