MIAMI \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday\u2019s 115-105 victory over the Houston Rockets:<\/p>\n
\u2013 Yes, finally some extended side-by-side again for the Heat with Bam Adebayo and Kel\u2019el Ware.<\/p>\n
\u2013 A reminder that big sometimes can be better.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So a double-double for Adebayo.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And one for Ware.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The interesting part is almost always being in a zone with Ware in the game.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The trust with individual defense is not there.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With questions about such ability.<\/p>\n
\u2013 In the first half, there was quality time together.<\/p>\n
\u2013 In the second half, initially it was more either\/or.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And then, both there for the finish.<\/p>\n
\u2013 By design.<\/p>\n
\u2013 In this one, it was as if coach Erik Spoelstra said enough when it came to being beaten on the boards.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And that certainly is one area where Ware has more than held his own.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Norman Powell out, more opportunity to turn to something bigger.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With trust this time even in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Having reached the point where it\u2019s almost surprising to see games like this, with Ware with more than 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Indeed, the rare box score when Adebayo plays 35:00 and Ware 28:35.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Powell (groin) out, Tyler Herro opened alongside Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Pelle Larsson and Davion Mitchell.<\/p>\n
\u2013 That lineup entered 0-2.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Herro then was called for a double-technical foul along with Kevin Durant, as the two jawed after a timeout.<\/p>\n
\u2013The Rockets opened with a lineup of Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, Kevin Durant and Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Ware was first off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Promptly converting his 101st 3-pointer of his career.<\/p>\n
\u2013\u00a0 Jaime Jaquez Jr. followed.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And then Kasparas Jakucionus.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Simone Fontecchio remaining in the rotation for nine deep.<\/p>\n
\u2013\u00a0 Adebayo then played alongside Ware, even with Adebayo called for his second foul with 2:24 left in the opening period.<\/p>\n
\u2013 By the end of the opening period, the Heat were 10 deep, with Dru Smith entering.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The rotation tightened in the second half, with no Fontecchio and limited Jakucionis.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra said it can\u2019t just be Herro in Powell\u2019s absence..<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cWe have enough guys to put points on the board and guys have had those opportunities throughout this course of the season to prove that they can step up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra, who will be Team USA Olympic coach at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, was asked about the Rockets\u2019 Durant saying that even at 40 he hopes to be part of that mix.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThat\u2019s the culture of USA Basketball, you just want the best American players to raise their hand and say, \u2018I want to do this,\u2019 \u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cAnd you can feel his passion for representing the country and the USA on the jersey. He\u2019s been incredible in those competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The game opened the two-game season series that concludes March 21 in Houston.<\/p>\n
\u2013 That made the Rockets the final team for the Heat to face the first time this season.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat already have concluded their season series with 14 other teams: Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Golden State, LA Clippers, Memphis, Minnesota, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento and Utah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday\u2019s 115-105 victory over the Houston Rockets: \u2013 Yes,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,144,165,295,189,3880,3881,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-632898","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\/116155589809506908","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632898","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=632898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}