South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Final exhibitions valuable
Spoelstra wants to use key players in all 3 tuneup contests
MIAMI — There are exhibition games and then there are exhibitions games that matter. Three of them, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Saturday, will now follow for his team to close out the preseason.
After going with a split-squad approach for the first two exhibitions, Spoelstra said games Monday against the Atlanta Hawks at AmericanAirlines Arena, Thursday at the Amway Center against the Orlando Magic and then Friday at home against the Houston Rockets would all be played with an eye toward the Oct. 23 regular-season opener against the visiting Memphis Grizzlies.
“Yeah, it might be different,” he said. “I’m going to try to play our guys in all three games.”
Spoelstra did not travel Jimmy Butler, Justise Winslow or Goran Dragic to Wednesday’s victory over the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center that lifted the Heat to 2-0 in the preseason.
Now, he said he plans to go all-in with the upcoming backto-back in light of his team’s first two regular-season road games coming on a back-to -back, against the Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves.
“I think we need to play a back-to-back, that’s why I didn’t play the back-to-back this time,” he said. “But we open, have one so early, I want our guys to at least to feel it before then.”
To this juncture, he feels better about the team’s offense than the other side of the ball.
“I don’t know a percentage, but it’s a decent amount,” he said of the implementation of his offense. “We’ve moved pretty quickly with this group.”
As for the defense, even with a 2-0 preseason record, he said, “It’s good. It’s not great. That’s what we talked about [Friday]. We drilled it now for a couple of different days. Even though it’s preseason, you still can see we have some areas to improve — transition defense, defending without fouling, protecting the paint.”
Olynyk works
Kelly Olynyk continues to make small strides on the practice court, while technically still sidelined with the bruised right knee sustained in an August scrimmage with the Canadian national team.
“He practiced both days for about 20 minutes,” Spoelstra said of the Friday and Saturday sessions, “did some live stuff today and we’ll see if we can keep on progressing and moving forward. But, look, that’s a great sign. There still is no timetable with him. We’re going to be very smart about it.”
Guard Dion Waiters remained away from the team for a second consecutive day due to a personal issue. The absence is not team related, having nothing to do with his playing time or playing role.
Forward James Johnson worked for a second consecutive day after previously being away from the team due to what the Heat said were violations of the team’s conditioning rules.
Roster time
The Heat by next Saturday will have to begin their roster reduction to the NBA maximum of 15 for the regular season, expected to go with 14 due to their position against the hard cap.
The Heat in recent years during the final week of preseason cut some prospects targeted for their G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, in order to addition additional prospects for the Skyforce.
“At some point, yeah,” Spoelstra said of such maneuvering this week. “I haven’t really given it a ton of thought, but we’ll discuss it in the next couple of days.”