Hassan Whiteside with the two-handed swat and staredown

The Phoenix Suns’ rookie point guard Mike James had a practically flawless game. He shot 50 percent from three point land, over 50 from the inside the arc and committed zero turnovers. His strong performance may have gotten to his head, and in a questionable move, he took the ball hard to the hole in an attempt to put Hassan Whiteside on a poster.

Whiteside promptly smashed the dunk attempt against the glass with both hands and sent James sprawling to the floor as the daring yet puzzling decision by the rookie floor general didn’t pay off. To add insult to injury, the towering Miami Heat center stuck around after the rejection to stare down the fallen James as he picked himself up off of the floor.

James had the script flipped on what must’ve been a picture perfect play in his head, but came away with a valuable lesson. Don’t challenge the Great Wall of Whiteside if you can’t clear all 11 feet and eight inches of his rim protection.

The defensive stopper protected the paint and flexed his scoring muscles as he swatted four shots and racked up 23 points. With a big game from Whiteside and an additional 29 points from staring point guard Goran Dragic, Miami walked away with the victory 126-115.

In a rather odd call, head coach Erik Spoelstra played just eight of Miami’s 13 available players. The men whose numbers were called got the job done, but for a team that has no hope of challenging for the Larry O’Brien Championship trophy, it was strange to see so many of their young assets warming the bench.

The win now approach by Spoelstra may be a valiant effort to prove that the Heat won’t simply rollover and relinquish wins to their competition, but sitting their future cornerstones will come at an expense. They retained and spent the 14th overall pick in this year’s draft on Bam Adebayo out of the University of Kentucky, and it only makes sense that they’d commit to his long term development this early into his career.

Adebayo is long, explosively athletic and incredibly raw, but if he doesn’t suit up for any significant action this season, his progression will come to a halt and his potential will go waste. No one’s asking Miami to completely sacrifice winning now for player projects that may take years to reach their peak, but there’s surely a compromise in which the Heat can stay competitive while still developing their assets.