MIAMI — Yes, it matters, no matter the outside perspective, no matter how the rotations and the duo have been managed to this stage, no matter the apparent ongoing preference for smaller ball.

Erik Spoelstra knows he needs his big lineup to work, the one that features Kel’el Ware alongside Bam Adebayo, the one that proved so proficient and efficient in the 147-123 Monday night victory over the Denver Nuggets that extended the Miami Heat’s winning streak to three.

“The double-big lineup, that’s important, what they both did,” Spoelstra said, with Ware closing the romp with 19 points and nine rebounds, and Adebayo with 13 points and 10 rebounds, even with both afforded the luxury of being given the fourth quarter off.

Since Ware’s arrival in the 2024 first round, Spoelstra seemingly has searched for reasons to play the duo of big men apart rather than together.

And there still is something to be said about the concerns, considering in their 202 minutes together over 20 games this season that pairing has a -12.8 net rating, 18th worse among any Heat two-man pairing.

But there also is something to be said about a smallish roster having 7-foot Ware and 6-9 Adebayo in tandem.

“There will be some possessions where it doesn’t look aesthetically great,” Spoelstra acknowledged, before turning his attention to Thursday night’s game against the East-leading Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena. “That’s OK, in a modern-day spacing and all of that. But what they did was five offensive rebounds for Kel’el and three for Bam. In those minutes, that’s what it has to be.”

Such were the numbers recorded by the two on Monday night, a challenge eased when the Nuggets lost center Nikola Jokic for the second half to a knee injury.

“You have to beat up the teams that play a bit smaller or are trying to spread you out,” Spoelstra said of his big lineup, with the Heat outrebounding the Nuggets 46-36, including 15 offensive rebounds. “You can’t lose all the different games. It’s always about who can get the other team to blink, and I thought their physicality was really important in their minutes together.”

For Adebayo, playing alongside Ware means the opportunity for moments of relief, as was the case with the tag-team approach defensively against Jokic in Monday night’s competitive first half.

“Sometimes I can get a break and go guard somebody else in the corner and we trade off and switch jobs from time to time,” said Adebayo, who returned Monday after missing two games due to back pain. “So for me, it’s better than being the lone big out there, where you got to do it all on your own. So I’m thankful for Kel’el.”

Among the reasons for keeping Ware and Adebayo apart was the lack otherwise of a backup center, a concern that has been lessened by the recent productivity of Nikola Jovic in such a role.

Jovic, who closed with 22 points Monday night, said when the Heat play at speed it hardly feels like he’s playing center even when he’s playing center.

“I think it’s just the way we’re playing now,” he said. “We’re running the floor a lot, and I don’t think there’s a single center in the league that can catch up with me at that position. So it for sure helps our team. It’s easy to play the five when I’m not really playing the five.”

Spoelstra warned not all matchups favor the Ware-Adebayo pairing, with it often a case of the type of player the opposition features at power forward, a concern mitigated with the Nuggets lacking sidelined Aaron Gordon on Monday night.

“It all depends on the matchup and the nuance of it,” Spoelstra said. “It depends on who that other player is.”

And it also depends on which version of Ware shows up.

“Kel’el’s activity level was better, his discipline was better,” Spoelstra said of Monday night’s effort compared to when the Heat lost on Nov. 5 in Denver. “If you just look at the first Denver game compared to this one, he was much more attuned to our system and so you can see the growth in the matter of months.”