Heat in desperation mode, as rotation keeps changing amid injury issues: ‘By any means necessary’
Not much has been simple for the Miami Heat this season. From dealing with the messy Jimmy Butler saga to blowing the second-most double-digit leads in the NBA this season, it has been a trying year.
But as it faces the real possibility of needing to qualify for the playoffs through the NBA’s play-in tournament for the third straight season, the Heat is trying to keep it simple in its search for consistency amid the turbulence with just six weeks left in the regular season.
“There’s clarity on where we are right now,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s all hands on deck and impact the game.”
It was certainly all hands on deck for the Heat (28-30) in Friday night’s 125-120 quality win over the Indiana Pacers at Kaseya Center, as six players finished with double-digit points and injuries created playing time for others who have fallen out of the rotation.
The Heat entered Friday’s game without two rotation regulars, as starter Andrew Wiggins was held out because of a sprained right ankle and Nikola Jovic missed his third straight game because of a broken right hand. Then Jaime Jaquez Jr. sprained his right ankle early in the third quarter and exited the contest early after starting the game in place of the injured Wiggins.
This led to players like Alec Burks, Haywood Highsmith and Terry Rozier playing bigger roles in Friday’s win over the Pacers after their playing time had recently been cut.
Burks finished the victory with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes in 21 minutes off the Heat’s bench. Burks, who logged 15 minutes in Friday second half, has already received 24 DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) this season.
Highsmith recorded nine points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 1-of-3 shooting on threes, three rebounds, one assist, one steal and two blocks in 29 minutes off the Heat’s bench. It marked the most minutes that Highsmith has played in a game since a Jan. 15 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Rozier closed the win with four points on 2-of-5 shooting from the field, one rebound and three assists in 11 minutes off the Heat’s bench after receiving his first two DNP-CDs of the season in the previous two games.
Then there was Spoelstra’s decision to start Burks in place of Ware to begin Friday’s second half. Because of the Pacers’ up-tempo pace, Spoelstra went away from the double-big look of Bam Adebayo and Ware to start the third quarter and instead staggered Adebayo and Ware’s minutes for most of the second half until late in the contest.
“To me, it’s just everybody staying ready,” Adebayo said of the team’s ever-changing rotation. “We preach this all the time because you never know where Spo is going during a game. You never know, you might go from not playing in the first half to you start the second half and then you finish in the fourth. So you never know when your name gets called. For us, it’s always being ready and a next-man-up mentality.”
The Heat will again need to have that next-man-up mentality on Sunday when it hosts the New York Knicks (6 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun).
Jovic will miss his fourth straight game because of a broken right hand. Also, Jaquez and Wiggins are both listed as doubtful for Sunday’s game because of their sprained ankles.
The Heat also remains without Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League), Dru Smith (Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) against the Knicks.
The Heat overcame those injuries on Friday by leaning on its depth, as its bench outscored the Pacers’ reserves 49-27 in the five-point win. Duncan Robinson (20 points) and Burks (13 points) combined to score 23 of Miami’s 49 bench points.
“We want to continue to build on this,” Spoelstra said. “The more guys that can feel confident in their role, have clarity in that and can be live threats out there, the better it is for us. We have a locker room that is unselfish. Guys want to make plays for each other.”
That unselfish approach has been on display lately, with the Heat totaling 73 assists while shooting 58.1 percent from the field and 54.1 percent from three-point range over the last two games to win consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 25 and 27.
How good has this two-game stretch been for the Heat’s offense? Miami did something it has never done before in franchise history, shooting at least 50 percent from behind the arc on more than 30 three-point attempts in back-to-back games.
The Heat posted its second-best single-game offensive rating of the season (139.4 points scored per 100 possessions) in Wednesday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks and recorded its third-best single-game offensive rating of the season (134.4 points scored per 100 possessions) in Friday’s victory over the Pacers.
This has been a welcomed stretch for the Heat, which currently holds the NBA’s 18th-ranked offensive rating this season.
“A lot of it is just the game of basketball,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said of the team’s recent hot shooting. “It’s just how it goes. Some nights, shots fall. Some nights, they don’t. I think ultimately staying consistent to the shot profile, we’ve been generating good shots since the All-Star break. So we want to just continue to do that. We have amazing shooters on this team, guys that can attack, guys that can finish. So it’s about trusting the process and sticking with what the coaching staff puts us through.”
Shots aren’t always going to go in at this rate for the Heat. But it’s clear that Spoelstra will continue to make the changes to the rotation that he feels are necessary to put the Heat in the best possible position to win. Miami’s injury issues will also continue to force tweaks to the rotation.
With the Heat entering Saturday in seventh place in the Eastern Conference and four games behind the sixth-place Detroit Pistons for the East’s final playoff spot that doesn’t require having to go through play-in, the standings have helped create that level of desperation. There are only 24 games left on Miami’s regular-season schedule.
“Right now at this point of the season, it’s by any means necessary,” Herro said after Friday’s victory over the Pacers. “We’re trying to get wins. So coach Spo saw some things in the first half that he felt he wanted to make an adjustment going into the second half. I don’t think it’s permanent, we’ll see. But I think the next game could be different. At this point, we’re trying to win by any means necessary. Whatever that takes, we’re going to do.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2025 at 11:00 AM.
