Deng is appearing in his 13th Five Star article with his first "First Star" performance. He led the shorthanded Heat by playing 37:31 overall, with a game-high 30 points on 11-of-17 shooting. He made seven-of-10 free throws and one-of-three from outside, with a team-high 11 rebounds, four steals, and a game-high plus-16 rating.
We knew we were missing those guys. We knew we had to come out with a lot of energy. Throughout the whole game we did a good job of keeping the pace up. - Deng, on playing with only nine healthy bodies.