Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s dominant 146-114 win over the Memphis Grizzlies (1-1) on Friday night at FedExForum to close its season-opening two-game trip. The Heat (1-1) now returns to Miami to begin a two-game homestand on Sunday against the New York Knicks:
The Heat’s eye-opening first half was dominant and historic, as they took control of the game early and never let go.
The Heat’s revamped up-tempo offense was on full display on Friday against a Grizzlies that’s expected to be among the fastest teams in the NBA this season.
By the end of the first quarter, the Heat had 44 points and held a 19-point advantage.
By the end of the second quarter, the Heat had 86 points and took a commanding 39-point lead into halftime for arguably its best half in franchise history.
“We wanted to win this game,” Heat three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo said after the team wasted an eight-point fourth-quarter lead in a season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday. “We felt like we let one go in Orlando, but we said that if we hold them to one shot and run, we’re in good shape. And we did that tonight.”
Not only did the Heat’s 86 first-half points represent the highest scoring half in franchise history. But the 39-point advantage also goes down as the Heat’s biggest halftime lead in franchise history, surpassing a 34-point halftime lead against the Portland Trail Blazers on March 29, 2024.
In addition, the Heat tallied 20 fast-break points in Friday’s first half. Miami never scored 20 or more fast-break points in a half last regular season.
The Heat’s lead grew to as large as 45 points in the second half on the way to the 32-point win.
Eight Heat players finished with double-digit points led by 24 from Adebayo.
In addition, Nikola Jovic finished with 20 points, Kel’el Ware finished with 19 points, Jaime Jaquez Jr. finished with 17 points, Norman Powell finished with 15 points, Simone Fontecchio finished with 14 points, Andrew Wiggins finished with 10 points and Dru Smith finished with 10 points.
The Heat outscored the Grizzlies 72-44 in the paint, 57-39 from three-point range and 26-19 in transition.
The 146 points on Friday are the third most that the Heat has scored in a game in franchise history.
“This is probably a little bit of everything,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when discussing the blowout win in Memphis. “It was probably an off night for them. We were disappointed about not coming away with a win in Orlando. It really felt like once we were up seven that we should have won that game. Guys were really motivated to get this one tonight. And everybody was in a good rhythm, particularly in that first half.”
Through the first two games of the season, the Heat is playing at the NBA’s fastest pace at 112.3 possessions per 48 minutes. The Heat is also averaging the third-most fast-break points at 24 per game.
Considering the Heat has finished fas one of the five slowest-paced teams in the NBA in each of the past six regular seasons and with a bottom-10 offensive rating in each of the last three regular seasons, Friday’s offensive explosion provided a glimpse at the significant shift that the coaching staff was hoping to make by installing a faster and more open offensive scheme this preseason.
“I’ll say it’s a lot of fun,” Jaquez said of the Heat’s new-look offense. “It’s something we’ve been working on for a while. Something we’ve really bought into, I think, as a team. And you’re just seeing all that buy-in come to life on the floor. I think we’ve been due for a win like this.”
After not playing Adebayo and Ware together in the opener, the Heat used this double-big look to start the second game of the season.
The Heat opened Friday’s contest with a starting unit of Davion Mitchell, Powell, Wiggins, Adebayo and Ware.
Ware, who replaced Jovic in the starting lineup, finished his first start of the season with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, 1-of-1 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, eight rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block in 23 minutes.
“This is a good way to get all three of those guys the minutes that we need in Bam and Kel’el and Niko,” Spoelstra said of his decision to start Ware over Jovic on Friday. “But we’ll see. There might be certain games where it makes more sense to start Niko. It doesn’t really matter in my mind. I know probably to other people it might. But those guys are going to get minutes, and we need Kel’el and Niko to grow and assume more responsibilities as the season goes on.”
It marked the return of the Ware-Adebayo starting frontcourt, as the Heat used a double-big starting lineup featuring the 7-foot-Ware and the 6-foot-9 Adebayo for the final three months of last season.
Ware started 33 games alongside Adebayo last regular season and the Heat posted a 14-19 record in those games with that double-big frontcourt. The Heat outscored opponents by 4.6 points per 100 possessions in the 541 minutes that Adebayo and Ware played together last regular season.
But the Heat went away from the Adebayo-Ware frontcourt look to begin this preseason, as they didn’t play a second together through the first four exhibitions. Instead, Jovic started the first three games alongside Adebayo this preseason before Jovic went out with his back issue.
However, with Jovic unavailable because of back pain, the Heat used a frontcourt of Adebayo and Ware to start the final two exhibitions.
The Heat then opened this regular season with Jovic starting alongside Adebayo, as Miami outscored Orlando by eight points in the 23 minutes that they played together in Wednesday’s opener. Adebayo and Ware didn’t even play a second together on Wednesday.
But the Heat switched to an Adebayo-Ware starting frontcourt for the second game of the regular season against the Grizzlies’ double-big starting frontcourt of 6-foot-11 Jaren Jackson Jr. and 6-foot-11 Jock Landale on Friday. Whether that change by the Heat was matchup based or if it’s a pairing that will stick remains to be seen.
“It was a matchup thing today,” Jovic said. “We started with Kel’el and Bam. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I’ll start again. But it really doesn’t matter to me.”
How did Adebayo respond to his rough scoreless fourth quarter in Wednesday’s season-opening loss? With one of the best quarters of his NBA career.
Adebayo set the tone from the start, scoring 18 of the Heat’s first 25 points on Friday.
Adebayo was dominant early, totaling 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field, 4-of-6 shooting from three-point range and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line in the first quarter. It marked the second-highest scoring quarter of Adebayo’s NBA career, only behind a 19-point first quarter he had against the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 11, 2021.
Adebayo’s four made threes in Friday’s first quarter also matched his career-high for a game. He also made four threes in two games last season — once in the regular season on April 11, 2025 against the New Orleans Pelicans and once in the playoffs on April 26, 2025 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Adebayo only scored four points and didn’t hit another three-pointer after his first-quarter eruption, but the Heat still cruised to a blowout win behind its balanced attack.
Adebayo finished Friday’s win with 24 points on 8-of-19 shooting from the field, 4-of-8 shooting from three-point range and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds, four assists and one steal in 28 minutes. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter of the lopsided game.
“His play and his competitive will, that’s an inspiring act for everybody else to raise their level,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo.
The Heat’s bench was impressive in Friday’s blowout win, with the quartet of Simone Fontecchio, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Dru Smith and Jovic making a big impact in their minutes.
Fontecchio totaled 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting from three-point range, four rebounds, two assists and two steals. He posted a plus minus of plus 25 in 23 minutes.
Jaquez followed up his strong performance in the opener with another quality effort on Friday, finishing the win with 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds, six assists and two steals. He was a plus 43 in 27 minutes.
Jovic finished with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, 3-of-6 shooting on threes and 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds and four assists after moving to a reserve role for Friday’s game. He was a plus 33 in 27 minutes.
“Whether I’m in the first unit or the second, it’s easy to play with those guys,” Jovic said. “Especially with the second unit, I feel like I can probably look better because they play more of a really, really fast-pace kind of style of basketball. So it helps me and it’s more movement. We don’t have a lot of iso players like the first unit.”
Smith recorded 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting on threes, three rebounds, five assists and three steals. He was a plus 35 in 21 minutes.
The Heat used Fontecchio, Jaquez, Jovic and Smith off the bench to complete its nine-man rotation against the Grizzlies before emptying its bench late in the rout.
“We want to feed them confidence,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s bench unit. “They’re a group that is better than the sum of their parts because they play really well together. They play a collective game, and their games complement each other.”
The Heat was without Tyler Herro (left ankle surgery), Kaspras Jakucionis (right groin strain) and Terry Rozier (not with team) on Friday.
The Grizzlies did not have Brandon Clarke (right knee surgery recovery), Zach Edey (left ankle surgery recovery), Ty Jerome (right calf strain), Scotty Pippen Jr. (left great toe surgery recovery) and Vince Williams Jr. (right heel soreness) against the Heat.
The Heat avoided a rare 0-2 start.
By winning in Memphis on Friday to move to 1-1 this season, the Heat has still only started a regular season by losing its first two games once since 2008. That came when the Heat began the 2022-23 season at 0-2.
The Heat, which is in the middle of a challenging stretch early in its schedule, now returns home in hopes of continuing the momentum it built in Friday’s blowout victory.
Not only does the Heat play six of its first eight regular-season games on the road and embark on a West Coast trip next week, but 11 of the Heat’s first 15 games come against opponents that made the playoffs last season.