Andrew Wiggins #22, Bam Adebayo #13, Tyler Herro #14, Davion Mitchell #45, and Simone Fontecchio #0 of the Miami Heat look on during the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 25, 2026 at Rocket Arena in Cleveland.
David Liam Kyle
NBAE via Getty Images
CLEVELAND
The Miami Heat’s rotation remains a work in progress, as the roster just recently returned to full health for the first time in months. But the Heat might have settled on its starting lineup for the remainder of the regular season and however long its postseason run lasts.
With guard Norman Powell and forward Andrew Wiggins recently returning from injury, the Heat made a change to its starting unit to open Wednesday night’s 120-103 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena with a lineup of Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins and Bam Adebayo. It marked this lineup’s seventh start of the season, but its first start since a Jan. 13 win over the Phoenix Suns before the injury bug hit.
Powell was moved into the starting lineup Wednesday, and guard Pelle Larsson was shifted back to a reserve role.
“This is what I was getting to in January,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said moments after Wednesday’s win in Cleveland that snapped the team’s five-game losing skid. “I’m trying to remember the last game, I think it was Phoenix at home. It’s go time right now, so we’re going to go with this.
“There really wasn’t a lot of thought to it. It’s just now we have finally everybody available. So we’re able to get to the normal plan. Sometimes you can’t necessarily get to what you want to do based on injuries.”
The Heat’s new preferred starting lineup finished as a positive Wednesday, outscoring the Cavaliers by three points in 14 minutes together.
But the group’s minutes were uneven, as it opened Wednesday’s game on a 16-10 run before Spoelstra turned to the bench for the first time. The start of the second half didn’t go as well, as the Cavaliers outscored the Heat by seven points to begin the third quarter before Spoelstra made a substitution.
“We just got to continue to give ourselves up for one another on the team in that starting lineup,” Powell said, with the Heat (39-34) set to close its two-game set against the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Friday (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun and NBA TV). “Do the little things that Pelle [Larsson], Jaime [Jaquez Jr.], [Kasparas Jakucionis], when they’re in the game. The hustle plays, the second and third effort plays, cutting and moving offensively.
“I thought we did a great job of that first half. And I thought coming out in the third, the ball got a little sticky. That fueled what they wanted to do. But we stayed together, figured it out, and we were able to get our offense back clicking.”
Powell was moved back into the Heat’s starting group after playing off the bench in three of the previous four games he was available for. Powell, who was the Heat’s lone All-Star this season, started in his first 49 appearances of the season prior to this brief stint as a reserve.
Powell closed Wednesday’s start with a team-high 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 shooting on threes, four rebounds and two assists in 34 minutes.
On the other end of the starting lineup change, Larsson played as a reserve on Wednesday for the first time since Jan. 13. He was part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware and Kasparas Jakucionis.
Even in a bench role, Larsson continued to contribute positive minutes and managed to play a team-high 34:04 in Wednesday’s victory. He finished with 14 points, five rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block in his first game as a reserve in more than two months.
“Pelle is undeniable, you can’t take him off the floor,” Spoelstra said. “So I didn’t think anything of [the role change], he didn’t think anything of it that we made the change. Because I know, and I know that he knows that I know that he’s going to play. He led us in minutes tonight.
“The three loose balls that he had down the stretch, that’s Pelle Larson to a T. That defines him, ball on the floor, ball in the air. I just love the way he competes, how he impacts the game, and his teammates really appreciate him as well.”
Larsson, who has made 48 starts in his second NBA season after the Heat took him in the second round of the 2024 Draft, said “it felt a little different” playing off the bench on Wednesday.
“It felt like it had been awhile,” Larsson, 25, admitted. “… The other guys get a little head start on you. They’re a little bit warmer, but then my energy was higher than theirs when I got in because I had the rest. And then I could carry that throughout the whole second quarter.”
Larsson even played the entire fourth quarter, totaling nine points and five rebounds in the final period. With the help of recording a plus/minus of plus-17 in the fourth quarter, Larsson closed the win at plus-14
“Closing is definitely more important than starting,” Larsson said. “Just being out there on the court as much as I can is a privilege and really fun. So the more I can be out there, the better. And if it’s starting or not, it doesn’t matter.”
With just more than two weeks left in the regular season and the possibility of needing to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament for the fourth straight year still looming, the Heat’s rotation remains fluid. But the team’s hope is that Wednesday’s tweak to the starting lineup is a change that can stick.
“We feel very good about having all of our guys available,” Spoelstra said. “And that’s a big strength of our roster is our depth and our versatility throughout the rotation. What we need is consistency of play. We know that.”
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.