Reserves provide spark for rally
Adebayo, Mickey come through as 3 starters sit out last-second victory.
MIAMI — This is what the preseason is for.
Hassan Whiteside, Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters all sat out the Heat’s 117-115 victory over the Washington Wizards, which allowed rookie Bam Adebayo to have his best game of the preseason and Jordan Mickey to win the game with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer Wednesday night.
Josh Richardson, Ro d ney McGruder, Wayne Ellington, Okaro White and Kelly Olynyk started and were up against a formidable Wizards lineup that included John Wall, Bradley Beal and Marcin Gortat. The result was that the Heat trailed 30-19 after the first quarter and depended on Adebayo, Tyler Johnson and James Johnson to bring them back.
Adebayo led the Heat with 15
points on 6-of-10 shooting, and Tyler Johnson added 14. Mickey finished with 12.
“You’d rather have a close game, just for the emotion, the passion,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They feel everything, every whistle, blown coverage, every missed shot, heartbeat goes up. You can’t replicate that in practice.”
The Heat wrap up the preseason Friday in Kansas City, Mo., against Philadelphia. The regular season starts Wednesday in Orlando.
Here are our three takeaways:
Bam breaks out: OK, it’s just preseason but it was sig- nificant for Adebayo. The Heat’s first-round draft pick appears to be over the jit- ters and had his best game by far. He entered the game with just nine points and six rebounds in four games, missing 9 of 10 from the field.
Adebayo scored seven points during one 79-sec- ond stretch of the second quarter with two post-ups against Gortat — including a 3-point play after drawing the foul — and a dunk on a lob pass from McGruder. Adebayo had a similar dunk on a feed from James Johnson in the second half. Adebayo received his biggest ovation in the fourth quarter when he slammed the ball home on a baseline cut.
The 6-foot-10 rookie admit- ted to being nervous in his debut, one in which he missed 7 of 8 free throws, and Monday he was surprised to hear his name called by Spoelstra in the first half, something Spoelstra said he did purposely to drive home the point that he has to be ready at all times.
“He was a thousand times better in the second quarter,” Spoelstra said. “He knew it was coming, he knew he was going to play. I was going to try to trick him somehow, just to keep him off balance. He was so ready. And you see the athleticism, the tough- ness, the multiple efforts he brings.”
Johnson & Johnson back together: It’s looking more like James Johnson will come off the bench and be reunited with buddy Tyler Johnson as the leaders of the second unit. Even with 60 percent of the starting lineup having the night off, Spoelstra brought both off the bench and they sparked a 14-4 run to open the second quarter.
Both played 18:17 and were on the court together the entire time. James Johnson finished with 12 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Tyler Johnson had 14 points, three rebounds and three assists.
James Johnson said that chemistry comes from “working on it in practice, taking practice serious, every little detail in that we just don’t run it because coaches want us to do it, we run it with a meaning and a purpose every time. We kind of know each other from that.”
Winslow still finding his way: Justise Winslow has struggled with his shot, and it continued Wednesday. But after logging the majority of his minutes at power forward during the preseason, Winslow appeared comfortable facilitating the offense.
Winslow finished with nine assists and six rebounds. In the previous two games, he had just three assists and as many turnovers (five) as points. On Wednesday, Winslow assisted on a Derrick Walton Jr. 3-pointer with 36 seconds to give the Heat a one-point lead.
“It felt good,” Winslow said. “The shot didn’t fall, but I found a way to get into rhythm, enjoying my teammates knocking down shots”
Winslow was 0 for 6 before hitting a corner 3 for his first field goal. He finished with seven points on 1-of-7 shooting.