exhibition against Minnesota<\/a> was Larsson\u2019s 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.<\/p>\nAmid 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Larsson, who had held a dominant, on-ball role with Sweden\u2019s national team during World Cup qualifying this summer said he is ready for such a challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery comfortable,\u201d he said of being cast in such an assignment, \u201cbecause the way we play, even if I\u2019m the point guard on the floor, I\u2019m not always going to be the one bringing it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if I have the pressure from defenders, no worries,\u201d Larsson said, \u201cwe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Asked after Monday\u2019s practice at Kaseya Center about the availability of Larsson and Smith for Wednesday night\u2019s season opener, coach Erik Spoelstra said, \u201cThey both practiced today. So they\u2019re trending that way. We\u2019ll see. But yeah, they went through a very demanding practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The season\u2019s first injury report is due by 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Smith is somewhat hopeful about Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just going to see how it responds, that kind of thing,\u201d he said of the practice sessions. \u201cDon\u2019t want to overdo it. The main issue is just seeing how it responds to new stimuluses.\u201d<\/p>\n
All things considered, Smith said being back on the court is heartening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hoping to at least get that last preseason game in,\u201d he said of Friday night\u2019s matchup against the Magic, \u201cbut that just wasn\u2019t the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike Larsson, Smith has had ample opportunity running the Heat\u2019s fast-paced system.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s pretty similar,\u201d Smith said when asked to compare to last season\u2019s offense. \u201cI 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\u2019re just trying to build off of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with some uncertainty, the fact that his entire roster worked at Monday\u2019s practice had Spoelstra wishing there still wasn\u2019t a two-day wait until Wednesday night\u2019s season opener, joking about a request he made to general manager Andy Elisburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to petition the league this afternoon,\u201d Spoelstra said shortly after the conclusion of Monday\u2019s practice. \u201cI just talked to Andy. See if we can tip this off (Tuesday) night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 When the calling card is perpetual motion, slowing down is not necessarily in Pelle Larsson\u2019s DNA.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,124,2295,110],"class_list":["post-432722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432722","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=432722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}