Heat regain footing with new lineup

A challenging early-season schedule hasn’t provided many nights when the Miami Heat could right themselves, regain their footing, move closer to the cohesion achieved at the end of last season.

Monday night was one of those nights, when even an occasional misstep against the rebuilding Oklahoma City Thunder could not get in the way of the Heat moving their game to a higher plane, in a 118-90 victory at AmericanAirlines Arena.

Hosting the right opponent at the right time, the Heat debuted their triplehue ViceVersa court and uniforms and produced a 180 from Friday night’s lackluster, lethargic and languid road loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

“Look, basketball is something it’s not like you can conquer it,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You just have to continue to work the things that help you to be successful.”

With Jimmy Butler regaining his touch, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro filling out the box score, and Kelly Olynyk injecting vitality into the starting lineup, the Heat moved to 3-3 as they await Wednesday’s nationally televised visit by the Boston Celtics.

Butler busted his slump with 18 points and six assists. Herro closed with seven points, nine rebounds and eight assists, with Adebayo with 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting, eight rebounds and four assists. And in his first start of the season, Olynyk contributed 19 points and eight rebounds, shooting 5 of 7 on 3-pointers, as the Heat set season highs in 3-pointers and assists.

“We were all on the same page,” Adebayo said. “It was lob city today.”

The Thunder, who in the offseason lost Chris Paul, Danilo Gallinari, Steven Adams, and Dennis Schroder, among others, were led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 18 points.

“It’s all about being consistent,” Butler said. “It’s all about stringing together good days.”

Five Degrees of Heat from Monday’s game:

1. Butler back at it: Having gone without a basket since the first half of the Heat’s Christmas Day victory over the visiting New Orleans Pelicans, Butler scored the Heat’s first two baskets, both on layups, and kept going from there, including 10 points in the second period.

Butler was appreciative of his teammates getting him going.

“I think it was very important to always get some easy ones,” he said. “That’s just the type of group that we got.”

His teammates appreciated those moments.

“We need Jimmy to be Jimmy if we want to be who we can be,” Olynyk said.

Butler was coming off an 0-for-6 game in Friday’s road loss to the Dallas Mavericks, entering 9 of 28 from the field this season.

“We were just pushing him to be more aggressive,” Adebayo said, “it put him in the flow.

“When Jimmy’s locked in, he’s a special player.”

Butler missed both home games last week against the Milwaukee Bucks due to a sprained right ankle.

2.Olynyk’s turn: The Heat’s wheel of lineups this time landed on Kelly Olynyk, the Heat’s fourth starting power forward in the team’s six games, following in the footsteps of Moe Harkless, Meyers Leonard and Andre Iguodala.

It left the Heat with their sixth starting lineup, one rounded out by Butler, Adebayo, Herro and Duncan Robinson.

“I think that’s kind of how our team is built right now, with a lot of depth,” Olynyk said.

Monday’s starting group played a total of 15 minutes together last season, although Olynyk had substantial success two seasons ago when playing alongside Adebayo.

3. Doing it all: Spoelstra made it clear pregame that the offense would be guided by Butler and Adebayo, and that everyone else should focus on doing what they do best.

So Herro played loose and free. The result was one of his most complete games with the team, filling the box score and making himself a nuisance on both ends.

4. Lesson plan: The Heat and rookie forward Precious Achiuwa offered a lesson in how not to close a period at the end of the first quarter.

Up nine earlier, the Heat gave up a four-point play to Mike Muscala with 4.8 seconds left in the opening period, when he converted a 3-pointer while fouled by Achiuwa.

Achiuwa then threw away the ensuing inbounds pass, with Justin Jackson making the steal and converting a 3-foot jumper with one second left in the quarter, taking the score in 3.8 seconds from a 26-20 Heat lead to 26-26 going into the second.

5.Two-mangame: Referee Kane Fitzgerald was forced out with a leg injury with 3:50 left in the opening period.

That left Aaron Smith and Brandon Schwab to work as a two-man crew.