{"id":183767,"date":"2026-03-09T03:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/183767\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T03:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:55:10","slug":"this-heat-duo-is-beginning-to-take-off-hot-hot-hoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/183767\/","title":{"rendered":"This Heat duo is beginning to take off &#8211; Hot Hot Hoops"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-04-at-11.18.50-AM-edited-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Miami Heat\" class=\"wp-image-15141\"  \/>(Mandatory Credit: Tomas Diniz Santos\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>For the first one-and-a-half seasons, the Miami Heat\u2019s big man duo of Bam Adebayo and Kel\u2019el Ware struggled to find rhythm together on either end.<\/p>\n<p>Last season, their two most frequent lineups ranked in the 42nd and 39th percentile in NET, including the 41st and 18th percentile offensively, according to Cleaning The Glass. There were pockets of success, but the spacing was oftentimes poor, with both players occupying similar spots on the floor.<\/p>\n<p>The results were considerably worst through Feb. 1 this season, sporting a minus-6.2 NET, where they were poor on both ends. Their defense dropped off the map, and the offense wasn\u2019t much better.<\/p>\n<p>However, they have begun to showcase some of their potential over the last month as the league\u2019s most productive duo, gaining trust and opening eyes.<\/p>\n<p>Bam Adebayo, Kel\u2019el Ware have been NBA\u2019s best duo since start of February:<\/p>\n<p>According to NBA.com\u2019s lineup tracking data, the two players have logged 75 minutes together since the start of February. Over that span, when Ware and Adebayo have shared the floor together, they have outscored opponents by 109 points in 105 minutes with a league-best plus-47.8 NET Rating.<\/p>\n<p>Their competition hasn\u2019t been particularly sturdy over that span, facing just three teams above .500 over that span. However, they outscored Houston\u2019s frontcourt by 21 points and Charlotte\u2019s by two points, while completely dominating Washington, Brooklyn and New Orleans, three of the West\u2019s worst squads.<\/p>\n<p>These next few weeks will present some intriguing challenges. Miami hosts Detroit on Sunday; they host the Magic next weekend, followed by games against Charlotte and Houston (again) plus San Antonio, Cleveland and Boston.<\/p>\n<p>Most of all, Adebayo and Ware have played up to expectations both offensively and defensively. Both have spaced the floor well, while Ware\u2019s continued to be a viable lob threat, where he\u2019s utilized best, plus as a weakside shot blocker and rim protector. <\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll see if their strong play against better teams continues. In totality, Miami is just 17-22 against teams above .500 with a dozen games against such teams over the final five weeks.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>To check out our other content, click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hothothoops.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Twitter\/X\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hothothoops?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Instagram\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/hothothoops?fbclid=PAAaZK-uxa3cMPUQcM2z6aGmK3faJ-G1R7YKtEOcPJNPO4VwfOvw1epBIoCyk_aem_Ad_aZ7zQwWkfVN5rHfd0UkIWrYEnU4j4Ulz0SRK__Qt1738L-NeQ3cZC5voFks7V6K8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Check out Hot Hot Hoops on Facebook\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/1GUQbKhsRp\/?mibextid=wwXIfr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our YouTube channel\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/hothothoops\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Mandatory Credit: Tomas Diniz Santos\/Getty Images) For the first one-and-a-half seasons, the Miami Heat\u2019s big man duo of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-183767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}