Max Strus Gabe Vincent Miami Heat
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Like nearly every team across the league, the Miami Heat were shorthanded heading into Friday night's matchup with the Orlando Magic. Even worse, they were without three of their best players in Jimmy Butler (tailbone), Bam Adebayo (thumb) and Tyler Herro (quad). 

No matter, as the Heat took the lead late in the first quarter and never trailed again, cruising to a 115-105 win over the Magic. With so many players out of the lineup, the Heat needed someone to step up, and the undrafted duo of Max Strus and Gabe Vincent answered the call. 

Strus poured in eight 3-pointers, and finished with 32 points and seven rebounds, while Vincent hit four 3s of his own en route to 27 points and four assists. Both players set new career-highs, and together they combined for over 51 percent of the Heat's total points. 

"That's the culture," Strus said. "We take pride in being undrafted and coming from where we come from. I always say, 'stay ready so you don't have to get ready.' We've got that chip on our shoulder and we always carry it with us. Everybody on our bench, everybody who plays, I mean we got guys who were undrafted who start. We carry that chip with us, we're out here just trying to prove ourselves and keep helping our team win."

Prior to this game, Strus only had three 20-point games to his name, while Vincent only had four. But on Friday night they looked like seasoned vets. Strus, who is shooting 41.5 percent from 3-point land this season, was unconscious from behind the arc. His release is extremely quick, and he was hitting some tough shots on the move. Vincent also knocked down some outside shots, but did most of his work in the paint. He got into the lane at will, and converted a number of impressive, off-balance finishes around the basket. 

"They're the lifeblood of our player development program," head coach Erik Spoelstra said. "You know, guys who haven't been drafted that have big dreams and are willing to put in the work and gradually, incrementally get better over time. That's what you've seen with both of these guys. This is not something that happened overnight."

"Neither one of them were selected on draft night," Spoelstra continued. "It takes an incredible amount of perseverance, belief in yourself and crazy work ethic to keep on working every single day. Because you have a lot more days of adversity where things are not necessarily going your way, or you aren't getting playing time, or you're not really seeing progress. These guys show up every single day, and commit to that process of developing and getting better and earning everybody's trust. It was good to see both of these guys really contribute to a win tonight."

The current situation around the league with injuries and COVID-19 is awful, and hopefully everyone recovers soon so that we can get back to normal. But if there's any silver lining, it's that guys like Strus and Vincent, who normally don't play heavy minutes, have a chance to show their stuff and possibly earn a bigger role.