On this week’s Heat Check: What’s behind the Heat’s struggles against winning teams this season? Why did the Heat guarantee Terry Rozier’s full salary? And more. By Pierre Taylor
Entering Saturday’s matchup against the Indiana Pacers, the level of anticipation among Miami Heat coaches and players surrounding the return of the team’s preferred starting lineup was high.
“It’s going to be fun, man,” Heat starting center Bam Adebayo said. “Building that chemistry and getting out there.”
But with the lineup of Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins and Bam Adebayo making just its fifth start of the season and its first start in a month, reality set in after the Heat’s ugly 123-99 loss to the team with the NBA’s worst record in the Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday night.
With Herro returning to the starting group on Saturday after missing 30 of the first 36 games this season because of injuries, it’s going to take some time for this Heat lineup to get on the same page and build some continuity.
“You got to think about it, we’ve played a certain way for a while,” Powell said following Saturday’s defeat in Indianapolis before the team flew to Oklahoma City for Sunday night’s matchup against the defending NBA champion Thunder. “We had Pelle [Larsson] in the starting lineup, and then we went with the two-big lineup [with Adebayo and Kel’el Ware], and we were playing games and playing off one another. And then another guy comes back in, Tyler, who’s a scorer and can really boost your offense.
“Now everybody has to adjust it and figure it out. It’s not going be as soon as it happens, as soon as everybody is healthy, we’re going be playing and clicking on all cylinders. Now you got to readjust and figure it out. Rotations are different, usage is different, so it’s all about having some time under the belt to really build that cohesiveness.”
Davion Mitchell #45 of the Miami Heat brings the ball up the court against Quenton Jackson #29 of the Indiana Pacers during the first half at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on January 10, 2026 in Indianapolis. Justin Casterline Getty Images
Those growing pains were on display to begin Saturday’s game, as the Heat was trailing the Pacers 17-9 before making its first substitution of the night.
“It’s a process,” Adebayo said. “This is like the third game we’ve been fully healthy for the whole season, so it’s going to take some time. Guys have been in and out of lineups, plug and play, we’re trying to figure it out. So hopefully we can stay healthy and get through this bump and get back to winning some games.”
The Heat’s new starting lineup was outscored by the Pacers by five points in 11 minutes together in Saturday’s loss.
“As a starting unit, we have to come out with a better disposition, better focus to get the team off to a good start,” Herro said. “It’s unacceptable for all of us to be down 20 before the first time out.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra continued to express confidence in this lineup after Saturday’s defeat, referring to the season-long numbers for the group. The combination of Mitchell, Herro, Powell, Wiggins and Adebayo has outscored opponents by 8.4 points per 100 possessions in 84 minutes together this season.
“That’s a one-game sample,” Spoelstra said when asked about the new starting lineup’s struggles against the Pacers on Saturday. “It’s more of a collective thing. That group, when they’ve played together, that’s been an explosive offensive group. That’s been a small sample size, but this is a very small sample size collectively as a team. Forget about the starting lineup. It wasn’t like it got better when we went into the second unit. We were just on our heels the entire night.”
Because of a toe injury that forced Herro to miss 11 straight games, Saturday marked his first start since a Dec. 9 loss to the Orlando Magic. Herro closed Saturday’s loss with a team-high 21 points on 8-of-19 shooting from the field and 1-of-8 shooting from three-point range, seven rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes.
With Larsson or Ware playing in Herro’s spot in the Heat’s starting lineup as more of a complementary piece while Herro was sidelined, the adjustment for the starting group comes with incorporating a high-usage scorer like Herro into the mix.
Herro led the Heat in scoring (23.9 points per game) and usage rate (27.1 percent) late season. Entering Sunday’s matchup against the Thunder, Powell has led the Heat in scoring (23.8 points per game) and usage rate (26.6 percent) in his first season with Miami.
“It’s a little different just in terms of the flow of the offense and how it goes and positions of where everybody is at,” Powell said of the adjustment that comes with Herro returning to the starting lineup. “You got Bam playing the five. He was playing the four with Kel’el. Wiggs is playing the four now and I’m playing the three, so it’s all about trying to play off of one another.
“But we got to do a better job of making the game easier. The game is easy when you’re making shots and everything is going in. You’re not really thinking about it. But what’s our identity in that unit with that five out there offensively and defensively? And it can’t just be being worried about your shots or looks. It’s all about still working the game, playing the right way offensively. But defensively is where we’re going to have to really hang our hats and make it easier for our offense to get stops and get out and get flowing.”
There were bigger problems for the Heat than its starting lineup in Saturday’s loss to the struggling Pacers. After all, the Heat shot just 4 of 30 (13.3 percent) from three-point range in the defeat to finish with fewer than five three-point makes in a game for the first time since it made just three threes in a Feb. 5, 2018 loss to the Magic.
But the Heat also knows finding a consistently effective starting lineup is important. Miami has used 12 different starting units through the first 38 games of the season.
“I think we just got to keep working at it,” Herro said of the Heat’s latest starting group. “It’s only our third or fourth game, I believe, as a full unit. We all want to make it work, we just got to make it work.”