Miami Heat forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (7) drives to the basket as Detroit Pistons forward John Collins (20) defends in the first half at the Kaseya Center in Miami Florida, on Friday, October 23, 2026.
PHOTO BY AL DIAZ
adiaz@miamiherald.com
As soon as the Miami Heat acquired two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo this offseason, the questions about Antetokounmpo’s fit alongside three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo began.
Do the games of Antetokounmpo and Adebayo complement each other? Can Adebayo hit enough three-pointers to make the pairing work? Could a team’s leading duo be two bigs?
After the Heat’s 0-2 start to the season, those questions have only grown louder despite the limited sample size. Entering Saturday night’s matchup against the Hornets in Charlotte, the Heat has been outscored by 46.9 points per 100 possessions in the 34 minutes that Antetokounmpo and Adebayo have played together over the first two games of the regular season.
Among the 276 two-man combos around the NBA that entered Saturday with 30 or more minutes played together this season, the Adebayo-Antetokounmpo pairing holds the fifth-worst net rating. Other Heat duos (Klay Thompson-Adebayo, Davion Mitchell-Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins-Adebayo) make up three of the four pairings around the league who entered Saturday with a worse net rating than the Adebayo-Antetokounmpo look.
“We’ll figure it out,” Adebayo said after the Heat’s second straight double-digit home loss to begin the season, a 128-111 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Friday night at Kaseya Center.
During the Heat’s 0-2 start, the offense and the defense have struggled with Adebayo and Antetokounmpo on the court.
The Heat has posted an offensive rating of 101.2 points scored per 100 possessions (would have ranked last among the NBA teams last season) and a defensive rating of 148.1 points allowed per 100 possessions (would have ranked last among NBA teams last season) with Adebayo and Antetokounmpo on the court during the first two games of the season.
“That dynamic between Giannis and Bam, that’ll just continue to get better as the year goes on,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said during the preseason. “I’m not expecting it to be perfect Day 1, but they both are very detailed. They’re both highly intelligent basketball players. And they’ll be able to learn the nuances of how to play off each other, whether that’s spacing, cutting, moving, whatever it may be when one guy has the ball.”
That process has been toughest on Adebayo, who entered Saturday’s matchup against the Hornets averaging just 9.5 points per game on 44.4% shooting from the field and 1-of-7 (14.3%) shooting on threes through the first two games of the season. He was limited to just four points on 2-of-6 shooting from the field, 0-of-2 shooting on threes and 0-of-2 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes of playing time in Friday’s loss to the Pistons after committing three fouls in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, Antetokounmpo has averaged an eye-opening 35.5 points per game on 62.2% shooting from the field through the first two games of the season.
“Just the raw physicality, the explosion, being able to kind of both get to their spots with power,” Minnesota Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said of the advantages of the Adebayo-Antetokounmpo pairing after the Timberwolves defeated the Heat by 25 points in Wednesday’s season opener at Kaseya Center. “They’re both extremely dynamic. They can play all over the floor.”
But Finch then offered some perspective on the process that Adebayo and Antetokounmpo are currently going through early in their on-court partnership.
“They’ll figure out how to play off each other really well. It just takes time,” Finch said. “Trying to mesh bigs is a lot harder. I’ve done it many times. It’s a lot harder to mesh bigs than it is to mesh smalls, and a lot of that just has to do with spacing and understanding that, and whatever that is in their offense. I can’t speak to that, but it’ll happen for them, and they’re going to be a handful, no doubt.”
Giannis’ historic start
While the results haven’t been what the Heat hoped for through the first two games, no Heat player has ever started a season like Antetokounmpo has.
With Antetokounmpo scoring 35 points in the opener and 36 points in Friday’s loss to the Pistons, he became the first player in franchise history to begin a season with 30-plus points in each of the first two games.
Antetokounmpo is also the first Heat player with consecutive 35-point scoring games since Tyler Herro did it in back-to-back games in December 2022.
“We want it to go well, not only for him, but for us,” Spoelstra said when asked about Antetokounmpo’s strong scoring start amid the Heat’s 0-2 start. “He really cares. He wants this to work. His teammates really want this to work. We’re going to get there.”
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.