Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 106-103 win over the Milwaukee Bucks (8-11) in a pivotal NBA Cup game on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center to extend its winning streak to six games and improve to 2-0 on its four-game homestand. The Heat (13-6) continues this stretch at home on Saturday against the Detroit Pistons:
The Heat entered Wednesday’s game as healthy as it has been all season, and it resulted in another win. But it didn’t come easy.
In Monday’s home win over the Dallas Mavericks, Heat guard Tyler Herro made his season debut after missing the first 17 games of the season due to offseason ankle surgery.
And on Wednesday, the Heat got Nikola Jovic, Andrew Wiggins and Norman Powell back from injury. Jovic missed the previous four games with a right hip impingement, Wiggins missed the previous three games with left hip flexor strain and Powell missed just one game with a strained left groin.
The only unavailable Heat players on Wednesday were Vlad Goldin (G League), Kasparas Jakucionis (G League) and Terry Rozier (not with team).
Meanwhile, the Bucks were without their best player. Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo missed Wednesday’s game in Miami because of a left adductor strain.
But it was still a competitive game that included 10 lead changes and six ties, and came down to the final seconds.
The Heat actually found itself trailing by three points with 4:18 left in the third quarter.
But after shooting just 7 of 27 (25.9 percent) on threes through the first three quarters, the Heat finally started making some shots in the final period.
The Heat entered the fourth quarter ahead by four and the Bucks pulled within three points with 8:40 to play.
That’s when the Heat made three three-pointers in a span of two minutes to go on an 11-2 run to extend its lead to 12 with 6:14 left.
The Bucks pushed back, though, cutting the deficit to three points with 47.4 seconds to play.
The Bucks then had a few chances to tie the score, but Gary Trent Jr. missed a three-pointer with 42.7 seconds left and Myles Turner missed a three-pointer with 5.7 seconds to play.
The Heat scored just four points over the final 3:43 of the game, but still hung on for the victory.
Six Heat players finished with double-digit points, led by a game-high 29 points from guard Tyler Herro.
The duo of Ryan Rollins (26 points) and Turner (24 points) combined for 50 points for the Bucks.
A healthy Heat roster led to challenging starting lineup and bench rotation decisions on Wednesday, and forward Nikola Jovic was left out of the mix.
The Heat opened Wednesday’s contest with a lineup of Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins and Bam Adebayo. It marked the Heat’s eighth different starting lineup through the first 19 games this season.
That led to guard Pelle Larsson and center Kel’el Ware moving to the bench. Larsson started the previous 15 games and Ware started nine of the previous 10 games before Wednesday’s move to a reserve role.
Larsson and Ware were part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Jaime Jaquez Jr., Dru Smith and Simone Fontecchio against the Bucks.
The Heat leveraged its depth, using its entire 10-man rotation in the first quarter. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra subbed out all the starters just eight minutes game and turning to an all-bench lineup of Jaquez, Smith, Fontecchio, Larsson and Ware late in the opening period.
But the odd man out for the Heat on Wednesday was forward Nikola Jovic, who has struggled early this season after starting on opening night. He’s averaging 8.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game on 40.2 percent shooting from the field and 29.4 percent shooting on threes in 14 appearances in his fourth NBA season.
Wednesday marked Jovic’s first healthy scratch of the season.
Wednesday also provided the first glimpse at the Heat’s new scoring duo of Herro and Powell.
When Herro made his season debut in Monday’s home win over the Dallas Mavericks after missing the first 17 games of the season due to offseason ankle surgery, Powell was unavailable because of a strained left groin.
But on Wednesday, both Herro and Powell played together in a game for the first time since the Heat traded for Powell in early July.
Herro and Powell combined for 40 points, but Herro accounted for most of them.
Herro totaled a game-high 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field, 3-of-5 shooting from three-point range and 8-of-8 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds, seven assists, one steal and one block.
Powell ended the night with 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting from the field and 0-of-5 shooting from behind the arc.
“We’re excited about it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Herro-Powell tandem. “I know they’re both excited about it. I think the two of them and their skill sets just make us a whole lot more dynamic offensively, and we welcome all of it. Can’t wait.”
Even with Ware moving to the bench, he still continued to provide positive minutes.
Ware’s streak of grabbing double-digit rebounds was snapped at nine games, but he still was productive to close Wednesday’s win with 11 points, nine rebounds, two steals and one block in 26 minutes off the bench. He posted a team-best plus/minus of plus 16.
Ware, 21, entered Wednesday averaging 15.1 points, 14.8 rebounds, one steal and 1.7 blocks per game while shooting 55.1 percent from the field and 8 of 18 (44.4 percent) from three-point range over the last nine games.
With the help of this recent stretch, Ware has been among the NBA’s best rebounders this season. Among the 332 players who have played in at least 10 games, Ware entered Wednesday tied with 76ers center Andre Drummond for the most rebounds per 36 minutes in the league this season at 15.9.
Ware, who was taken by the Heat with the 15th overall pick in last year’s draft, struggled with game-to-game consistency as a rookie last season. But the 7-footer has been one of Miami’s most consistent players over the last 10 games.
While Wednesday’s win didn’t clinch a spot in the NBA Cup’s knockout round, the Heat is in good position to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time after failing to advance past the group stage of the first two in-season tournaments.
With Wednesday’s victory over the Bucks, the Heat closed the four-game group stage with a 3-1 record.
The Heat’s five-team group includes the Heat, Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Bucks and Charlotte Hornets. The group’s current standings are: Heat 3-1, Bucks 2-1, Knicks 2-1, Bulls 1-2 and Hornets 0-3.
The Heat can clinch the group and a spot in the knockout round if the Knicks fall to the Bucks on Friday in New York.
But even if the Knicks defeat the Bucks on Friday, the Heat can still advance past the group stage as the Eastern Conference’s wild card. The team from each conference with the best record in group play that finished second in its group qualifies for the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup as the wild card.
While there will likely be other teams with one loss in the group stage that are tied with the Heat for the East’s wild card spot, Miami has an advantage since it already entered Wednesday with the best point differential in group-play games (plus-46) among the East’s other current one-loss teams. This is important because point differential in group play will be the first factor used to break ties among teams across different groups within the conference.
With the NBA’s 30 teams randomly drawn into six groups of five within their conference based on win-loss records from the 2024-25 regular season, the winner of each of the six groups and two wild cards (the team from each conference with the best record in group play that finished second in its group) — a total of eight teams — will advance to the knockout single-elimination rounds of the NBA Cup.
If two or more teams are tied within a group, the tie among the teams will be broken according to the following tiebreakers (in sequential order): head-to-head record in group play, point differential in group play, total points scored in group play, regular-season record from last regular season and random drawing. Overtime scoring will not count towards the point differential and total points tiebreakers.
If two or more teams are tied for the wild card in a conference, the tie among the teams will be broken following the same tiebreaker protocol, with the exception of the head-to-head record in group play. Ties within groups will be broken before the calculation of wild card tiebreakers.
Despite the recently added wrinkle of the in-season tourney, every team continues to play 82 regular-season games. That’s because every game in the NBA’s in-season tournament will count toward regular-season stats and standings, except the championship game.
The 22 teams not advancing to the quarterfinals will play two regular-season games on either Dec. 11 or 12 and Dec. 14 or 15 to fill the missing two games in their standard 82-game schedules.
The four teams that lose in the quarterfinals will each play a regular-season game on Dec. 11, 12, 14 or 15 to fill the missing game in their 82-game schedules.
For the four teams that win in the quarterfinals, their 82nd game will come in the semifinals.
And the two teams that advance to the championship game will play an extra game (83rd game) for the in-season tournament title that won’t count toward the regular season.
The quarterfinals will be played in NBA team markets on Dec. 9 and 10. These games will be hosted by the two teams with the best record in group play games from each conference, and the team with the best record in group play from each conference will host the wild card team in their respective conference.
The semifinals and championship game of the event will be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 13 and Dec. 16.
What’s at stake in the in-season tournament? The NBA Cup trophy and bonus money for the quarterfinalists, semifinalists, runner-up and champion.
Each player on the four teams that lose in the quarterfinals of this year’s in-season tournament will get $53,093, each player on the two teams that lose in the semifinals will get $106,187, each player on the team that loses in the championship will get $212,373 and each player on the team that’s crowned champion of the tourney will get $530,933.