Gerald Green says

Gerald Green works relentlessly hoping Miami Heat need him again

MIAMI — It’s the same scene every night. As Dwyane Wade, Hassan Whiteside and his other teammates finish answering post-game questions and the bright lights of the TV cameras flip off, Gerald Green bounds into the locker room dressed in sweat-drenched practice gear.

It’s another game in which he did not play, or barely played, and that’s been a difficult reality to absorb after being one of the Heat’s key bench players the first four months of the season. His minutes have plummeted since the team signed Joe Johnson at the end of February. He typically heads upstairs to the practice court immediately after the final buzzer to get a game-like workout.

None of his teammates are up there. While they’re trying to get out the door, Green’s working like crazy with a team staffer to get back in the action. He sprints the length of the floor and spots up for a jumper, then does it again and again. He runs pick-and-rolls at full speed, posts up against ghost defenders, pelts the net with 3-pointers — all of it just in case.

“I just try to stay in shape and continue to do the things I’m supposed to do,” he said. “I’m going to be ready. I stay dialed in to film sessions. I still go through game days and shootarounds like I’m going to play. I have to take the same steps as before.

“Hopefully my time comes, but if not, I’m still gonna be a professional and cheer my team on and try to lead by example. I’m still gonna go hard in practice and do the things I can control. And when I’m not playing, I’m going to enjoy somebody else’s success.”

Any injury to one of Miami’s wing players could necessitate Green jumping back in, and he’s probably coach Erik Spoelstra’s first choice to start if Wade misses any time over the next three weeks.

Green was a decent bench contributor before things unraveled last month. In his first 43 games, he averaged 10.5 points on 40.4 percent shooting, including 32.8 on 3s, while showing modest improvement defensively. He nosedived with the worst imaginable timing, though, as his shooting accuracy dropped to 28 percent over the three weeks leading up to Johnson’s signing.

In the 13 games since then, Spoelstra kept Green on the side for five times and gave him 10 minutes or less four times. His most extended work came when Wade sat against Toronto and in a pair of lopsided games, including Thursday’s 112-88 loss to the Spurs.

“It’s tough,” Green said. “It is. But at the end of the day, I came here to win.”

At the end of a victory over Denver two weeks ago, Spoelstra called Green to him and pointed at former Heat sharpshooter Mike Miller and told him a story about the 2012-13 season. Miller was in the same spot, glued to his chair at one point for 19 of 29 games late in the year, before coming up big to help Miami win the NBA Finals.