CLEVELAND \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Wednesday night\u2019s 120-103 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers:<\/p>\n
\u2013 Desperate measures for a desperate time?<\/p>\n
\u2013 Perhaps not.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But the five-game losing streak the Heat carried into the night seemingly called for change.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So Heat coach Erik Spoelstra changed.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Norman Powell back as a starter.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Where most All-Stars prefer to be.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And Pelle Larsson to the bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Through no fault of his own.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It was the first time Larsson did not start when available since Jan. 13.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The starting lineup was rounded out by Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Herro and Davion Mitchell.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With the Heat 3-3 entering the night with that lineup.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So this now the approach going forward?<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra, of course, not one to tip his hand.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra, in fact, was asked pregame about whether he is closer to formulating a stable rotation for the postseason.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cWe\u2019re forging ahead,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, I\u2019m not planning my playoff rotations right now. No, we have work to do. Obviously, we\u2019re trying to move up and that\u2019s keeping us all occupied. But we feel encouraged that we\u2019re finally healthy and it\u2019s coming at a good time. We need it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 That left unsaid whether there even will be a set rotation or more matching up with the opposition.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cNumber one. I\u2019m not telling you. All right?\u201d Spoelstra said with a grin. \u201cBut we\u2019ll have our rotation out there. We feel very good about having all of our guys available, and that\u2019s a big strength of our roster, is our depth and our versatility throughout the rotation. What we need is consistency of play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Cavaliers, without Dean Wade, Jarrett Allen and Max Strus, among others, opened with a lineup of Evan Mobley Jr., Keon Ellis, Sam Merrill, James Harden and Donovan Mitchell.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It was Harden\u2019s 1,000th career regular-season start, one of nine active players at that figure.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Allen out, it made it easier for the Heat to start smaller.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Larsson and Jaime Jaquez Jr. entered together first off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kel\u2019el Ware followed.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Kaspras Jakucionis making it nine deep.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Again leaving previous rotation components Dru Smith and Simone Fontecchio out of the mix.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With again not a sniff of rotation time for Nikola Jovic.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra\u2019s catchphrase going in again was \u201ccompetitive will.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Noting, \u201cDefensively, it hasn\u2019t been to our standards. We\u2019ve played some good teams. They\u2019ve raised their level, and we weren\u2019t able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 With faith, he said, enduring.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cWe believe in our defense,\u201d he continued, \u201cWe think that fuels so much more, even for us offensively. If we get some more stops, it\u2019ll all fall in line.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra believes the messaging is resonating, even if the results are not always there.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThe thing about our group is they\u2019re echoing the message to each other, even starting before I even have to meet with the team,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve fought extremely hard to have a top-five defense. We\u2019ve grinded through games and take a lot of pride on that side of the floor. But it\u2019s an explosive offensive league. You let up on your mentality at all, the offensive talent that you face can get to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra was asked at the morning shootaround of Myron Gardner as an energizer.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cEnergy, effort is a talent in this league,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cBecause not everybody does it, certainly not to the extent that he does. And what he can provide sometimes is a bolt of inspiration, Through that relentless energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra added, \u201cAnd he\u2019s getting better with the details, too. Defensively, so he\u2019s not fouling as much with his aggressiveness. And offensively, he\u2019s really improved. He\u2019s very good as an open shooter. And he can play within our principles on drives. And you feel pretty confident he\u2019ll make the right play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Wednesday night\u2019s 120-103 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers: \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,16151,124,2295,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-206375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-headlines","11":"tag-miami-heat","12":"tag-miami-heat-blog","13":"tag-miami-news","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206375","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=206375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}