PHOENIX — Observations and other notes of interest from Friday night’s 113-97 loss to the Phoenix Suns:
– Plenty of the little things went wrong for the Heat on Friday night.
– That much is undeniable.
– Starting again with the defense.
– Which seemingly always is the case for Erik Spoelstra’s team in defeat.
– But 2-3 hardly was a devastating outcome on this trip.
– With a respectable 20-15 record heading into the four-game home stand after two days.
– So instead consider the big thing.
– Or big things.
– Bam Adebayo could have punted on the night after missing his first five shots.
– Instead he turned it around to keep the Heat afloat as long as possible.
– And Kevin Love in relief was just as proficient.
– No, the Heat never will overwhelm with size.
– But the rotation at center appears to be in a good place.
– In such a good place that Orlando Robinson was afforded the opportunity to get some Friday seasoning in the G League.
– Robinson responded with 41 points and 13 rebounds in a Sioux Falls Skyforce victory.
– With Jimmy Butler, Haywood Highsmith and Caleb Martin again out for the Heat, Spoelstra opened with the same lineup as in Wednesday night’s victory over the Lakers.
– That had Nikola Jovic in the first five for the fourth time this season, opening again with Adebayo, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Tyler Herro and Kyle Lowry.
– With that alignment, the Heat again went to their zone defense early.
– With the Suns promptly beating them over the top with 3-pointers.
– Cole Swider was with the Heat on Friday night, but will now move on to the G League for a Sunday game in South Dakota with the Skyforce.
– The Suns opened with a lineup of Grayson Allen, Chimezie Metu, Jusuf Nurkić, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker.
– Love and Duncan Robinson entered together in the Heat’s first substitution.
— Followed by Josh Richardson, which is as deep as the Heat went in the opening two periods.
– Similar to the eight-man rotation utilized Wednesday night against the Lakers.
– But with Jovic struggling, Spoelstra then turned to Jamal Cain late in the third period.
– Even with his team’s ongoing injury absences, Suns coach Frank Vogel said pregame he still views his team with ultimate upside.
– “I want to be the best team in the league and I think we can be the best team in the league, and we have not been able to get there,” he said. “The injuries hold you back some, but it doesn’t change the confidence that I have on who we are going to be and it doesn’t change the mindset from the standpoint that I have of.”
– The Suns on Friday night were without Kevin Durant, Eric Gordon and Nassir Little
– Vogel added, “I embrace challenges.”
– The Heat practiced Friday morning at Arizona State expecting Durant to play.
– “We went through the shootaround preparing that he would play,” Spoelstra said. “It doesn’t make it more complex. It still becomes about your habits and trying to get more consistent with it.”
– Of questions of Beal being a limited defender, Vogel offered otherwise.
– “I think he has exceeded my expectations for what he is doing on that side of the ball,” Vogel said. “Containment, toughness, strips, charges, all those types of things and he’s finding his way offensively as well, all the ways to get familiar with his teammates and our system.”
– Asked pregame of Booker moving to point guard to accommodate the acquisition of Beal, Spoelstra offered a comparison to Dwyane Wade’s Heat rookie season in 2003-04.
– “I think it says a lot about him that he is willing to do whatever to try to make it work. That is what winning players do,” Spoelstra said. “It reminds me, different context totally, but when Dwyane played point guard for us in his first year. He had never played point guard before. He was a combo player that had a lot of ball handling skills. But he was a rookie, and he was trying to break out in the scene and get playing time.”