Larsson, Wiggins, Powell, Jaquez, Ware help lead Heat past Hawks. Five takeaways
Five takeaways from the Heat 126-111 victory against the Hawks on Friday in Atlanta:
▪ Ahead 90-84 after three, the Heat pushed the lead to 15, survived a bit of a Hawks run and avoided falling below .500 for the first time since the opening week of the season.
Miami forced the Hawks into 21 turnovers and played at the brisk pace that delivered considerable success during the Heat’s 14-7 start to the season.
In the process, the Heat (16-15) broke a three-game losing streak, survived 30 points from Trae Young and won in the absence of both Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro.
It marked the 15th time that Miami scored at least 120 points in a game this season, but only the second time in its past 10 games.
A quintet of Andrew Wiggins, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Dru Smith, Nikola Jovic and Kasparas Jakucionis spearheaded a 14-6 run that pushed the Heat’s lead to 102-87 early in the fourth.
After the Hawks closed to within eight, Norman Powell hit a twisting layup, Pelle Larsson drained a three, Larsson delivered a terrific bounce pass to Jovic for a layup and Powell then hit a layup, putting the Heat up by 17.
Larsson, back from an ankle injury, was exceptional, scoring a season-high 21 points and making across-the-board contributions.
Powell delivered 25 points on 9 for 16 shooting, plus seven rebounds and five assists.
Wiggins, who entered the fourth quarter with 10 points, scored eight during that early fourth-quarter run and made a scintillating defensive play to break up an alley-oop during that stretch. He closed with 18 points and 8 rebounds.
Jaquez continued an excellent five-game stretch, finishing with 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Dru Smith remains a whirling dervish on defense, delivering three more steals.
The rookie, Jakucionis, hit two threes.
And Kel’el Ware chipped in 16 points, 13 rebounds and a block and a steal in 32 minutes.
“It was good to see the effort level and playing the right way offensively,” Spoelstra said. “Guys really shared the game and moved the ball.”
▪ Larsson played in his first game since Dec. 9 and gave the Heat a huge boost.
Sidelined for five games since twisting an ankle, Larsson started for the 17th time this season, and made an immediate impact, hitting his first four shots, pushing pace, clogging passing lanes on defense, making sharp cuts on offense and injecting the type of relentless energy lacking at times recently during his absence.
He shot 5 for 7 in a 12-point first half and closed with 21 on 9 for 13 shooting, including 3 for 4 on threes.
Larsson did a little of everything, finishing with six rebounds, five assists and a steal.
“Regardless of the stats, he does so many of the intangibles,” Spoelstra said.
The Heat is now 12-6 with Larsson starting.
He said he worked with team trainer Jeff Ruiz a couple hours every day “to get the ankle right. So it’s been a little bit of a grind on my own away from the team, but I’m happy to be back with them.”
Larsson said the emphasis during time spent with teammates over the holidays was “just trusting each other. We don’t want to be an average team, so we can’t be doing average things or copying other teams. That’s only going to get us so far. So we’re trying to do something different. And to do that, we’ve got to really trust each other. So we’re just trying to double down on that right now.”
▪ The Heat moved to 5-2 with Adebayo sidelined this season.
Nobody with a working brain would suggest Miami is better without its “culture” torch-bearer, second-best rebounder and top defender who also contributes 18 points per game (albeit much less on offense recently).
But Miami has played well without him this season.
Ware has started all seven of those games that Adebayo missed, with wins coming against Charlotte, Portland, Cleveland, the Knicks and Hawks and losses against the Cavaliers and Knicks.
Ware entered averaging 12.6 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in his previous six starts when Adebayo was sidelined. Miami was a plus seven with Ware on the floor in those games.
On Friday, Ware went to half with 8 points and 8 rebounds and had a double-double by midway through the third quarter. Miami was a plus 6 in his 32 minutes on Friday.
▪ It’s unclear when Adebayo and Herro will return.
Though Herro initially was listed as day to day with a toe injury, he has now missed eight games, and Spoelstra said there’s no timetable for a return.
And now Adebayo is sidelined by back discomfort, as the Heat returns home to play Indiana at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Asked Friday if Adebayo is genuinely day to day or if he will need more time to recover, Spoelstra said: “We’ll see. We’ll treat him day-to-day. I know him. I know his personality. I know how much he wants to be out there. But since it is back soreness and he wasn’t moving well two days ago, it didn’t really get better yesterday. Today was just full treatment and some light activities. So we’ll see where he is tomorrow.”
Did this injury contribute to Adebayo’s offensive struggles in recent games?
“I’m not going to comment on that. He wouldn’t want me to comment on that,” Spoelstra said. “But we’ll just do as much treatment as we possibly can. I do know that he needs this right now.”
Spoelstra said the Heat’s defensive approach would not change dramatically without him.
“We know what he does for our defense, but we have the habits that we need to, to put ourselves in a position to win games even without him tonight,” Spoelstra said. “But we’re going to have to have guys step up, be reliable, bring that level of competitive toughness throughout the rotation.”
▪ Jovic had another dismal shooting night in his return from injury, but was helpful with his rebounding, ball-handling and pace-pushing during a fourth-quarter run.
Jovic, who had been sidelined since landing hard on his arm in a Dec. 15 game against Toronto, missed seven of eight shots and committed two turnovers in a nine-minute first-half stint.
He missed his first three shots of the second half before finally hitting a shot in the final minute of the third quarter, making him 2 for 12 at that point. He finished with 10 points on 3 for 14 shooting (1 for 6 on threes).
But he nevertheless made a positive impact late in the third and early in the fourth, finishing with seven rebounds, four assists and a steal. It was notable that Miami outscored the Hawks by 12 during his 21 minutes.
“This was a good step for him to be able to contribute and impact the game without making shots,” Spoelstra said.
Jovic, who signed a four-year, $62 million extension in October, hasn’t been able to shake out of a season-long shooting slump; he entered at 39 percent from the field and 28.3 percent on threes and averaging a career-high 1.8 turnovers per game.
His lacerated elbow “still hurts, but it doesn’t hurt that much,” he said Friday morning. “I can play.”
This story was originally published December 26, 2025 at 9:21 PM.
