The Heat’s double big lineup featuring Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware was showing signs of success just before the All-Star break, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (subscription required). Over the past three games, Miami outscored its opponents by 68 points in the 42 minutes that Adebayo and Ware played together. The games were against three of the league’s worst teams, but it’s still an encouraging sign.
“I think they’re both in a different place than where they were six, eight weeks ago, three months ago for different reasons,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But that gives us a different look and the versatility of being able to play the two of them together and pound the glass on both ends is a weapon for us. They both want to make it work. And they both know where we have to improve to make it work for it to be really effective for us. And I appreciate that.”
It’s a welcome change from earlier in the season when the two big men struggled so badly together than Spoelstra abandoned the concept for a while. Chiang notes that Adebayo and Ware weren’t on the court at the same time for 16 straight games until injuries forced Spoelstra to play them together again in the three games prior to the break.
Adebayo believes the combination can work if both players take the right approach.
“We just got to be active,” he said. “It’s not necessarily about the boards. Everybody is going to point to that. But if we’re active on offense and defense, it looks great and it can help this team.”
There’s more from Miami:
- Ware has been the target of frequent public criticism from Spoelstra, but he says his relationship with his coach is fine in an interview with Mark Medina of Essentially Sports. “It pushes me to want to get better even more,” Ware said. “I’m able to show up every day even through everything that is going on.”
- In a story on Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which investigates many of the NBA’s biggest scandals, Joe Vardon and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic shed light on the gambling-related probe of Terry Rozier when he was still with Charlotte. Multiple sources tell them the firm’s lawyers discovered that Rozier texted someone to inform them he would be coming out of a game early. However, the attorneys couldn’t convince anyone outside the NBA to take part in the investigation.
- In a mailbag column, Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel (subscription required) addresses the Heat’s chances of earning a top-six spot in the East and takes issue with critics who accuse Tyler Herro of milking his injury absences.