a 110-96 victory<\/a>, lifting their home record to 7-1.<\/p>\n\u201cI think it\u2019s human nature,\u201d Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of somewhat playing down to the competition. \u201cWe jumped out to an early lead and I think it creeps in that it\u2019s going to be an easy game.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Bam Adebayo back in the mix, Spoelstra somewhat reshuffled the mix while mindful of Adebayo\u2019s minutes after a six-game absence with a toe strain.<\/p>\n
Adebayo closed with 20 points and seven rebounds in 29 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt good, just trying to find a rhythm, let the game come to me, and it did at some point,\u201d Adebayo said.<\/p>\n
The Heat also got 25 points from Norman Powell, 17 from former Warriors Andrew Wiggins and seven points and 16 rebounds from Kel\u2019el Ware, who shifted back to a reserve role.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end,\u201d Spoelstra said, \u201cI thought we wore on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday\u00a0 night\u2019s game:<\/p>\n
1. Game flow: The Heat moved to an early 16-point lead amid an 0-for-12 start from the field by the Warriors, before settling in for a 29-20 lead at the end of the opening period. The play remained ragged from there, with the Heat going into the intermission up 49-45.<\/p>\n
The Warriors then took their first lead of the game at 60-59 in the third period, up 74-72 going into the fourth.<\/p>\n
The Heat pushed back to a 90-78 lead with 5:17 to play after Powell and Adebayo were inserted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the second half I thought our efforts were much better,\u201d Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n
But back came the Warriors, closing within 91-85 with 4:16 to play.<\/p>\n
Three baskets by Adebayo then quelled the Warriors rally, with Powell and Adebayo combining for 26 of the Heat\u2019s final 29 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cDown the stretch he was just really good,\u201d Spoelstra said of Powell. \u201cWe put the ball in his hands and ran the pick and roll basically with him and Bam.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powell scored 17 in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw a more energized group to close out the game,\u201d Powell said. \u201cTonight, in the fourth quarter I was a recipient.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Adebayo back: Adebayo\u2019s return moved Ware back to the second unit, with Spoelstra otherwise staying with Powell, Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Pelle Larsson as his starters.<\/p>\n
It was the fourth time Ware played off the bench in his 15 appearances this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cKel\u2019el was really good tonight,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cI mentioned that to the team, that it\u2019s not easy to be starting, playing really well, and then come off the bench and have an impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it was more about the mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adebayo essentially picked up where he left off when he converted a 3-pointer early in the first quarter, another in the third and then one in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Adebayo had converted at least one 3-pointer in a career-high 19 consecutive games, dating to last season, before he was limited by his toe sprain to just the opening 8:12 on Nov. 5 in Denver.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely missed him and glad to have him back,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n
3. Jovic out: Even with Adebayo back, Spoelstra was able to stay with his base rotation, with Nikola Jovic sidelined by a hip impingement.<\/p>\n
That essentially had Ware cast in the role that had been held by Jovic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started hurting yesterday in the morning before practice,\u201d Jovic said of Tuesday\u2019s practice. \u201cI went through the practice and it was kind of getting worse and worse. I finished the practice and played some extra, just to go through the reps and I thought it was going to be better. But during the day it got a little worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd today, I felt good. I got some shots up to see how it felt and it did not feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jovic said the expectation is just a one-game absence, with the Heat next playing Friday in Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably just one game, hopefully,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
4. The Golden State who?: With Curry, Butler and Green out, the Warriors also were without Jonathan Kuminga and De\u2019Anthony Melton due to ongoing knee injuries, with Al Horford given off the second night of the back-to-back set.<\/p>\n
That had Golden State opening with a lineup of Brandin Podziemski, Will Richard, Moses Moody, Gui Santos and Trayce Jackson-Davis.<\/p>\n
The Warriors later cycled through the likes of Quinten Post and Pat Spencer.<\/p>\n
Podziemski led Golden State with 20 points,<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really proud of the guys, of the effort, of the fight,\u201d Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.<\/p>\n
5. On the road again: Next up is an NBA Cup game on Friday night in Chicago, with a loss eliminating the Heat from the opportunity to advance to the knockout round.<\/p>\n
The two-game trip then concludes Sunday in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 A week ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers returned to Kaseya Center risking that they could win while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,124,2295,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-54055","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-news","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54055","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=54055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}