Category: Latest Headlines

MIAMI – Jimmy Butler came to play. In the preseason, no less. Few signs could be more encouraging for the Miami Heat at this time of year. In 20:55, on a night he was pulled for good early in the third period, Butler was active and aggressive with 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting and three steals in Wednesday night’s 120-111 exhibition victory over the Atlanta Hawks at Kaseya Center. “Jimmy just wanted to make sure he had a couple of moments tonight,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. That he did. “Super efficient,” Spoelstra said of Butler’s offense, “activity level defensively, too. Yeah, he’s...

MIAMI — At a stage when figuring it out is far more significant than the final score, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Jimmy Butler settled into comfort zones Tuesday night with the Miami Heat’s new starting lineup. While the result, a 120-117 exhibition victory over the San Antonio Spurs at Kaseya Center, didn’t count for anything, the chemistry did. Chemistry that Adebayo, Butler and Herro seemed to find now working in an opening unit with Terry Rozier and Nikola Jovic. “I love the intent so far,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of his starting lineup. “They’re intentional in the work, the...

MIAMI — So what does a Miami Heat starting lineup of Bam Adebayo, Nikola Jovic, Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Terry Rozier look like? Erik Spoelstra got a look at the quintet in a game situation for the first time ever in Sunday’s 101-99 exhibition victory over the New Orleans Pelicans at Kaseya Center. The early math? The Heat outscored the Pelicans by two with those five on the court, before all five were given the second half off. “That group I thought was really encouraging,” Spoelstra said of the starters. “That’s how I thought they looked in training camp, in the Bahamas. The group...