Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra watches his team play against the Orlando Magic in the first half of their NBA game at Kaseya Center on March 14, 2026, in Miami. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com
As the Miami Heat gets healthier, the rotation remains a work in progress even with just four weeks left in the regular season.
That was evident again in Saturday night’s 121-117 loss to the Orlando Magic at Kaseya Center, with Heat guards Tyler Herro and Norman Powell returning from injuries. Herro returned after missing the previous two games with left quad soreness and Powell returned after missing the previous seven games with a right groin strain.
But Powell returned to a different role, playing off the bench on Saturday for the first time this season. With the Heat (38-30) winning each of the seven games that Powell was sidelined for to go on a season-best seven-game winning streak, the decision was made to bring Powell back off the bench to not disrupt what was working.
“Just that they didn’t want to mess the flow up, with the way the team is playing,” Powell said of the message he received from Heat coaches before playing as a reserve for the first time this season. “And just to be myself and be aggressive.”
Powell finished his first regular-season game off the bench since April 12, 2024 with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field, 1-of-5 shooting on threes and 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line, one rebound, three assists and one steal in 31 minutes during Saturday’s defeat to the Magic.
Powell, who was the Heat’s lone All-Star this season, is averaging a team-high 22.5 points per game in his first season with the Heat.
“Look, these are not easy decisions right now,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of moving Powell to the bench. “He’s going to play a lot of minutes. Tyler is going to play a lot of minutes. Right now, we just need to focus on winning games and pouring into the team right now. We want to be healthy. We want our guys out there. We want our firepower. We want our options. With that comes some way of sacrifice.”
Herro was the one to sacrifice when he returned from a rib injury after the All-Star break, playing as a reserve in the Heat’s first four games following the break before returning to the starting lineup when Powell went out with his groin issue.
Herro thrived in that starting role while Powell was out, averaging 24.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game while shooting 55.7 percent from the field, 51.5 percent on threes and 94.7 percent from the foul line during the first five games of Powell’s seven game absence before missing the next two games with his quad issue. The Heat went 5-0 in those Herro starts.
Herro again started in his return on Saturday, finishing the loss with 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the field and 2-of-8 shooting on threes, six rebounds and five assists in 31 minutes. Herro started alongside Davion Mitchell, Pelle Larsson, Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware against the Magic.
“I feel good,” Herro said after Saturday’s defeat, with the Heat now in the middle of a two-day break before resuming its schedule against the Hornets on Tuesday in Charlotte. “Obviously, missed a couple of shots. But again, just being out there with the guys, happy to be out there.”
While Spoelstra continues to try to stagger Herro and Powell’s minutes, they did play extended minutes together on Saturday. Herro and Powell played 14 minutes together, with the Heat outscoring the Magic by three points during that stretch.
Saturday marked just the 12th game that Herro and Powell have both been available for so far this season, in large part because Herro missed a large chunk of the schedule due to injuries. Herro and Powell, who are the Heat’s two leading scorers this season, have played just 173 minutes together through the Heat’s first 68 games this season.
“I mean, it’s going to get shaky because everybody is trying to play the right way,” Adebayo said of working in new lineups and combinations late in the season. “Nobody wants to feel like they’re messing up the motion or the style of play or how we’re playing. So everybody’s trying to get the right amount of shots or the right rhythm without it affecting everybody else.”
With Herro and Powell back, guard Dru Smith found himself out of the rotation on Saturday. Smith received only his fourth DNP-CD (coach’s decision) of the season.
The Heat isn’t even fully healthy yet, with starting forward Andrew Wiggins missing his fifth straight game on Saturday because of a left big toe injury. The Heat was also without forward Nikola Jovic (low back injury management) against the Magic.
“We’ll do it the best way we think we can. Will it be all perfect right now? I don’t know,” Spoelstra said when asked Saturday about managing minutes and roles as the Heat gets healthier. “But it’s go time. It kind of simplifies role definition. We have to do whatever it takes right now to get the job done and get wins. We need our firepower out there.”
With only 14 regular-season games left to play and the Heat looking to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament for the first time in four years, Herro echoed Spoelstra’s message.
“It’s one common goal. We’re all trying to win, at the end of the day,” Herro said. “Whatever it takes to win.”
CONTROVERSIAL CALL
After shaky Heat defense allowed the Magic to score 71 points and pull ahead by as many as 22 points in Saturday’s first half, Miami found itself in position to make it a one possession game in the final seconds.
With the Heat in possession of the ball and trailing by just four points with 36.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the officials ruled that Larsson didn’t get the inbounds pass in on time. The officials called a five-second inbounding violation to give the ball back to the Magic.
Spoelstra and Heat players didn’t agree with the call.
“I haven’t gone through the mechanics of it right now, but it felt like a quick five,” Spoelstra said.
Powell added: “I thought the five-second violation was BS. I mean, it was too fast. We couldn’t even get through our first two actions before they called a five-second violation.”
The Heat also believes a five-second violation should have been called on the Magic with Orlando ahead by two points and 18.5 seconds to play. But the officials ruled that Magic coach Jamahl Mosley called a timeout before the five seconds were up.
“That altered the game,” Adebayo said of the five-second violation called on Larsson. “When you alter the game, you should have to, like, stand on that. Because when we mess up, when we make mistakes, when we miss stuff, all hell breaks loose on us. We got people blaming us for everything.
“And then on the other side, I felt like they had a five-second call that wasn’t called. That altered the game. So you see what I’m getting at? They affect the game in a way where sometimes it does have an effect, and they get to go home and sleep peacefully. And we’re up here talking about a call that you feel like should have been called or not called.”