MIAMI — When the calling card is perpetual motion, slowing down is not necessarily in Pelle Larsson’s DNA. But as the Heat prepare for Wednesday night’s season opener, the third-year guard has decided the best approach is taking it slow.

Slowed throughout the preseason by an illness he said might have been picked up during the Heat’s trip to Quebec City for their Oct. 3 exhibition opener against the Toronto Raptors, Larsson finds himself atypically pacing himself.

“I feel like we’re slow tracking, honestly,” Larsson said candidly, when asked if he was on fast-track mode as the season approaches. “I feel like we’ve been taking our time with this. I tried to speed track last time against the Timberwolves and it didn’t work out, so we’ve been just taking our time, upping the practice load a little bit every day and it’s working.”

Last week’s exhibition against Minnesota was Larsson’s first attempt at a comeback. It resulted in a 4-of-15 performance from the field, the 2024 second-round pick out of Arizona eventually pulling himself from that game.

Amid Heat uncertainty in reserve behind starting point guard Davion Mitchell, Larsson took minutes at point guard off the bench in that initial exhibition against the Raptors.

Now the question is whether there have been ample enough reps at the position for Larsson to assume such a role at the start of the season, which opens against those same Timberwolves.

Larsson, who had held a dominant, on-ball role with Sweden’s national team during World Cup qualifying this summer said he is ready for such a challenge.

“Very comfortable,” he said of being cast in such an assignment, “because the way we play, even if I’m the point guard on the floor, I’m not always going to be the one bringing it up.”

Such, he said, is the luxury of having so many frontcourt ballhandlers in the Heat mix, such as Nikola Jovic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo.

“So if I have the pressure from defenders, no worries,” Larsson said, “we go to somebody else, Niko or Giannis or a lot of guys, Bam, too. And then if they have pressure guys on them, they can put that responsibility on me, so I feel very comfortable.”

Among the reasons Larsson received reps at point guard during the preseason was the uncertainty with Dru Smith, who missed the entire exhibition schedule due to a calf strain sustained during training camp.

Asked after Monday’s practice at Kaseya Center about the availability of Larsson and Smith for Wednesday night’s season opener, coach Erik Spoelstra said, “They both practiced today. So they’re trending that way. We’ll see. But yeah, they went through a very demanding practice.”

The season’s first injury report is due by 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Smith is somewhat hopeful about Wednesday night.

“We’re just going to see how it responds, that kind of thing,” he said of the practice sessions. “Don’t want to overdo it. The main issue is just seeing how it responds to new stimuluses.”

All things considered, Smith said being back on the court is heartening.

“I was hoping to at least get that last preseason game in,” he said of Friday night’s matchup against the Magic, “but that just wasn’t the case.”

Unlike Larsson, Smith has had ample opportunity running the Heat’s fast-paced system.

“I think it’s pretty similar,” Smith said when asked to compare to last season’s offense. “I mean, most of the things are very similar. The principles are the same. We might have a few more nuances this year, just with some new bodies and things like that. But other than that, I think the base is the same, and we’re just trying to build off of that.”

Even with some uncertainty, the fact that his entire roster worked at Monday’s practice had Spoelstra wishing there still wasn’t a two-day wait until Wednesday night’s season opener, joking about a request he made to general manager Andy Elisburg.

“We’re going to petition the league this afternoon,” Spoelstra said shortly after the conclusion of Monday’s practice. “I just talked to Andy. See if we can tip this off (Tuesday) night.”