MIAMI — Sustainable? That was the logical question in the wake of Friday night’s 146-114 Miami Heat annihilation of the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum.

Sustainable. That was the answer in the Heat locker room in the wake of the third-highest scoring total in the franchise’s 38 seasons.

“I think a lot of guys would tell you we did a lot of running in training camp and even preseason leading up,” forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said amid his third-season revival. “We were always doing drills to get us conditioned and it prepared us for this. We feel very confident in our conditioning.”

It is a blueprint months in the making by coach Erik Spoelstra.

“We knew after last year Spo was going to switch up the whole philosophy of his offense,” center Bam Adebayo said of last season’s lamentable 37-45 run. “He told me that. He said he wanted us to play faster, and we are.”

So fast, Adebayo said, that not even time for a playbook.

“You can’t really scout plays for us. There are no plays. In the whole first half, I don’t think Spo ran a play,” Adebayo said in the wake of his 24-point performance against the Grizzlies, with the Heat turning their attention to Sunday’s 6 p.m. home opener against the New York Knicks at Kaseya Center.

Spoelstra saying the Heat were going to do something was one thing. Doing it has been eye opening.

“We always say that we’re going to play fast every year. We don’t really do it. And then we got to go back to a slow pace,” said forward Nikola Jovic, who scored 20 off the bench Friday.

“This year, from the jump, really, he really wanted us to play this way. I feel like coach has everybody pretty happy now, because we haven’t really had games like this the last few years where we really go off and do what we know how to do.”

This, Jovic said, could be the payoff for the relentless running in camp.

“I feel like all that running at training camp, that was really hard, I think it will pay off. I think it’ll help us,” he said.

“Having a great defense I feel is really important. But I feel defense only can get you to one point. I feel like offensively you have to be great, you have to put the ball in the basket if you want to win. We maybe don’t have the best names in the league. Playing this way helps us put more points on the board and just look better.”

With it now becoming an exercise and experiment in sustainability.

“We had some hard days in training camp to get ourselves ready for this type of playing style and playing that fast,” Adebayo said. “This started from early playing in pickup. We were playing, we got to get the ball ahead in four seconds, and playing with that type of pace all summer.

“You get used to it. So now it’s just second nature for us at this point. We got little things to clean up turnover-wise, but as far as us playing with this kind of pace and space with everybody getting involved, that’s just a great thing for a team like this.”

Why Ware?

After starting Jovic alongside Adebayo in the opening lineup in Wednesday night’s road loss to the Orlando Magic, Spoelstra went with the Kel’el Ware-Adebayo opening alignment Friday night in Memphis.

He said there were mitigating factors with his initial approach in Orlando.

“The last four days of preseason, both guys were hurt, Kel’el and Nikola. They were minor injuries, but I didn’t know who was going to be available that first night,” Spoelstra said. “I was leaning toward this starting lineup going into game one, and then Kel’el had a neck spasm. Then, he had a minor sprained ankle where he didn’t practice the day before the game.

“He was moving great in the Orlando game. If I would’ve known that, I would have liked to have had more minutes for him.”

In Wednesday’s opener, Adebayo played 34:12, Jovic 23:07 and Ware 13:48. Friday night in Memphis, Adebayo played 28:21, Jovic 26:56 and Ware 22:50, with those numbers somewhat skewed by the magnitude of the rout.

“This is a good way to get all three of those guys the minutes that we need in Bam, Kel’el and Niko,” Spoelstra said of Friday night’s rotation. “But we’ll see. There might be certain games where it might make sense to start Niko. It doesn’t really matter in my mind. I know to other people it might.

“Those guys are going to get minutes, and we need Kel’el and Niko to grow and assume more responsibilities as the season goes on.”

Originally Published: October 25, 2025 at 11:13 AM EDT