MIAMI — Observations and other notes of interest from Tuesday night’s 127-121 victory over the Phoenix Suns:
– We appear to have reached the crossroads again where Erik Spoelstra does not believe Kel’el Ware and Bam Adebayo can play together.
– At least not on a highly productive basis.
– Which many metrics confirm.
– But with Adebayo back with his offense in this one, it again appears to be nothing more going forward than Short Minutes Theater for Ware.
– Which is fine if the thought is he solely is capable of contributing as a backup center.
– Performances this season say otherwise.
– It is one thing to protect Ware on the trade market as a valued asset.
– It is another thing not to play him as one.
– No, it doesn’t mean Ware has to start.
– But it might mean that the Nikola Jovic minutes also go to Ware.
– There has to be a way to carve out more.
– If even solely for development.
– Which means Spoelstra at least relenting for some Adebayo-Ware.
– Instead, Adebayo back in and Ware out early in the fourth.
– With Ware with just 16 minutes of action.
– Nonetheless with 10 points and five rebounds.
– Double the minutes and the math speaks for itself.
– Yes, Adebayo was good, very good in this one. But it’s not as if Ware was minimal-minutes bad.
– With Norman Powell back after missing a game with lower-back soreness, the Heat went back to a lineup of Powell, Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Herro and Davion Mitchell.
– That lineup entered 2-3.
– The Suns opened with a lineup of Collin Gillespie, Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks, Royce O’Neale and Mark Williams.
– Booker then was forced to the locker room with an injury late in the third period, before returning in the fourth.
– With Mitchell retreating earlier to the Heat locker room with a game-ending shoulder contusion.
– Jaime Jaquez Jr. again was first off the Heat bench.
– With Pelle Larsson and Ware then following together.
– That again had Dru Smith out of the initial mix, before entering for the first time with 54.2 seconds left in the first half.
– As Kasparas Jakucionis looked on, again a spectator.
– In entering on a three-game losing streak, Spoelstra said one priority was clear.
– “We just have to be better at sustaining,” he said, lamenting recent third-quarter struggles.
– Didn’t happen, with a 20-4 Suns run at the top of the third.
– Spoelstra added, “I would say the largest part of our team right now is being able to sustain our style of play.”
– Spoelstra then clarified to avoid misconception.
– “That doesn’t just mean the pace, what everybody thinks about,” he said. “It is our type of defense, the activity level, the physicality. And then, yes, offensively doing things with a fullcourt pace and a halfcourt pace and intention, when we do get forced into the halfcourt.”
– The sky, Spoelstra said, is not falling.
– “We’ve shown more times a game that we can play well, and then there’s these pockets where we just haven’t been able to sustain,” he said. “But I would say the last month or five weeks, we’ve only had two duds of games.”
– As in the losses to the lowly Kings and Pacers.
– “The rest of them,” he said, “we’ve played really well for large stretches of games.”
– Spoelstra added, “To me, that says we should have more wins than we have right now. But this inability to really sustain and have that consistency more throughout the course of the game has really, really hurt us. And we have to grow from that.”
– Through it all, a level of hope.
– “I think we will. Our guys understand that. We have a competitive group,” he said. “We have a group that has big aspirations, that wants to win, wants to move up in the East.”
– Spoelstra was asked before the game why this has worked so well this season with Powell.
– “He still has that kind of chip on his shoulder and willingness to play a role of who he used to be, but an ambition to try to do more and be more, given opportunities,” Spoelstra said. “He’s found a nice balance in that.”
– Spoelstra said the Suns, in exceeding expectations, are where the Heat thought they could be.
– “We view them as probably similar to us. I just think they’ve done that at a higher level and more consistent,” he said. “I think they’ve been pretty steady and steadfast in who they are. They defend at a higher level, they share the ball, they play a collective game, and they don’t fatigue. They do it night in and night out, and that’s given them the opportunity to be plus nine, where we hoped we would be at this point.”
– He added, “They’ve done it, and that’s a good example for us.”
– Of the Heat’s offense, Suns coach Jordan Ott was complimentary.
– “Kind of similar to OKC in a different way, but they’re going to come right to you, and they’re going to be aggressive,” he said. “They’re physical, trying to get to the rim.”