Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Heat vs. Hornets
Spoelstra works on rotation as Heat rally late past Hornets
Miami wins preseason game, 109-106.
MIAMI — It is the end game that Erik Spoelstra has in mind, certainly not these meaningless preseason games and perhaps not even the starting lineup he will put on the court when the Miami Heat open the regular season next week.
Spoelstra again went big at the start of Monday night’s 109-106 exhibition victory over the Charlotte Hornets at American-Airlines Arena, opening for the second consecutive games with 7-footers Hassan Whiteside and Kelly Olynyk playing side by side.
But he said the battle is not determining who starts but rather who will finish. To a degree, that has had him formulating his rotation in reverse, a computation compounded by Goran Dragic given a second consecutive game off to shake off the fatigue from competing in last month’s Euro Basket.
“Even that will be difficult, as well, because I have a lot of guys that are super competitive and fearless and love that moment and a lot of guys that had opportunities last year to close games for us,” Spoelstra said of identifying his closers. “And so we have players that are used to having an opportunity or thinking that they’re going to be there in the end.
“But, yeah, it’s almost reverse engineering to get to the lineup, because there’s some lineups already I know that I like, we like it, and you can see it, everybody can see it,
maybe even some closing lineups. Those answers are probably more available right now than who’s going to start the first five minutes of the game.”
Going mostly with rotation regulars until the closing stages in the fourth of the Heat’s six preseason games, Spoelstra got 18 points from Josh Richardson, 18 from Tyler Johnson, 14 from Dion Waiters (who also had eight assists), as well as double-doubles from Whiteside (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Olynyk (13, 12).
The Heat put it away with a pair of Justise Winslow baskets in the final 23.7 seconds, after he had stood scoreless to that stage.
With Olynyk and Whiteside again starting, it again allowed Spoelstra to bring James Johnson and Tyler Johnson off the bench in tandem.
“Me and him both are on the same page as far as I felt most comfortable and best suited the team in my role coming off the bench,” Tyler Johnson said. “Obviously if something came up and there was a necessity for me being out there in the starting lineup, then cool.”
Instead, Spoelstra again opened with Richardson in place of Dragic, with Rodney McGruder starting for the fourth time in as many exhibitions at small forward and Waiters at shooting guard.
The uniqueness of the Heat’s 7-footers was on display early, with Olynyk opening the game with a 3-pointer and Whiteside later in the first quarter going end to end off the dribble for a layup.
“It’s not like we went with two power centers and we’re trying to beat somebody up down low, circa 1995,” Spoelstra said of the versatility of his big men.
Spoelstra’s rotation again had Winslow playing as a reserve, with Wayne Ellington rounding out the primary rotation, a rotation shortened by Dragic’s absence.
That likely will leave Spoelstra balancing 10 rotation players during the regular season.
He added the depth has fueled competition, but not at the cost of camaraderie.
“Our guys are great,” he said. “And guys that if they’re not out there, I don’t want them to be happy and sit on their hands. That’s not the kind of guys we have. We have edgy, competitive guys. They want to be out there making an impact. I get that. I love that.
“We have to do whatever we feel is best for the team. But ultimately if we want to accomplish what we want to accomplish you have to have depth, you have to have a roster that can go 10, 11, 12 deep, to sustain everything -- to sustain injuries, missed games, foul trouble, versatility against different teams -- where your strengths might be different against one team in a sevengame series which is different in another series.”