Kel'el Ware #7 of the Miami Heat attempts a shot against the Boston Celtics during the first half at TD Garden on December 19, 2025 in Boston. Brian Fluharty Getty Images
Much of the focus surrounding the Miami Heat this season has been on the Heat’s frontcourt duo of Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware.
Can Adebayo and Ware play together? Should Adebayo and Ware be the Heat’s starting frontcourt? Should Ware just play off the bench?
With the Heat’s ongoing injury issues helping to lead to losses in six of its last seven games after a 14-7 start to the season, those questions haven’t stopped. Instead, new questions keep coming up as the 21-year-old Ware has flashed his offensive upside and the 28-year-old Adebayo has tried to break out of a mini shooting slump in recent days.
Is Ware already a quality three-point shooting big man? What happened to Adebayo’s shooting touch?
For the 7-foot Ware, he totaled a team-high 24 points and shot an impressive 6 of 7 from three-point range in Friday night’s 129-116 loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. The six three-point makes are Ware’s new NBA career-high for a single game.
Ware is now shooting an impressive 31 of 68 (45.6 percent) from behind the arc through the first 28 games of his second NBA season. Among the 210 NBA players who entered Saturday with at least 60 three-point attempts this season, Ware’s three-point shooting percentage ranks eighth.
“I’m not sure,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked if the team wants Ware to take more threes moving forward. “I want to be open to everything with this team this year. And like I said early on, I want there to be some surprises.
“I watch him work, so I see him knock down a bunch of shots. I don’t want him hunting for the three because I like him head under the rim. But when it’s a paint-touch spray and it’s a good quality look, I think he’s gaining confidence and I want to be open to that.”
But it’s not just the three-point shooting, as Ware has recorded his two highest scoring performances of the season in the Heat’s last two games. He scored 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 1-of-2 shooting on threes in Thursday’s win over the Nets in Brooklyn and 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field and 6-of-7 shooting from deep in Friday’s loss to the Celtics in Boston.
“I’m just getting more comfortable out there,” Ware said, with the Heat (15-13) set to close its three-game trip on Sunday against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden (6 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). “Playing through the game, playing through the flow.”
Bam Adebayo #13 of the Miami Heat dribbles against Day'Ron Sharpe #20 of the Brooklyn Nets during the second half at Barclays Center on December 18, 2025 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Sarah Stier Getty Images
As for Adebayo, he’s struggling to make twos and threes lately.
Adebayo is shooting just 10 of 23 (43.5 percent) from inside the arc and 0 of 3 from three-point range in the Heat’s first two games of this three-game trip. He has also had three of his shot attempts blocked, shooting 10 of 26 (38.5 percent) from the field overall.
“I got to figure it out,” said Adebayo, who is shooting 47.3 percent from the field and 33 percent from behind the arc this season. “I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m accepting accountability. I’ve got to be better. I’m letting my team down, and it’s going to shift. Like I said, it’s going to shift. I’ve been through these times before. A lot of guys go through it. We’ll figure it out.”
It’s not just Adebayo, though. The Heat’s offense, as a whole, has been inefficient recently after a hot start to the season.
During this 1-6 stretch, the Heat has recorded the NBA’s second-worst offensive rating (scoring 105.9 points per 100 possessions) and the 13th-ranked pace (100.9 possessions per 48 minutes) since Dec. 3.
This comes after the Heat posted the NBA’s 11th-ranked offensive rating (scoring 116.5 points per 100 possessions) while playing at the league’s fastest pace (106.1 possessions per 48 minutes) during its strong 14-7 start to the season.
“You got to find that breakthrough moment,” Adebayo said. “We started off hot early in the season, but you get these shifts throughout the season where it feels like everything’s not going your way. We got to find that breakthrough moment.”
As Ware set a new career-high in three-point makes and Adebayo struggled to find a rhythm, the short-handed Heat found itself trailing the Celtics by just one point with 11:43 left in Friday’s fourth quarter. The Heat only had 10 available players, as it was without Tyler Herro (right big toe contusion), Andrew Wiggins (lower back pain), Davion Mitchell (left ankle sprain), Nikola Jovic (right elbow contusion/laceration), Pelle Larsson (left ankle sprain), Terry Rozier (not with team) and Jahmir Young (G League).
But the Celtics went on to shoot 10 of 15 from three-point range in the fourth quarter to pull away, cruising to a 13-point win over the Heat in Boston.
“I just thought we were playing and competing with force, with intention and doing the things that would put ourselves in a position to win,” Spoelstra said. “And I just think the three turnovers and the four threes just derailed us. And it’s a teaching point. It really is a learning lesson for our team. I think the Knicks, what they did against San Antonio, it was a very similar situation. San Antonio was knocking down a bunch of shots, and the Knicks just stayed the course and then put themselves in a position to win. And that’s what we’re going to grow into, for sure.”