{"id":881541,"date":"2026-11-11T09:18:31","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T09:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/881541\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T09:18:31","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T09:18:31","slug":"miami-heat-guard-drops-tough-admission-on-season-start-after-solid-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/881541\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat guard drops tough admission on season start after solid win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following a 115-109 win over the Utah Jazz, the Miami Heat improved to 5-2 over their last seven games. Guard Pelle Larsson pointed to significant defensive growth as the driving force behind the rebound. Giannis Antetokounmpo contributed a 30-point double-double despite dealing with a wrist sprain.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/teams\/387-miami-heat.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miami Heat<\/a> seem to be bouncing back after a tough 0-4 start to the season finishing with 5-2 in the last seven games.<\/p>\n<p>Player of the Game<\/p>\n<p>            <a class=\"article-widget__photo\" href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/players\/15130-giannis-antetokounmpo.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-424878-plsm.jpg\" alt=\"Giannis Antetokounmpo\"\/><br \/>\n            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n                PTS<br \/>\n                30\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                FGS<br \/>\n                12-21\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                REB<br \/>\n                11\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                AST<br \/>\n                4\n            <\/p>\n<p>After their close <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/games\/view\/127078-utah-jazz-miami-heat.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">115-109<\/a> win over the <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/teams\/670-utah-jazz.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Utah Jazz<\/a>, guard <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/players\/38152-pelle-larsson.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pelle Larsson<\/a> answered a question about where they have taken the biggest step forward, providing an honest answer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Defensively, for sure. I mean, today \u2013 109, first week, that would have probably been 130. So, yeah, the defense,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ohnohedidnt24\/status\/2120378971816620092\" rel=\"nofollow\">he said in the postgame interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Larsson finished the game with 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists. For the season, he is averaging 11.4 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists in nearly 30 minutes on the floor per game.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/players\/15130-giannis-antetokounmpo.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> led the Heat\u00a0to the win with 30 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.<\/p>\n<p> Heat nearly missed Giannis for the Jazz matchup  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/image-482143-any780x600.jpg\" title=\"Giannis Antetokounmpo\" alt=\"Giannis Antetokounmpo\" border=\"0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/p>\n<p>Credit IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect &#8211; Scanpix<\/p>\n<p>Giannis has been nursing a right wrist sprain in the Heat&#8217;s past couple of games. There was doubt about Antetokounmpo&#8217;s appearance in the game as he was suddenly listed as questionable to play right before the game.<\/p>\n<p>He was ultimately cleared to play and helped the Heat overcome Utah.<\/p>\n<p>Antetokounmpo is averaging 27.5 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 5.3 assists across 10 appearances so far for the Heat this season.<\/p>\n<p>The Heat are still under .500 with a 5-6 record, but they have shown that they can win in the last few games, providing positive signs for Miami fans.<\/p>\n<p>                                                    <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/plus?utm_source=basketnews_com&amp;utm_medium=bn_plus&amp;utm_id=UA-259273-31&amp;utm_campaign=banners_free_content_for_not_members_bottom_1\" class=\"banners_paid_content_info_block_white banners-paid-content-info-block-white\" data-google-interstitial=\"false\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                                                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bn-plus-img img-fluid\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bn-plus.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                            Thank you for being with us! 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It helps us a lot, and we are committed to delivering you the very latest basketball news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a 115-109 win over the Utah Jazz, the Miami Heat improved to 5-2 over their last seven&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,144,295,189,3881,6],"class_list":["post-881541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-heat","tag-basketball","tag-heat","tag-miami","tag-miami-heat","tag-miamiheat","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117597065064804195","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881541","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=881541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}