Wondering what works for the Heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u2013 And if it ultimately adds up to play-in.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Again.<\/p>\n
\u2013 For the fifth time this season, Heat opened with a lineup of Powell, Herro, Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, and Davion Mitchell.<\/p>\n
\u2013 That unit entered 2-2.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So it was Ware to the second unit, his 11th bench appearance of the season.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The game was Wiggins\u2019 800th regular-season NBA appearance.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Adebayo is now three games from 600 career Heat regular-season appearances.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With the Heat going smaller, the Pacers opened with a lineup of Andrew Nembhard, Quenton Jackson, Aaron Nesmith, Johnny Furphy and Pascal Siakam.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Mitchell called for his second foul with 7:22 left in the opening period, Jaime Jaquez Jr. entered earlier than usual.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jaquez had been listed as questionable earlier in the day with a stomach illness.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Wiggins then called for his second foul with 6:17 left in the opening period, Pelle Larsson followed as the Heat\u2019s second reserve.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Nikola Jovic followed.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Then Ware as ninth man.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Leaving Dru Smith out of that mix.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Smith did not enter for the first time until 11:43 remained, when the Heat were down 28.<\/p>\n
\u2013 By the time Smith entered, Myron Gardner already was on the court for the Heat.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With depth in the backcourt to the degree that Kasparas Jakucionis soon could be headed to the G League for playing time.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And Simone Fontecchio now buried deep on the bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Jaquez cleared just prior to the game from the stomach illness that had him questionable earlier in the day, it left the Heat with their primary rotation for only the fourth time this season.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cInjuries, missed games really are part of this league right now,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cSo we\u2019re no different than anybody else. So we actually probably have had less of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 That, of course, was prior to a game against a team that in last season\u2019s playoffs lost Tyrese Haliburton with an Achilles tear.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Haliburton watched in street clothes from Indiana\u2019s bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 In addition, the Pacers also were without Benedict Mathurin and Obi Toppin.<\/p>\n
\u2013 On the return of Jaquez from a two-game absence with an ankle sprain, Spoelstra was asked how it could spark the second unit.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cYeah, not just for the second unit, but particularly how we play right now,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cWe really do need his attacking nature, his ability to get into the paint. When he\u2019s not there, our paint numbers went way down. And that\u2019s not a coincidence. But he\u2019s really improved a lot of the aspects of his game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra added, \u201cBut more so than just like the specifics of the game, it\u2019s his competitive spirit and nature and toughness that just fits right in with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 At the morning shootaround, Spoelstra reflected on the scheduled Thursday game in Chicago that was postponed due to condensation on the court at the United Center.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cIt was an unfortunate situation,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cOur guys had really prepared and I felt like emotionally we were geared up and ready to compete. Everybody\u2019s really looking forward to it and it\u2019s just an odd situation to be in like that and then there\u2019s no game and you\u2019re trying to wind down. We were back at the hotel and you normally have some kind of emotion, either a win or a loss, and there was no emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Adebayo said he agreed with the postponement in Chicago, rather than attempting to gear back up to game readiness after such a lengthy delay.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cAfter an hour of just sitting there, it kind of starts to die down,\u201d he said of the preparedness. \u201cSo, I\u2019m glad they rescheduled it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 With his first steal, Herro tied Sherman Douglas for 20th on the Heat all-time regular-season list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday night\u2019s 123-99 loss to the Indiana Pacers: \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,144,165,295,189,3880,3881,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-529127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-heat","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-heat","13":"tag-miami-heat-blog","14":"tag-miamiheat","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115875765811991513","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}