How Kyle Lowry and Gabe Vincent can coexist as the Miami Heat’s twin point guards
Kyle Lowry’s first game as a bench player in more than a decade Saturday started with a designed play for Gabe Vincent and a celebration from the six-time All-Star turned reserve.
The 36-year-old point guard’s 677-game start streak came to an end on the day he returned to Miami Heat’s lineup for the first time in more than a month. It was supposed to let the Heat manage his minutes in his return from knee soreness — it didn’t quite work out, with the guard playing 36 minutes in the overtime loss to the Magic — and provide some late-season stability to Miami.
Lowry said Saturday he’s open to doing “whatever it takes” for the Heat, and his place on the bench at the start of the game wound up not meaning much, anyway: He was on the court at the end of the game alongside Vincent.
“First of all, it’s great to see Kyle back,” Vincent said. “Playing alongside him is always fun. We’ve had some good minutes on the court together and we had some good stretches last game, as well.”
It’s one way for Miami to have Vincent and Lowry, both of whom have an argument to start, to coexist, although the results were not great in Orlando.
Vincent and Lowry played 20 minutes together at the Amway Center, and the Magic outscored the Heat by 14 in those minutes. It wasn’t out of line with the Heat’s usual performance when its two point guards’ share the floor.
Entering their game against the Utah Jazz on Monday at Miami-Dade Arena, Vincent and Lowry had played 280 minutes together this season, with the Heat getting outscored by 4.5 points per 100 possessions.
Vincent entered Monday averaging 9.3 points and 2.5 assists per game, and Miami was 7-9 with him as a starter. Lowry was averaging 12.0 points and 5.2 assists, and the Heat was 23-24 with him as a starter.
Still, coach Erik Spoelstra went with both of them for all but a few seconds in the final eight minutes of regulation and all of overtime during the weekend, and there were a handful of good minutes down the stretch despite the loss. When Vincent entered to share the floor with Lowry with 8:39 left in the fourth quarter, Miami was down by eight and rallied to force overtime with the help of two Lowry three-pointers.
“Happy to see him healthy, happy to see him performing well and hopefully we can carry that momentum and start putting together some wins,” Vincent said.
More likely, the Heat will split the two guards’ minutes — they played more together Saturday because starting guard Tyler Herro was dealing with an illness — and the added depth will only help Miami as it tries to push to stay out of the play-in. Both are historically three-point threats — they have each shot better than 33 percent on threes in their careers — and will finally let the Heat play with a traditional point guard on the floor at all times.
“I love playing with Kyle,” reserve wing Max Strus said. “He just plays the right way, makes the right play and he gets us organized. I think it’s only going to help, just being that orchestrator of the offense and just making sure everybody is in the right place and making sure we’re doing the right things at the right time.”
Heat-Jazz injury report
Center Cody Zeller, power forward Orlando Robinson and small forward Nikola Jovic were the only players unavailable for Miami on Wednesday, after small forwards Caleb Martin and Duncan Robinson were cleared ahead of tip-off.
Martin had been dealing with a knee injury, and Robinson was in health and safety protocols.
This story was originally published March 13, 2023 at 1:59 PM.
