Erik Spoelstra kept tinkering with his bench in Tuesday’s win at Utah, and this time the Heat handed real minutes to two players who have spent most of the season on the outside looking in.
Simone Fontecchio and Myron Gardner both got expanded run, a sign Spoelstra was looking for a jolt. Fontecchio finished with three points in seven minutes, while Gardner chipped in four points, three rebounds and an assist in 10 minutes.
“I wanted to have a little bit of an energy group there, and they were great in the second quarter,” Spoelstra explained.
The bigger shift came in the rotation behind them. Bobby Portis, Andrew Wiggins and Ryan Conwell handled most of the bench minutes, and free agent addition Tim Hardaway Jr. was left out of the rotation entirely for the first time, receiving his first DNP-CD.
Hardaway had been playing 18.4 minutes per game over the season’s first seven contests, but his shot has gone cold. He’s averaging 4.6 points while hitting just 26.9% from the field and 23.7% from three.
“The one thing I know about Tim, I’ve known him for a long time,” Spoelstra said. “He has fortitude, he has grit.
He’s going to find a way to get back in this thing and have a big impact. The kind of impact that we anticipated.
It’s just for now, we’ll go with this. And we’ll see where it goes.”
The Heat’s new starting group also kept showing promise. Pelle Larsson replaced Wiggins for the second straight game, and the lineup again outperformed Utah, winning its 20 minutes together by five points. Larsson continued to make the most of the opportunity, posting 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists in 31 minutes.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was another notable part of the night. He had been downgraded from probable to questionable before the game because of a sprained right wrist, but he still played 31 minutes and was icing the wrist when he was off the floor. Spoelstra praised the effort afterward.
“We really appreciate that he made himself available,” Spoelstra said. “There are a lot of guys that might have scratched on a game like this.
At the end of a road trip, not being 100%, he put himself out there. And he was great for us tonight.”
After Doc Rivers said he had sent an apology for his recent negative remarks, Antetokounmpo declined to get into it on Tuesday. Asked about the message, he said, “I don’t know if he texted me.
I haven’t looked at my phone,” he said. “But even if he texted me, as I said, that’s private.
That’s between me and him. And it will always be that way.”
In Other News...
Heat Suddenly Have A Tim Hardaway Jr. Problem To Solve
Tim Hardaway Jr.s first stretch with the Heat has not gone the way either side likely imagined. Through the early part of the 2026-27 season, he has struggled to find his shot and has seen his minutes shrink, including one game in which he did not play at all. For a Miami team that values reliability and two-way effort, that has made his role a lot less secure than it looked on paper.
Erik Spoelstra has leaned instead toward rookie Ryan Conwell Jr., whose defensive energy and early production have earned him a bigger place in the rotation. Hardaway is still expected to keep working his way back into the mix, but for now he is fighting for both confidence and opportunity. In a season where every rotation decision matters, Miami suddenly has a veteran scoring problem to sort through. [Read more 🡒]
Heat Win Showed Exactly What Could Still Hold This Team Back
The Heat left Utah with a 115-109 road win, and the box score offered a pretty clear snapshot of what this group can look like when it is clicking. Giannis Antetokounmpo powered the night with 30 points and 11 rebounds, Davion Mitchell added 19 points, five rebounds and eight assists, and Miami also got useful minutes from Andrew Wiggins off the bench along with Pelle Larssons defensive work.
Even with those positives, the game also hinted at the kind of issue that can linger when the margins tighten. Miami had enough to finish this one, but the way the offense settled in late again raised the familiar question of where the reliable scoring comes from when possessions get heavier and the game slows down. For a team trying to stack wins on the road, that remains the part worth watching. [Read more 🡒]
Heat Could Face A Costly Giannis-Era Gamble For More Scoring
The Heat have been keeping an eye on Zach LaVine as a possible offensive boost ahead of the 2027 trade deadline, a sign that Miami is already thinking about how to add another scorer around its current core. LaVines expiring contract makes him an appealing name on paper, especially for a team that can always use more shot creation, but the financial side of any deal would be the real hurdle.
His salary is large enough to complicate almost any path to Miami, and getting there could require the kind of multi-team construction that turns a simple target into a complicated project. Andrew Wiggins and Nikola Jovic are among the names that could have to be folded into the math, which is exactly the sort of costly gamble the Heat would have to weigh if they decide LaVine is worth pursuing. [Read more 🡒]