Oladipo scores 23pts in Game5: A year ago I was sitting in a dark room by myself and just broke down

"I could have done two things. I could have stopped. Or I could have ran right through it," Oladipo said of his injuries. "And I'm still running through it.

Victor Oladipo ended with 23 points shooting 8 for 16 from the field in win against the Atlanta Hawks.

Per ESPN, Victor Oladipo, who appeared in just 96 out of a possible 309 regular-season games the past four years because of knee and quadriceps injuries, and Max Strus, who was undrafted and appeared in just two games total with the first two teams he was with in the NBA, picked up the slack to help the Heat clinch their first playoff series at home since 2016.

Oladipo, who scored more points in the first five minutes of the first quarter (eight) than he had in the first four games of the series (six), finished with 23 points on 8-for-16 shooting.

“A year ago today I was expecting and waiting for my next surgery,” Oladipo said. “I remember a year ago today, around this time last year, I was sitting in a dark room by myself and just broke down. Not because I quit, but because I was at the lowest point I could be at. And now, God has put me in this position today so I just made the most of it.”

It was the first time Oladipo scored 20 points in a playoff game since he did it against the Heat in the NBA bubble as a member of the Indiana Pacers.

“I could have done two things. I could have stopped. Or I could have ran right through it,” Oladipo said of his injuries. “And I’m still running through it.”

Fonte: ESPN.