Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 112-105 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks:<\/p>\n
\u2013 This was the flip side of singular dominance.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And yet an important side, perhaps even more meaningful in the long run than Bam Adebayo\u2019s 83.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Again without Tyler Herro, Norman Powell and Andrew Wiggins, the Heat had to search elsewhere for scoring.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Adebayo clearly on Tuesday-residue fumes.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Basically, running on empty.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Enter the kid stuff.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Pelle Larsson in attack mode.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kasparas Jakucionis scoring over the top.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kel\u2019el Ware taking care of the boards.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Even while shorthanded, the victory Tuesday practically was a given.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Such are the wheezing Wizards.<\/p>\n
\u2013 This one against the Bucks was not.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So the Heat developmental pipeline did its part.<\/p>\n
\u2013 As in the power of positive drafting.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Something the Bucks in recent years have shown little of.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So as the Bucks fall from the play-in race.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat rise in the playoff race.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Saturday\u2019s showdown against the Magic looming.<\/p>\n
\u2013 When a bit more in the support system would help.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With it now two weeks without Powell on his week-to-week scheduling.<\/p>\n
\u2013 A week without Wiggins.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And obviously concern anytime that Herro is out.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Still, Larsson stood tall when needed.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With a decisive late 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And Adebayo did get his typical numbers.<\/p>\n
\u2013 As in winning numbers.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Herro (quad), Powell (groin) and Wiggins (toe) again out, the Heat opened for a double-big lineup, with Ware starting alongside Adebayo, along with Larsson, Davion Mitchell and Jakucionis.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It left the Heat with their 23rd lineup of the season.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It was the 22nd time Adebayo and Ware started together this season.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Myron Gardner had started in that lineup Tuesday night when Ware was out with a shoulder strain.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It was the 11th start of Jakucionis\u2019 rookie season.<\/p>\n
\u2013 True value at No. 20.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Bucks opened with a lineup of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Myles Turner, Kyle Kuzma, Kevin Porter Jr. and Ousmane Dieng.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jaime Jaquez Jr. was first off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Followed by Dru Smith.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Simone Fontecchio making it eight deep.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And Gardner making his entrance fourth off the bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 To his credit, Adebayo came through when needed late.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Nothing flashing.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And percentages hardly efficient.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But the Heat captain still found a way for his team to find a way.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Mitchell, Jaquez, Smith and Fontecchio also with their moments in this.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So now a seven-game Heat winning streak.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Longest since 2023-24.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With a 9-2 record since the All-Star break.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And a seven-game home winning streak going into the Magic matchup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 112-105 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks: \u2013 This was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646980,"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-655480","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\/116219444122413183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655480","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=655480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}