MIAMI \u2014 Nothing about the Miami Heat\u2019s first 17 games was about hero ball, with an equal-opportunity approach fueling unexpected early-season success.<\/p>\n
The past two games, however, have been a different story, with Herro ball both needed and impactful.<\/p>\n
Leading the Heat in scoring for the second time in as many appearances since returning from September ankle surgery, Tyler Herro\u2019s 29 points proved essential in Wednesday night\u2019s 106-103 victory over the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Milwaukee Bucks at Kaseya Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to be out a significant amount of time and come back looking like you haven\u2019t missed a day,\u201d Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n
The win not only lifted the Heat to 13-6 and extended the Heat\u2019s winning streak to six, but kept the Heat alive for the team\u2019s first-ever berth in the knockout round of the NBA Cup. It also was the 800th career regular-season win for Spoelstra, becoming the 17th NBA coach to reach that total.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity for me to be coached by Spo,\u201d Herro said.<\/p>\n
With the rotation again whole after a series of continuity-robbing injuries, the Heat took advantage of the injury absence of Antetokounmpo to move to 2-0 on a four-game homestand that continues Saturday night against the East-leading Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a fun locker room, a very ambitious locker room,\u201d Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n
Beyond Herro\u2019s offense, the Heat got 17 points and 11 rebounds from Bam Adebayo, and 11 points and nine rebounds from Kel\u2019el Ware.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re willing to work guys in and figure out how to get this thing to a well-oiled machine,\u201d Adebayo said.<\/p>\n
Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday night\u2019s NBA Cup game:<\/p>\n
1. Game flow: The Heat led 29-27 at the end of the first period and 53-47 at half. They then briefly fell behind in the third quarter, before taking an 81-77 lead into the fourth.<\/p>\n
An 8-0 run capped by an Andrew Wiggins 3-pointer then put the Heat up 98-86 with 6:14 to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis game showed how deep our team is,\u201d Wiggins said.<\/p>\n
But with 3:01 to play, the Bucks clawed within 102-96 before Herro returned. Then, with 47.4 seconds to play, Ryan Rollins converted inside to draw the Bucks within 106-103.<\/p>\n
The game indeed was over when Bucks center Myles Turner was off with a potential tying 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just need to be better at what we do,\u201d Spoelstra said of shaky closes in wins the past two games.<\/p>\n
2. Everyone plays: For the first time this season, the entire Heat rotation was available.<\/p>\n
That had the Heat not only rolling out a starting lineup of Herro,\u00a0 Adebayo, Wiggins, Norman Powell and Davion Mitchell, but also a second unit of Ware, Simone Fontecchio, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Pelle Larsson and Dru Smith.<\/p>\n
The rotation then tightened in the second half, with Fontecchio out of the mix.<\/p>\n
The overall approach had Nikola Jovic and Keshad Johnson out of the mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got so much depth, we can figure this out,\u201d Adebayo said.<\/p>\n
The lone extended deviation early with the two-unit approach was Adebayo and Ware minutes together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel for guys who might not be playing or who have less minutes,\u201d Spoelstra said, \u201cbut that\u2019s what happens when you have depth.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Second time around: After leading the Heat in scoring with 24 points in Monday night\u2019s victory over the Dallas Mavericks in his season debut, when Powell, Wiggins and Jovic were not available, Herro again stood as a Heat offensive focus.<\/p>\n
He also had a trademark moment when he pulled up in transition with a quick-launch 3-pointer, one of only four the Heat converted in the first half.<\/p>\n
It was the second appearance for Herro after missing the season\u2019s first 17 games following September ankle surgery.<\/p>\n
Herro closed 9 of 15 from the field, with seven assists and five rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy teammates and my coaches, they\u2019ve allowed me to come back and play my game, trying to just be efficient, win games,\u201d Herro said. \u201cI want it to work, doing everything I can to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. Powell play: After leading the Heat in scoring in Sunday\u2019s victory in Philadelphia and then taking off Monday with a combination groin\/hip issue, Powell was less than his typical attacking self.<\/p>\n
He stood with 11 points on 11 shots at the same stage in the fourth quarter that Herro stood with 22 points on 11 shots.<\/p>\n
Powell closed with those 11 points, shooting 4 of 11 from the field, including 0 for 5 on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will get a lot better quickly, and we\u2019ll figure out what works best and we\u2019ll get to those lineups,\u201d\u00a0 Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n
Said Herro of the chemistry the team needs to establish, \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. The Cup: With the victory, the Heat will win their pool-play group and advance to the knockout-round quarterfinals if the New York Knicks lose at home Friday to the Bucks.<\/p>\n
If the Knicks, who defeated the Heat in pool play, win that game, the Heat, at 3-1, would have to qualify as the East\u2019s lone wild card through point differential, now at a +49 in the tournament that also counts in the regular-season standings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Nothing about the Miami Heat\u2019s first 17 games was about hero ball, with an equal-opportunity approach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62407,"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-62406","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\/62406","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=62406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}