18 from Bam Adebayo<\/a>, 16 from Davion Mitchell, as well as 20 points and 14 rebounds from Kel\u2019el Ware, who was back in the starting lineup.<\/p>\nThere even were a career-high 12 rebounds and 14 points from Keshad Johnson. Yes, Keshad Johnson, as the Heat moved to 10-6.<\/p>\n
To Spoelstra, even with another offensive breakout, it also was about the defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys were really taking the challenge, making it tough on them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then offensively, that definitely looked more like how we looked 10 days ago, two weeks ago. The pace was solid, sharing the ball. And from sharing the ball, we were able to really attack and put some pressure on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
So make it 2-1 for the Heat in pool play in the NBA Cup with one game remaining, and perhaps as significant, a +46 margin of victory so far in Cup play, with that one of the prime tiebreakers in the in-season tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going for it,\u201d Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n
Five Degrees of Heat from Friday night\u2019s game:<\/p>\n
1. Game flow: The Heat led 36-32 after the first quarter, went up by 25 in the second period, and led 70-52 at halftime.<\/p>\n
The Heat then completely blew the game open in the third quarter, moving to a 102-75 lead entering the fourth.<\/p>\n
Mitchell had nine points and three assists in the third quarter to all but decide it, with the Heat closing that period on a 15-2 run.<\/p>\n
The Heat limited the Bulls to 6-of-26 shooting in the third, including 3 of 15 on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows you we\u2019ve got guys that go in there, stay ready, and make an impact on the game,\u201d Ware said of being shorthanded not leaving the Heat short.<\/p>\n
2. Back in: With Wiggins out, Ware moved back into the starting lineup a game after being bumped out by Adebayo\u2019s return from his six-game absence.<\/p>\n
Ware now has started 12 of his 16 appearances this season, having started six in a row before Wednesday night\u2019s effort off the bench against the visiting Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n
Ware extended his career-best streak to seven consecutive games with double-digit rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can go in the game any moment and what the team needs is rebounds,\u201d Ware said. \u201cI can go in there with any unit, at any time, and impact the team that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Powell out, in: The rotation briefly got further muddled when Powell left 7:26 into the game with a\u00a0 strained left groin.<\/p>\n
Powell missed three games earlier this season with a strained right groin, a victory over the Charlotte Hornets and losses to the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n
This time, Powell returned to the bench by the end of the opening period, briefly rode the stationary bike in the tunnel leading to the locker room, and returned with 8:24 left in the second period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just felt it on that last layup I had in the first (quarter) and wanted to get it checked and make sure that there was nothing more serious than that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe wrapped it up, did a little test and I\u2019m always going to try to fight through pain and injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was up to 15 points by halftime, with 10 in the second period, able to sit out the fourth quarter because of the lopsided score.<\/p>\n
Along the way, Powell converted his 1,000th career 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very aware because of what he went through earlier,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t the same thing, and he loosened up, got checked out by the trainers and he assured us that he was ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. Keshad time: With Wiggins and Jovic out and with Pelle Larsson called for two fouls in the game\u2019s opening 2:35, Johnson went from the end of the bench to the rotation, entering with 4:34 remaining in the first period.<\/p>\n
By halftime, Johnson already had tied his career high of eight rebounds, matching the total he had in his five previous appearances this season.<\/p>\n
Having played 24 total minutes this season prior to Friday, Johnson played 29:28, surpassing his previous minutes total by the midpoint of the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a next-man mentality,\u201d Johnson said. \u201ckind of like Coach Spo told me to be ready and just do what I do, bring energy, and that\u2019s what I was able to bring. With Wiggs\u2019 minutes being gone and Jovic\u2019s minutes being gone, everybody got to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. The Cup: With the victory, the Heat lifted their record to 2-1 in the NBA Cup, with Wednesday night\u2019s home game against the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Milwaukee Bucks remaining in its pool-play schedule in the in-season tournament.<\/p>\n
The Bucks lead the pool at 2-0, with pool-play games for Milwaukee remaining against the Heat and New York Knicks.<\/p>\n
Among the tiebreakers for both winning a group or receiving the conference\u2019s wild-card berth to advance to the knockout quarterfinal round is margin of victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso I wanted to be responsible,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have any other guys. So I had to play the guys that are out there. But everybody is aware of it. I think we finished appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n
All games in the NBA Cup except the Dec. 16 championship game in Las Vegas count toward the regular-season standings.<\/p>\n
The Heat failed to advance to the knockout round in the event\u2019s first two years, in 2023 and \u201924.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Challenges? This Miami Heat team seemingly can\u2019t get enough. Friday night, it was having to go without sidelined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56415,"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-56414","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\/56414","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=56414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}