Short-handed Heat earns road win over Pelicans, enters break in eighth place in East. Takeaways
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 123-111 win over the New Orleans Pelicans (15-41) on Wednesday night at Smoothie King Center to complete its pre-All-Star break schedule. The Heat (29-27) now enters the week-long NBA All-Star break before returning to practice next week on Thursday and then resuming its schedule on Friday against the Hawks in Atlanta:
The Heat’s isn’t where it wants to be in the standings, but it still enters the All-Star break on a positive note and with a winning record after earning a road victory over the Pelicans.
The Heat led by as many as 13 points in the opening quarter after a fast start, but the Pelicans rallied to take their first lead of the night with 5:34 left in the second quarter.
But the Heat managed to regain its footing, entering halftime with a three-point advantage despite shooting just 41.2 percent from the field and 7 of 27 (25.9 percent) on threes in the first half.
The Heat’s shooting issues continued, but it still led the rest of the way. Miami’s lead actually ballooned to 17 points in the second half.
But even after the Heat pulled ahead by 17 points with 6:19 left in the fourth quarter, the Pelicans responded with 10 unanswered points to make a late push and cut the deficit to seven less than two minutes later.
The Pelicans eventually pulled within four points with 1:10 to play.
The Heat was able to hold on for the win, though.
Simone Fontecchio hit a three-pointer off an assist from Kasparas Jakucionis to push the Heat’s lead back up to seven points with 54.4 seconds left and put the game away. Miami closed the contest on an 8-0 run on the way to the 12-point victory.
The Heat won by dominating the possession battle, finishing with nine more field-goal attempts and 14 more free-throw attempts than the Pelicans to negate the fact that Miami shot just 41.2 percent from the field and 14 of 47 (29.8 percent) from three-point range on Wednesday.
The Heat won the possession battle by committing five fewer turnovers and grabbing nine more offensive rebounds than the Pelicans.
Bam Adebayo led the Heat with a game-high 27 points to go with 14 rebounds, four assists and four blocks. But he shot just 6 of 19 from the field and 2 of 9 on threes, scoring many of his points behind 13-of-17 shooting at the foul line.
“He was so rugged tonight,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Adebayo. “I think he could have drawn probably three, four, five more fouls if they called them. I think there was that kind of force that he was driving with that I think he could have gotten more calls than he did.”
The 17 free-throw attempts are a season-high for Adebayo. It’s also the third-most free-throw attempts that Adebayo has taken in a game during his NBA career.
“This was by any means necessary,” Spoelstra said. “We knew guys were feeling a little bit fatigued. A lot of our firepower was on the sidelines or not even here in the building. So quite naturally we were going to lean on Bam even more than we normally do.
“I told them I wanted to play our normal style. But if I felt like there was any kind of fatigue during any stretches, we were just going to go to Bam and then play off of his post-ups. It was just kind of an opportunity for us to settle the game down. And I thought at key moments, particularly in the fourth, that’s what he allowed us to do.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks off the Heat’s bench.
Kel’el Ware contributed 16 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks in 27 minutes for the Heat.
“It was a gutsy game,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat playing nine games in 15 days before this upcoming league-wide break in the schedule. “I just appreciate the effort the guys have been making lately. There’s been a lot of good things happening. It hasn’t necessarily translated to wins. We know that. When we get back after this break, that’s what we plan on changing.”
The Heat’s injury issues continued, playing without a chunk of its preferred rotation on Wednesday.
The Heat was without four members of its preferred rotation against the Pelicans, missing Tyler Herro (ribs), Pelle Larsson (right forearm strain), Norman Powell (low back tightness) and Andrew Wiggins (left toe inflammation).
Larsson missed his third straight game, Powell missed his second straight game and Wiggins missed his first game with their respective injuries.
But Herro has been out for a while, as he missed his 15th straight game because of a rib injury on Wednesday. It marked the 45th game that Herro has been unavailable for through the first 56 games of the Heat’s season.
When asked before Wednesday’s game whether Herro will return at some point following the upcoming All-Star break, Spoelstra offered some clarity but not a timetable.
“He will be back,” Spoelstra said Wednesday. “Yes, for sure. I don’t have a timeline exactly of when that will be. ... We’ll see how he progresses.”
The team is listing Herro’s injury as “right costochondral; injury to the ribs.”
Herro missed the first 17 games of the season due to offseason ankle surgery, 13 games because of a toe contusion and now 15 straight games because of a rib injury.
Herro, who is eligible for an extension this upcoming offseason, has averaged 21.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and one steal per game while shooting 49.7 percent from the field and 35.8 percent from three-point range in his 11 appearances this season.
Along with missing Herro, Larsson, Powell and Wiggins on Wednesday, the Heat also remained without Terry Rozier (not with team).
The Pelicans didn’t have Trey Alexander (G League), Hunter Dickinson (G League), Yves Missi (left calf soreness), Dejounte Murray (Achilles rupture) and Micah Peavy (toe sprain) against the Heat.
Those injuries led to another new Heat starting lineup and more minutes for the Adebayo-Ware frontcourt.
The Heat opened Wednesday’s game with a starting group of Davion Mitchell, Myron Gardner, Fontecchio, Ware and Adebayo.
Not only did it mark the Heat’s 20th different starting lineup this season, but Miami has also now used a different starting unit in eight straight games amid its ongoing injury issues.
It also marked the third straight game that the Heat has used the double-big look of Adebayo and Ware after not playing them together for 16 consecutive games.
And for the third straight game, Adebayo and Ware produced positive minutes together. The Heat outscored the Pelicans by 21 points in the 17 minutes that Adebayo and Ware played together on Wednesday.
The Heat has now outscored opponents by an eye-opening 68 points in the 42 minutes that Adebayo and Ware have played together over these last three games.
This is notable, considering the Heat had been outscored by 7.5 points per 100 possessions in the 266 minutes that the 6-foot-9 Adebayo and 7-foot Ware had played together this season prior to this three-game stretch.
“I like it,” Spoelstra said of the double-big look featuring Adebayo and Ware. “I think they’re both in a different place than where they were six, eight weeks ago, three months ago for different reasons. But that gives us a different look and the versatility of being able to play the two of them together and pound the glass on both ends is a weapon for us. They both want to make it work. And they both know where we have to improve to make it work for it to be really effective for us. And I appreciate that.”
Gardner continues to make the most of his opportunities.
The Heat’s injury issues led to Gardner making his fourth start of the season and the fourth start of his NBA career.
Gardner, an undrafted rookie, finished his latest opportunity with eight points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 shooting on threes, 10 rebounds, three assists one steal and one block in 23 minutes in Wednesday’s win.
“It’s a great thing to watch,” Spoelstra said of Gardner. “This guy is just fighting and scrapping for everything and earning everything that he’s getting right now. But he makes you notice him. There’s a relentless energy and spirit to him, and effort and energy is a talent. It’s a skill.”
Gardner has now played in seven straight games, logging double-digit minutes in five of those games. This comes after he played in just six of the Heat’s first 31 games this season.
Gardner, 24, is one of three players who the Heat has signed to a two-way contract.
Based on Gardner’s recent impactful play, he could soon be converted to a standard deal. Converting Gardner to a standard contract would make him eligible to play in the playoffs.
The Heat already has an open roster spot and enough room under the luxury tax to convert Gardner from his two-way deal to a standard contract for the rest of the season.
Jakucionis, the Heat’s first-round pick in last year’s draft, also continued to impress. He finished Wednesday’s victory with 11 points, three rebounds and four assists in 25 minutes off the Heat’s bench.
The Heat has some work to do after the All-Star break if it’s going to avoid a fourth straight appearance in the NBA’s play-in tournament.
With the play-in tournament featuring the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference, the Heat enters the break in eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
The eighth-place Heat is one-half game behind the seventh-place Orlando Magic and two games behind the sixth-place Philadelphia 76ers.
“Coming after the break, we know it’s going to be a big push for us and it started with this game,” Jaquez said following Wednesday’s win in New Orleans. “We take that into the break, build on it. And when we come back, just be ready for a big push ahead.”
But even after Wednesday’s win, things have seemingly been going in the wrong direction for the Heat in recent weeks. Following a strong 14-7 start to the season, the Heat is just 15-20.
One thing working in the Heat’s favor is it has a relatively soft schedule ahead. The Heat entered Wednesday with the NBA’s sixth-easiest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon.com, based solely on the current combined winning percentage of teams left to play.
There’s also still an element of unknown surrounding the Heat, as the leading trio of Adebayo, Powell and Herro have played just eight games together this season in large part because of Herro’s injury issues.
This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 10:35 PM.
