Winderman’s view: Heat find Plan B is enough against Cavaliers

CLEVELAND — Observations and other notes of interest from Wednesday night’s 107-104 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers:

– All the perspective you need on what the Heat had available is this:

– Lineup A: Bam Adebayo, Kevin Love, Duncan Robinson, Tyler Herro, Josh Richardson.

– Lineup B: Thomas Bryant, Nikola Jovic, Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier, Patty Mills.

– Lineup A was who was not available for the Heat against the Cavaliers.

– Lineup B was who started.

– It of course doesn’t matter which was preferred.

– For Heat coach Erik Spoelstra the injury report dictated the decision.

– So Lineup B it was.

– The Heat therefore opened with lineup No. 33 of the season, further surpassing the previous season high of 31 set in 2014-15.

– Wednesday night’s lineup had yet to play a single second together prior to Wednesday night.

– Mills became the 18th player to start this season for the Heat, two off the franchise record set in 2014-15,

– The lone players on the current roster yet to start for the Heat this season are two-way players Cole Swider and Alondes Williams.

– As a matter of comparison to those lineups in 2014-15, that was the season after LeBron James left and the season Chris Bosh was lost to blood clots.

– The unavailable players also were the Heat’s five inactives.

– That had all three two-way players in uniform: Swider, Williams and Jamal Cain.

– Williams and Orlando Robinson rejoined the Heat on Wednesday after playing Tuesday night in the G League for Sioux Falls in a game in Memphis.

– To put the injury situations of both teams in perspective, the Heat went into the night with 213 player/games missed due to injury, fourth in the NBA, with the Cavaliers at 190 such player/games.

– Adebayo now has missed three of the four games in the season series that concludes Sunday at Kaseya Center.

– Among those out for the Cavaliers were starters Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus and Evan Mobley.

– Orlando Robinson played as the Heat’s first reserve after Bryant was called for a pair of early fouls.

– Caleb Martin then followed along with Jaime Jaquez Jr., in the Heat’s second substitution.

– With Delon Wright making it nine deep for the Heat.

– And Haywood Highsmith 10 deep.

– That left Cain, Swider and Williams out of the mix.

– With their injuries, the Cavaliers have become more of a floor-spacing team.

– “They’ve made an intentional shift to try to spread the floor and shoot more threes,” Spoelstra said.

– Of his return from his hamstring strain, Jovic said, “I’m feeling a lot better. I went through a little practice (Tuesday), and now with the shootaround it feels a lot better.”

– But he then limped off at halftime, after colliding on a screen.

– Jovic’s second basket was the 100th of his career.