Erik Spoelstra tightens the rotation in win against 76ers
Spoelstra tightened his rotation more in Monday's home win against Philadelphia than he has at any other point this season. He had nearly his full complement of players available, with the exception of guard Norman Powell, missing another game with an illness.
And yet, he played four of his starters at least 36 minutes, including 42 apiece for Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo -- and played only six players more than 13 minutes. The other three -- Kel'el Ware, Simone Fontecchio and Dru Smith -- got just 13, six and 3, respectively. Kasparas Jakucionis and Myron Gardner, who have gotten time recently, were healthy scratches. For a night, the strategy worked, as Herro and Adebayo were critical in closing out a game that looked like it was getting away. Herro not only made big threes, but also some important defensive plays. He led the Heat with 30, as Adebayo added 23 and Pelle Larsson had 20. Adebayo was a plus-27, and Ware was a minus-13, which is one reason for sure that Spoelstra didn't want to take him off the floor. They only played briefly together, and Spoelstra has not trusted Nikola Jovic or Keshad Johnson with significant backup frontcourt minutes.The 76ers didn't go deep either, playing just eight until garbage time. Both teams acted as if the game had postseason significance, which it did. The win earned the Heat a tiebreaker against Philadelphia, the only team in the five-to-10-seed East scrum that the Heat can claim that against. The night ended, with the 76ers in the seventh spot, 1.5 games behind the Raptors and Hawks for the fifth or sixth seed, which would get them out of the play-in, and 1.5 games ahead of the slumping Magic and Heat, who are tied for 8th, with Orlando holding the tiebreaker. The Magic just got blitzed by Toronto, suffering their worst loss in franchise history. Charlotte is 10th, one-half game behind both but having a better month. Spoelstra will likely allocate a healthy dose of minutes to his core players Wednesday, but it may not matter; the Heat have been overwhelmed by the Celtics in their three meetings this season. Then the Heat get a possible breather Saturday, as Washington visits Miami, for the first time since Adebayo scored a second-all-time-in-NBA-history 83 points.Ethan has covered all major sports -- in South Florida and beyond -- since 1996 and is one of the longest-tenured fully credentialed members of the Miami Heat. He has covered, in total, more than 30 NBA Finals, Super Bowls, World Series and Stanley Cup Finals. After working full-time for the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Bleacher Report and several other outlets, he founded the Five Reasons Sports Network in 2019 and began hosting the Five on the Floor podcast as part of that network. The podcast is regularly among the most downloaded one-team focused NBA podcasts in the nation, and the network is the largest independent sports outlet in South Florida, by views, listens and social media reach. He has a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University and an M.S. from Columbia University. TWITTER: @EthanJSkolnick and @5ReasonsSports EMAIL: fllscribe@gmail.com
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