SAN ANTONIO, Texas _ Kendrick Nunn has regained a hot hand, and he's done it his way: By staying aggressive.
Nunn has averaged 19.7 points on 60.2% shooting from the field and 46.4% shooting from beyond the arc during the Miami Heat's past six games.
He kept the hot streak up in the Heat's loss against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday, scoring 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting to go along with 4 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals.
He's also led the team in field goal attempts per game (13.8) during this stretch.
"We want Kendrick to be aggressive and we try to put him in the right spots to have a quality shot," Goran Dragic said. "He's great at reading those situations and you can see he can make shots."
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has credited Nunn with not getting too caught up with the highs-and-lows of an 82-game season. During the team's previous five games, the 24-year-old rookie out of Oakland University averaged 10.3 points on 33.9% shooting.
But Nunn has stayed the course and continues to play is game through the ebbs-and-flows of the season with a confidence that's rarely seen from a player during their first season in the league.
"(I'm) not deferring any," Nunn said. "That's not what I like to do or what my job is on the team. They want me to play to my strengths and be aggressive every time I'm on the floor. If that's 1 minute or 20 minutes, every time I'm on the floor it's to be aggressive so I'm sticking with that."
While his role isn't to defer to others scoring-wise, Nunn understands the importance of picking his spots offensively playing for a team that has seven different players averaging at least 11 points.
"He has to because there are a lot of guys that are very similar, that are efficient with their shooting attempts," Spoelstra said. "Our team is built, the success is built on the more guys having an impact. But he's ignitable. He's finding his own way to fit into this offense, but fit in with Jimmy (Butler). Kendrick can score in a lot of those random situations because he has a great feel for getting the ball in the basket."
