BOSTON _ Dion Waiters is not consciously attempting to conjure his inner Vinnie Johnson. But if playing as the Miami Heat's version of The Microwave is his path to playing time, then he is more than willing to have that button pushed.
"I don't know, we got a lot of guys who could do that," Waiters said. "I ain't going to sit here and lie to you and say, 'yeah.' I always try to tell the truth. But right now, that's my role and I just got to do what I got to do for right now and whatever is asked of me. It's just being ready, man, I guess."
In Saturday's victory over the Chicago Bulls at the United Center, it meant 21 points in 21 minutes off the bench, playing mostly in attack mode. It was a performance that came a night after a nominal two-point effort in just 8:37 of action in the loss the Detroit Pistons.
For now, both the Heat and Waiters find themselves riding the Dion-coaster.
"Look, we have a deep team," coach Erik Spoelstra said before turning his attention to Monday's game against the Boston Celtics at the close of this four-game trip. "The strength of our team is our depth. For guys that are working their way back in, such as Dion, it's not easy. The minutes aren't guaranteed. You have to leave an impression during the games, and that's what he did. He made his minutes memorable."
While it remains somewhat confounding to Waiters, this inability to regain a foothold in the rotation in these three weeks back after a year away from the game following ankle surgery, he also is attempting to conjure as much patience as possible. Some of that patience has come at a cost, fined by the team last week for complaining about playing time.
That had him measuring his words after his first 20-point performance since Dec. 18, 2017, when he scored 23 against the Atlanta Hawks.
"I never lose my confidence," he said. "It's always going to be there. I just went out there and played basketball. I just tried to put everything behind me, the frustration and everything like that, just tried to go out there with a clear mind.
"At the end of the day, I can't control everything else, but I can control what I can control, and that's my emotions and my energy. I just wanted to go in there with a clear mind and just play."
That made Saturday a refreshing respite, slapping his hips more than once during his 9-of-13 performance.
"That's just what I do. It's all about rhythm, it's all about playing, it's all, be animated and just trying to be consistent," he said. "You never know how many minutes you're going to play. Like I said, I've been gone a year, so things changed around here. So just now finding my way a little bit.
"But one thing's for sure, I will never lose that confidence. And I will just continue to work on my body, and getting back in playing shape and things like that."
Waiters' only misses against the Bulls were part of his 3-of-7 3-point shooting. He shot 6 of 6 inside the arc, particularly efficient when in attack mode.
"I can get to the basket with the best of 'em. So I think we knew that," he said. "How they were playing, they were going under everything. So you've got to shoot the shot. I was a little hesitant out there. It's hard getting a rhythm. You've got to find your rhythm. It's tough when the minutes are changing and things like that.
"So you just got to find it and I was able to dig deep and just stick my head down and tell myself, 'Go get you a couple of easy ones.' And once you get a couple easy ones, for me, the basket, it just gets bigger and bigger."
