After the Miami Heat lost five straight games, there was no doubt a fire lit under the team to head into the next two-game home stand against the Cleveland Cavaliers and get back to the high standard they've set for themselves. As the Heat have been dealing with injuries all season, the team would continue to showcase a healthy lineup on Wednesday as they beat the Cavs, 120-103.
In snapping the five-game skid, Miami brought out a different starting lineup, one that was likely meant to be the goal all season, but injuries had gotten in the way. Head coach Erik Spoelstra would start Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, and Bam Adebayo, saying, “We're going to go with this.”
“This is what I was getting to in January,” Spoelstra said. “It’s go time right now….There really wasn’t a lot of thought to it. It’s just now we have finally everybody available. So we’re able to get to the normal plan. Sometimes you can’t necessarily get to what you want to do based on injuries.”
Heat's Norman Powell back in the starting lineup
As Spoelstra admitted the tough nature of gelling Powell and Herro together, especially since it's been few and far between that both have played together, with both missing time, like the latter missing 48 total games this season. However, the starting lineup was a net-positive, outscoring Cleveland by three points in the 14 minutes that the five players were on the floor together.
After Powell came back from a groin injury, he had played a few games off the bench in order not to mess up the flow, but now finds himself back as a starter after an All-Star season.
“We just got to continue to give ourselves up for one another on the team in that starting lineup,” Powell said after scoring a team-high 19 points. “Do the little things…The hustle plays, the second and third effort plays, cutting and moving offensively.”
At any rate, Miami's (eighth in the East) starting lineup looks to keep up the play in a rematch with Cleveland on Friday.
