Takeaways from Heat’s preseason win over Rockets, as Adebayo, Butler, Herro and Lowry sit
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 118-110 preseason win over the Houston Rockets on Monday night at FTX Arena:
The Heat (3-1) has one opportunity left to have a preseason dress rehearsal before opening the regular season next week.
Monday’s matchup against the Rockets definitely wasn’t the Heat’s dress rehearsal, with a chunk of its starting lineup and rotation held out.
Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry were given the night off against the Rockets. In addition, Tyler Herro (right knee contusion), Caleb Martin (right knee tendinitis) and Omer Yurtseven (ankle soreness) were also held out.
Why rest Adebayo, Butler and Lowry when the last time they played in a preseason game was Thursday?
“We had a really good practice yesterday and a very good shootaround,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Monday’s matchup against the Rockets. “It’s just our methodology of just getting ready for the season. Guys are getting their work and that’s the most important thing.”
The Heat has yet to have its full starting lineup or rotation available for a game this preseason.
In the preseason opener last Tuesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Heat held out Butler, Victor Oladipo and Gabe Vincent.
In the second preseason game on Thursday against the Brooklyn Nets, the Heat sat Herro, Martin, Yurtseven, Vincent, Oladipo and Dewayne Dedmon.
In the third preseason game on Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Heat was without Butler, Lowry, Adebayo, Oladipo, Martin, Herro, Dedmon, Yurtseven, Max Strus and Udonis Haslem.
Then the Heat went through Monday’s fourth preseason contest without Adebayo, Butler, Lowry, Herro, Martin and Yurtseven.
The good news is all of the Heat’s injuries are considered minor, and every player on the roster but Yurtseven were full participants in Sunday’s practice. Yurtseven was a limited participant.
“Look this is what we’ve pretty much always done,” Spoelstra said. “We prioritize the practices and the shootaround and that prep. But since there have been some moving parts in the preseason games, we haven’t been able to get to those rotations. So we’ve been using the practice time to get to that.”
But if the Heat does want to get in one preseason dress rehearsal before opening the regular season on Oct. 19 against the Chicago Bulls, it has just one more opportunity.
The Heat’s fifth and final preseason game is Wednesday against the New Orleans Pelicans at FTX Arena.
Oladipo made his preseason debut, but played limited minutes.
After two surgeries on his right knee in the last three-plus years, the Heat has taken it slow with Oladipo this preseason. But after sitting out the first three preseason games, Oladipo finally made his preseason debut on Monday to finish with eight points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting on threes, three rebounds, four assists and three steals in 19 minutes.
“I know he’s been looking forward to it,” Spoelstra said following Oladipo’s first preseason action. “He’s been pushing to get out there. But I think the time was appropriate and I think the plan was appropriate coming out of training camp, and we’ll just build from there.”
With so many key players out against the Rockets, Oladipo started. But the expectation is that he’ll be used primarily off the bench this season in the sixth man role that Herro occupied last season, with Herro likely being moving into the starting lineup.
Oladipo’s first stint of the preseason lasted 8:36, and he recorded five points on 2-of-5 shooting from the field and 1-of-1 shooting from three-point range, one assist and one steal. He scored on an above-the-break three-pointer and a driving layup.
It was Oladipo’s best stretch of the night, as he showed some rust in his first preseason game. He shot 1 of 6 from the field following the first quarter.
Oladipo was given the fourth quarter off in his first NBA game action since May.
“It was fun,” Oladipo said. “Obviously, it’s been a minute since I suited up and played in the arena and everything like that. So it was great to just go out there and get my feet wet. Play with the guys and just got to keep building.”
Oladipo, who was acquired by Miami through a trade with the Rockets in March 2021, has appeared in just 12 regular-season games with the Heat because of a second surgery that was needed to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee in May 2021. He ruptured that same tendon in January 2019 and returned a year later in January 2020.
Oladipo played in his first game last season on March 7 following an 11-month recovery from surgery. But with his season debut coming so late, he eventually fell out of the Heat’s rotation before playing himself into a consistent role off the bench in the playoffs.
The Heat’s hope is that Oladipo will be healthy and effective enough to play a consistent role from start to finish this season. He has played in just 60 regular-season games over the last three seasons.
Heat sharpshooters Duncan Robinson and Strus combined to make a bunch of threes on Monday. The question: Is there room for both Robinson and Strus in the Heat’s rotation this season?
Robinson may not start like he did to begin the last two seasons, but he’s certainly a candidate to be part of the Heat’s rotation this season.
The preseason has only helped Robinson’s case, as he put together another strong performance on Monday with 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc to go with four assists in 22 minutes.
Robinson has shot 9 of 17 (52.9 percent) from three-point range in the last two preseason games.
Strus, who took Robinson’s spot in the starting lineup late last regular season and played as a starter throughout the playoff run, finished Monday’s win with 24 points while shooting 7 of 14 from the field and 5 of 10 on threes in 24 minutes.
Strus had shot just 1 of 10 from three-point range this preseason before his break-through performance against the Rockets.
If the projected Heat starting lineup of Lowry, Herro, Butler, Martin and Adebayo becomes reality, Robinson and Strus would be playing as reserves. That could make it harder to make both part of the rotation, compared to last season when one would start the game and the other would come off the bench as their replacement.
Would Spoelstra actually play Robinson and Strus together more often this season to fit both of them into the rotation?
“I’m open to anything,” Spoelstra said. “They’re both so ignitable and they both put a tremendous amount of stress on defenses. You can just see a lot of overreactions. They’re off-ball catch-and-shoot players, coming off screens, handoffs, lot of movement. And again, there’s just not a lot of those kind of players in this league right now.”
With Martin missing most of the preseason because of knee tendinitis, Haywood Highsmith has started the last three games at power forward.
Highsmith finished Monday’s victory with six points on 2-of-6 shooting from the field and 1-of-2 shooting on threes, two rebounds and two assists in 24 minutes.
He’s averaging seven points on 10-of-25 (40 percent) shooting from the field and 5-of-15 (33.3 percent) shooting from three-point range, five rebounds and two assists per game in four appearances this preseason.
But just because Highsmith has spent most of the preseason as the starting power forward doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll fill in for P.J. Tucker as the Heat’s starting power forward when the regular season opens next week.
The expectation continues to be that Martin will be the Heat’s starting power forward on opening night.
But Spoelstra remains non-committal when asked who will replace Tucker, who signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency this past summer.
“I’m just looking to see which lineups and rotations really complement each other more than anything,” Spoelstra said before Monday’s game. “I’m looking at that more than who’s playing what position. What’s maximizing the most out of those lineups and who’s bringing out the best in each other. We have quite a few options with that, which is a blessing.”
With so many key players out, the Heat’s young developmental players again had an opportunity for some court time. And rookies Nikola Jovic and Jamal Cain again impressed.
Jovic, who was selected by the Heat with the No. 27 pick in this year’s draft and will be part of the regular-season roster, continued to make a strong impression with 15 points, 12 rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes on Monday.
Cain, who had his Exhibit 10 contract converted to a two-way deal on Sunday, also again stood out with 15 points and six rebounds in 30 minutes against the Rockets.
Haslem, who is entering his 20th NBA season, was the only available Heat player who did not get in Monday’s game. Haslem has yet to play this preseason.
This story was originally published October 10, 2022 at 9:57 PM.
