Bam Adebayo #13 of the Miami Heat celebrates in the second quarter against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena on February 08, 2026 in Washington, DC. Greg Fiume Getty Images
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has made it clear multiple times in recent days that the Heat will continue to play to win this season after Thursday’s quiet deadline. But the Washington Wizards’ actions indicate that they’re prioritizing positioning in the 2026 NBA Draft over winning games this season.
Sunday afternoon’s contest between the two teams was a representation of those two drastically different approaches, as the Heat (28-26) crushed the tanking Wizards 132-101 at Capital One Arena. After blowing a 22-point lead in Friday’s loss to the Celtics in Boston, the Heat closed its quick two-game trip at 1-1.
“You are free to do however you feel is best that you think for your organization, and people will criticize it one way or another,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Sunday’s game. “People criticize us. We’re going to compete every single night, every night. Take it or leave it, like it or not. That’s what we’re doing.”
The Wizards (14-38) started fast, building an early nine-point lead over the first five minutes of the game.
But the rest of the game belonged to the Heat. Miami closed the first half on a 63-32 run to turn that nine-point deficit into a 22-point halftime lead.
The Heat’s lead grew to as large as 32 points in the second half on the way to the 31-point rout.
The Heat made shot 21 of 47 (44.7 percent) from three-point range. Miami improved to 6-0 this season in games with 20 or more made threes.
Bam Adebayo led the Heat with a team-high 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 2-of-6 shooting on threes to go with eight rebounds, three assists and five steals in 28 minutes. He posted an eye-opening plus/minus of plus 41 in the win.
Adebayo was one of seven Heat players to score double-digit points on Sunday.
Meanwhile, no Wizards player finished with more than 14 points. Tristan Vukcevic scored a team-high 14 points for Washington.
The Heat now travels home to host the Utah Jazz on Monday at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun) to complete the back-to-back set. Miami has just two games left to play before the NBA All-Star break.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s blowout win over the Wizards on Sunday:
Powell is going to have a busy All-Star weekend. But unfortunately for Powell and the Heat, he left Sunday’s game early because of lower back tightness.
Powell was effective on Sunday before exiting the contest with 3:35 left in the third quarter due to lower back tightness and never returning. Powell recorded 21 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 shooting on threes, four rebounds and one steal in 25 minutes prior to leaving the game.
During Sunday’s game, the NBA announced that Powell will take part in the NBA’s Three-Point Contest on Feb. 14 on All-Star Saturday Night at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles (5 p.m., NBC and Peacock).
Powell is also the Heat’s lone representative in this season’s NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 15 at Intuit Dome.
While this will mark Powell’s first NBA All-Star Game appearance, he has been part of the NBA’s Three-Point Contest before. But Powell was eliminated in the first round of last year’s Three-Point Contest that Heat guard Tyler Herro ended up winning.
Powell is one eight participants competing for the three-point crown this year, along with Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns, Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets, Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers, Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers, Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets and Bobby Portis of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Powell will be the 10th different Heat player in franchise history to take part in the Three-Point Contest, joining Jon Sundvold (1989 and 1990), Glen Rice (1991 and 1995), Jason Kapono (2007), Daequan Cook (2009 and 2010), James Jones (2011 and 2012), Mario Chalmers (2012), Wayne Ellingotn (2018), Duncan Robinson (2020) and Herro (2023 and 2025).
Five Heat players have won the Three-Point Contest in franchise history: Rice (1995), Kapono (2007), Cook (2009), Jones (2011) and Herro (2025).
The Heat stands alone as the only NBA team with five Three-Point Contest trophies. The Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics have the second most three-point crowns with four.
Powell, 32, entered Sunday’s game against the Wizards shooting 39.3 percent on a career-high 7.2 three-point attempts per game this season.
Along with Powell, the Heat will also be represented by second-year center Kel’el Ware (Rising Stars), Keshad Johnson (NBA Dunk Contest) and Jahmir Young (G League Next Up Game and G League Three-Point Contest).
The Heat used the double-big look of Adebayo and Ware for the first time in over a month.
After starting Adebayo and Ware together in 19 of the Heat’s first 37 games this season, Spoelstra completely went away from the double-big look for the last month. Ware has since moved to a bench role and Spoelstra has staggered the minutes of Adebayo and Ware for 16 straight games.
For good reason, too, as the Heat has been outscored by 7.5 points per 100 possessions in the 266 minutes that the 6-foot-9 Adebayo and 7-foot Ware have played together this season. Among the Heat’s 39 two-man combinations who have logged at least 220 minutes together this season, the Adebayo-Ware combo has the third-worst net rating.
But the Heat turned to the Adebayo-Ware frontcourt on Sunday for the first time since Jan. 6, and the double-big lineup produced positive minutes.
Adebayo and Ware began playing together on Sunday with the Heat trailing the Wizards 31-23 and 2:55 left in the first quarter.
The game then changed, as the Heat outscored the Wizards 21-6 to turn that eight-point deficit into a seven-point lead over the next five minutes.
Adebayo and Ware also closed the first half together, outscoring the Wizards by seven points over the final 3:06 of the first half.
Adebayo and Ware also played one stint together in Sunday’s second half, outscoring the Wizards 19-9 in eight minutes together during a run that started late in the third quarter and ended in the fourth quarter.
The Heat dominated the Wizards by 32 points in the 16 minutes that Adebayo and Ware played together.
Ware closed Sunday’s win with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field, 1-of-3 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, 14 rebounds, one assist and one block in 30 minutes off the Heat’s bench.
With Heat guard Pelle Larsson unavailable, the Heat was forced to use another new starting lineup.
Larsson missed Sunday’s contest after suffering a right elbow contusion in Friday’s loss to the Boston Celtics.
With Larsson starting in each of the previous 13 games, the Heat needed to make a change to its starting lineup on Sunday since he was unavailable.
The Heat opted to start two-way contract forward Myron Gardner in Larsson’s place.
The Heat went with a starting unit of Davion Mitchell, Powell, Gardner, Andrew Wiggins and Bam Adebayo against the Wizards. It marked the 18th different starting lineup that the Heat has used through 54 games this season.
Gardner, who made his third NBA start, closed Sunday’s victory with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting on threes, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals in 21 minutes.
Along with missing Larsson, the Heat was without Vlad Goldin (G League), Herro (ribs), Johnson (G League) and Terry Rozier (not with team) on Sunday,
The Wizards didn’t have Anthony Davis (left finger sprain), Dante Exum (not with team), Anthony Gill (right hand contusion), Jaden Hardy (rest), Tre Johnson (left ankle sprain), D’Angelo Russell (not with team), Cam Whitmore (right shoulder deep vein thrombosis) and Trae Young (right knee MCL sprain and quad contusion).
It was also a positive day for the Heat’s youngest player.
After receiving a DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) in Friday’s loss to the Celtics, rookie guard Kasparas Jakucionis was back in the Heat’s bench rotation on Sunday.
The 19-year-old Jakucionis made the most of his opportunity, setting a new-career high in his first NBA season with 22 points on an efficient 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 6-of-6 shooting from three-point range. He also contributed three rebounds, six assists and two steals in 26 minutes against the Wizards.
Jakucionis, who was taken by the Heat with the 20th pick in last year’s draft, was part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Jaime Jaquez Jr., Ware and Simone Fontecchio on Sunday. Miami then emptied its bench late in the blowout win.
Jakucionis played ahead of guard Dru Smith, who has been a fixture in the Heat’s bench rotation this season. Smith entered for his first action of Sunday’s game with 5:36 left in the fourth quarter.
The Heat is right back at it on Monday.
The Heat’s busy stretch continues with a matchup against the Jazz in Miami to complete the back-to-back. Not only will it mark the Heat’s third game in four days, but it will also be the Heat’s eighth game in the last 13 days.
The good news for the Heat is it has had success on the back end of back-to-backs. Miami is an impressive 9-3 on the second night of back-to-backs this season.
The Jazz, which entered Sunday with the sixth-worst record in the NBA this season, has lost 12 of its last 14 games. Utah was idle on Saturday after falling to the Magic in Orlando on Saturday.
A win over the Jazz on Monday would give the Heat consecutive victories only for the second time since the start of 2026.