Win-now Heat crushes tanking Wizards, as Adebayo-Ware look returns. Takeaways and details
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has made it clear multiple times in recent days that the Heat will continue to play to win as many games as possible this season after Thursday’s quiet deadline. But the Washington Wizards’ actions indicate that they’re prioritizing positioning in the 2026 NBA Draft over winning games this season.
Sunday afternoon’s contest between the two teams was a representation of those two drastically different approaches, as the Heat (28-26) crushed the tanking Wizards 132-101 at Capital One Arena. After blowing a 22-point lead in Friday’s loss to the Celtics in Boston, the Heat closed its quick two-game trip at 1-1.
“You are free to do however you feel is best that you think for your organization, and people will criticize it one way or another,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Sunday’s game. “People criticize us. We’re going to compete every single night, every night. Take it or leave it, like it or not. That’s what we’re doing.”
The Wizards (14-38) started fast, building an early nine-point lead over the first five minutes of the game.
But the rest of the game belonged to the Heat. Miami closed the first half on a 63-32 run to turn that nine-point deficit into a 22-point halftime lead.
The Heat’s lead grew to as large as 32 points in the second half on the way to the 31-point rout.
The Heat shot 21 of 47 (44.7 percent) from three-point range. Miami improved to 6-0 this season in games with 20 or more made threes.
Bam Adebayo led the Heat with a team-high 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 2-of-6 shooting on threes to go with eight rebounds, three assists and five steals in 28 minutes. He posted an eye-opening plus/minus of plus 41 in the win.
Adebayo was one of seven Heat players to score double-digit points on Sunday.
Meanwhile, no Wizards player finished with more than 14 points. Tristan Vukcevic scored a team-high 14 points for Washington.
The Heat now travels home to host the Utah Jazz on Monday at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun) to complete the back-to-back set. Miami has just two games left to play before the NBA All-Star break.
“Everybody just wanted to get better,” Spoelstra said. “And the approach today was very professional, pretty much throughout the rotation across the board.”
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s blowout win over the Wizards on Sunday:
Powell is going to have a busy All-Star weekend. But he left Sunday’s game early because of lower back tightness.
Powell was effective on Sunday before exiting the contest with 3:35 left in the third quarter due to lower back tightness and never returning. Powell recorded 21 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 shooting on threes, four rebounds and one steal in 25 minutes prior to leaving the game.
“I think it’s just a moment.,” Powell said, downplaying his back issue after Sunday’s game. “I think a lot to do with being stuck on the plane for a lot of hours. And then soft beds at the hotel. We tried to make an adjustment. But they didn’t have what we needed to have, a little firmer mattress there. I always get a little back flare-up when I’m sleeping on soft mattresses.”
During Sunday’s game, the NBA announced that Powell will take part in the NBA’s Three-Point Contest on Feb. 14 on All-Star Saturday Night at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles (5 p.m., NBC and Peacock).
Powell is also the Heat’s lone representative in this season’s NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 15 at Intuit Dome.
“It’s really exciting,” Powell said of being invited to take part in the Three-Point Contest. “When they asked, I instantly said yes. Just for being back at Intuit dome, back in L.A., where my family can see me for the All-Star Weekend. So I’m excited about that.”
While this will mark Powell’s first NBA All-Star Game appearance, he has been part of the NBA’s Three-Point Contest before. But Powell was eliminated in the first round of last year’s Three-Point Contest that Heat guard Tyler Herro ended up winning.
Powell is one of eight participants competing for the three-point crown this year, along with Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns, Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets, Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers, Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers, Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets and Bobby Portis of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Powell will be the 10th different Heat player in franchise history to take part in the Three-Point Contest, joining Jon Sundvold (1989 and 1990), Glen Rice (1991 and 1995), Jason Kapono (2007), Daequan Cook (2009 and 2010), James Jones (2011 and 2012), Mario Chalmers (2012), Wayne Ellington (2018), Duncan Robinson (2020) and Herro (2023 and 2025).
Five Heat players have won the Three-Point Contest in franchise history: Rice (1995), Kapono (2007), Cook (2009), Jones (2011) and Herro (2025).
The Heat stands alone as the only NBA team with five Three-Point Contest trophies.
Powell, 32, entered Sunday’s game against the Wizards shooting 39.3 percent on a career-high 7.2 three-point attempts per game this season.
Along with Powell, the Heat will also be represented by second-year center Kel’el Ware (Rising Stars), Keshad Johnson (NBA Dunk Contest) and Jahmir Young (G League Next Up Game and G League Three-Point Contest) at All-Star Weekend this year.
The Heat used the double-big look of Adebayo and Ware for the first time in over a month, and they produced positive minutes and a funny moment together.
After starting Adebayo and Ware together in 19 of the Heat’s first 37 games this season, Spoelstra completely went away from the double-big look for the last month. Ware has since moved to a bench role and Spoelstra has staggered the minutes of Adebayo and Ware for 16 straight games.
For good reason, too, as the Heat has been outscored by 7.5 points per 100 possessions in the 266 minutes that the 6-foot-9 Adebayo and 7-foot Ware have played together this season. Among the Heat’s 39 two-man combinations who have logged at least 220 minutes together this season, the Adebayo-Ware combo entered Sunday with the third-worst net rating.
But the Heat turned to the Adebayo-Ware frontcourt on Sunday for the first time since Jan. 6, and the double-big lineup produced positive minutes.
Adebayo and Ware began playing together on Sunday with the Heat trailing the Wizards 31-23 and 2:55 left in the first quarter.
“I was a little bit,” Ware said when asked if he was surprised when Adebayo first entered to play alongside him on Sunday. “I thought I was going out. But then he was like, he had somebody else. So I was like, oh, alright.”
The game then changed, as the Heat outscored the Wizards 21-6 to turn that eight-point deficit into a seven-point lead over the next five minutes.
Adebayo and Ware also closed the first half together, outscoring the Wizards by seven points over the final 3:06 of the second quarter.
Adebayo and Ware also played one stint together in Sunday’s second half, outscoring the Wizards 19-9 in eight minutes together during a run that started late in the third quarter and ended in the fourth quarter.
The Heat dominated the Wizards by 32 points in the 16 minutes that Adebayo and Ware played together.
“I liked it today,” Spoelstra said of the Adebayo-Ware lineup. “We want to see where we can maximize our rotation as much as possible, particularly with that second unit. Bam has been a great anchor for us in whatever lineup he’s been in, especially the last six weeks or so. And it’ll just depend also, how much it can be productive.
“Defensively, that unit was very stable and active. And offensively, we were able to manage the spacing and really pound them on the glass, which is what that lineup needs to do.”
Ware closed Sunday’s win with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field, 1-of-3 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, 14 rebounds, one assist and one block in 30 minutes off the Heat’s bench.
“It’s better for him,” Ware said of playing alongside Adebayo. “As you saw tonight, they put the smaller defender on him and had the bigger defender on me. So he was able to get to things if he wanted to. And he was able to crash. He didn’t have a big man boxing him out.”
Sunday’s game also included a funny moment in the second quarter, when Adebayo and Ware were both going for the offensive rebound and Adebayo ended up inadvertently dunking on Ware.
“I was going to grab the rebound,” Ware said of the play. “To be honest, he don’t even crash. But yeah, the unfortunate happened.”
Adebayo was laughing about the dunk following Sunday’s win.
“Kel’el always jokes that I never dunked on him,” Adebayo said. “It just so happened that I dunked on him in the game. Sorry, Kel’el.”
Spoelstra added: “That was a fun moment that I’m sure that we’ll play in the locker room quite a few times.”
With Heat guard Pelle Larsson unavailable, the Heat was forced to use another new starting lineup.
Larsson missed Sunday’s contest after suffering a right elbow contusion in Friday’s loss to the Celtics.
With Larsson starting in each of the previous 13 games, the Heat needed to make a change to its starting lineup on Sunday since he was unavailable.
The Heat opted to start two-way contract forward Myron Gardner in Larsson’s place.
The Heat went with a starting unit of Davion Mitchell, Powell, Gardner, Andrew Wiggins and Adebayo against the Wizards. It marked the 18th different starting lineup that the Heat has used through 54 games this season.
Gardner, who made his third NBA start, closed Sunday’s victory with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting on threes, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals in 21 minutes.
Along with missing Larsson, the Heat was without Vlad Goldin (G League), Herro (ribs), Johnson (G League) and Terry Rozier (not with team) on Sunday,
The Wizards didn’t have Anthony Davis (left finger sprain), Dante Exum (not with team), Anthony Gill (right hand contusion), Jaden Hardy (rest), Tre Johnson (left ankle sprain), D’Angelo Russell (not with team), Cam Whitmore (right shoulder deep vein thrombosis) and Trae Young (right knee MCL sprain and quad contusion).
It was also a positive day for the Heat’s youngest player.
After receiving a DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) in Friday’s loss to the Celtics, rookie guard Kasparas Jakucionis was back in the Heat’s bench rotation on Sunday.
The 19-year-old Jakucionis made the most of his opportunity, setting a new-career high with 22 points on an efficient 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 6-of-6 shooting from three-point range. He also contributed three rebounds, six assists and two steals in 26 minutes against the Wizards.
“I just try to stay ready,” Jakucionis said. “Whenever I have the opportunity, I try to embrace it and try to stay ready whenever I can.”
Jakucionis’ six made threes on Sunday go down as the most made threes in a game without a miss by a Heat rookie in franchise history.
“He really competes,” Spoelstra said of Jakucionis. “He was getting in little things, dust-ups throughout the course of the game. But it’s really just because of how hard he plays. There’s a purity to that. Offensively, he’s a guy that has a big upside. He can really shoot the ball. But he also, as a playmaker, can make plays.”
Jakucionis, who was taken by the Heat with the 20th pick in last year’s draft, was part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Jaime Jaquez Jr., Ware and Simone Fontecchio on Sunday. Miami then emptied its bench late in the blowout win.
“I think the sky is the limit for him, just his approach, his mentality,” Powell said of Jakucionis said. “He’s very mature for his age. He’s very focused and very locked in. I think it shows.”
Jakucionis played ahead of guard Dru Smith, who has been a fixture in the Heat’s bench rotation this season. Smith entered for his first action of Sunday’s game with 5:36 left in the fourth quarter.
“Our three point guards are all really important to our team,” Spoelstra emphasized. “So if I’m playing two of them and not one, it’s not an indictment. ... Dru will still be very important.”
The Heat is right back at it on Monday.
The Heat’s busy stretch continues with a matchup against the Jazz on Monday in Miami to complete the back-to-back. Not only will it mark the Heat’s third game in four days, but it will also be the Heat’s eighth game in the last 13 days.
The good news for the Heat is it has had success on the back end of back-to-backs. Miami is an impressive 9-3 on the second night of back-to-backs this season.
The Jazz, which entered Sunday with the sixth-worst record in the NBA this season, has lost 12 of its last 14 games. Utah was idle on Sunday after falling to the Magic in Orlando on Saturday.
A win over the Jazz on Monday would give the Heat consecutive victories only for the second time since the start of 2026.
“It is very important for us to handle the next one professionally tomorrow night,” Spoelstra said.
This story was originally published February 8, 2026 at 4:23 PM.
