preferred pace race<\/a> of Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, the speed package with Antetokounmpo was evident in the halftime stats, with the Heat with a 23-4 fastbreak scoring advantage over the opening two periods, taking a 73-64 lead into the intermission.<\/p>\nWith the other starters also given the second half off, the Heat also got 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting from Andrew Wiggins, nine points and five rebounds from Bam Adebayo, and nine points and seven assists from Davion Mitchell.<\/p>\n
Five Degrees of Heat from Thursday night\u2019s exhibition:<\/p>\n
1. Same five: For the second time in as many exhibitions the Heat went with the presumptive opening-night lineup, starting Antetokounmpo, Adebayo, Wiggins, Mitchell and Klay Thompson.<\/p>\n
Thompson in the first five appears to be the preference at shooting guard.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiannis has a reputation where you have to have multiple guys in front of him; Klay has a reputation where you don\u2019t ever take a body off him,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cSo it\u2019s two conflicting things and we want to try to maximize that the best that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to the stylistic elements, Spoelstra said there is ample time to make it all work by the Oct. 21 regular-season opener against the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like we have guys that are familiar with what we\u2019re doing,\u201d he said, \u201cand then we\u2019re incorporating the new guys. It\u2019s no different from everybody else in the league. We\u2019re just in the middle of our process right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Three down: Dru Smith (calf) and Keshad Johnson (hamstring) remained out with ailments sustained during training camp last week at Florida Atlantic University.<\/p>\n
Also unavailable for the Heat was guard Pelle Larsson, due to the illness that also had him out of Tuesday night\u2019s intrasquad scrimmage.<\/p>\n
With Smith and Larsson out, it left the Heat limited at point guard. Spoelstra, however, said he does not see depth at the position as an overwhelming concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have enough guys that can put the ball on the floor, initiate offense, attack,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m looking at more: Can we get to the good things? Can we get to our strengths? I feel we\u2019ll be able to do that with the starting unit, whatever that ends up being.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the second unit, what we looked at in the preseason, I think we\u2019re going to be able to do that. Will it be perfect? Nothing ever is perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. In reserve: Bobby Portis was first off the Heat bench, entering midway through the opening period for Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n
Tim Hardaway Jr. then entered for Thompson, with Nikola Jovic entering for Wiggins. That had Jovic entering at small forward, in his preferred wing rotation.<\/p>\n
Second-round pick Ryan Conwell, the guard out of Louisville, followed in place of Adebayo, with Antetokounmpo cycling back in at center with the second unit. That had Conwell playing as the de facto point guard.<\/p>\n
Included in the second wave of substitutions was forward Simone Fontecchio, who stands as a fringe rotation possibility. He entered in the second period in place of Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n
The Heat opened the second half with a lineup of Jovic, Portis, Fontecchio, Conwell and Hardaway.<\/p>\n
4. Klay\u2019s way: Unlike Saturday\u2019s preseason-opening victory over the\u00a0 Raptors, when he attempted only two shots and went scoreless, Thompson was aggressive from the outset.<\/p>\n
That had him taking the Heat\u2019s first shot, an errant 3-pointer, with seven shots in the opening period, including 1 of 6 on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
Thompson\u2019s made baskets in the period were a transition 3-pointer and a driving layup.<\/p>\n
He closed 2 of 7 for five points, with three assists and three blocked shots, offering some stout defense.<\/p>\n
5. Up next: Up next for the Heat is Saturday\u2019s 8 p.m. exhibition against the Timberwolves, with the Heat then concluding their five-game preseason schedule with an Oct. 14 home game against the Brooklyn Nets and an Oct. 16 road game against the Orlando Magic.<\/p>\n
The day after that exhibition finale in Orlando, the Heat will have to cut to no more than 15 players under standard contract and three under two-way contract. The Heat currently are carrying the NBA offseason maximum of 21 players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2013 If preseason is for teaching, then lesson learned Thursday night for the Miami Heat: When Giannis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2558,8173,355,99],"class_list":["post-875803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}