With leading men given night off, Heat surge by Grizzlies in preseason finale; Magic up next on Wednesday in season opener

The next time the Miami Heat play it will be for real. Friday night against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum was something far less.

With the majority of their rotation players allowed to skip the trip at the end of a busy week of exhibitions, the Heat rallied to win 114-109 to close out their preseason at 4-1.

There now are four days off before the Heat open the franchise’s 37th season when they take on the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center.

“So far,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, “things have been progressing in the right direction.”

Utilizing mostly a mix of draft picks and young players, the Heat did not travel Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Terry Rozier, Duncan Robinson, Kevin Love, Alec Burks and Josh Richardson. Of those eight, only Richardson was sidelined by injury, still recovering from last season’s shoulder surgery.

The Heat were led by the 17 points of Josh Christopher and the 16 of Ke’lel Ware.

The exhibition was the fourth in six days for the Heat, a preseason schedule compacted when a game a week ago against the Atlanta Hawks was postponed until Wednesday night due to Hurricane Milton.

The Heat led 28-24 after the first quarter, then trailed 62-60 at halftime and 91-85 going into the fourth quarter.

Five Degrees of Heat from Friday night’s exhibition against the Grizzlies:

1. At the outset: The Heat opened with a lineup of Dru Smith, Pella Larsson, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic and Thomas Bryant.

The Heat also traveled Jaime Jaquez Jr., but the team announced shortly before tipoff that he would not be playing, while also noting there was no injury.

Highsmith, coming off a 16-point performance off the bench in Wednesday night’s exhibition victory over the Atlanta Hawks, then opened up by converting three early 3-pointers, further solidifying a 3-and-D role essential with the Heat’s offseason free-agency loss of Caleb Martin to the Philadelphia 76ers.

“I don’t want to put any kind of ceiling on guys,” Spoelstra said.

Highsmith and Jovic were among those given the second half off.

While the Heat traveled light, the Grizzlies had Ja Morant, Desmond Bane and Marcus Smart in their lineup, among other rotation players. Morant had missed the previous three exhibitions to rest a sore ankle.

2. Five out; five in: As he has done routinely throughout the preseason, Spoelstra again went with a five-man substitution pattern, this time late in the first period inserting a platoon of Ware, Keshad Johnson, Christopher, Nassir Little and Isaiah Stevens.

At that point, it left Zion Pullin and Warren Washington as the lone available Heat players yet to see action, with those two entering in the third period.

“I think everybody’s deserved that,” Spoelstra said of the opportunity to play the balance of his roster. “They’re competitors.”

Little, a roster longshot after being waived over the summer by the Phoenix Suns, late in the first quarter scored his first basket of the preseason, the first of three consecutive 3-point conversions by the veteran guard.

3. Cutdown day: The Heat ostensibly face a 5 p.m. Saturday deadline to trim to their opening-night roster. While the deadline formally is 5 p.m. Monday, players must be released 48 hours in advance to clear the two-day waiver period, with a team otherwise charged a per-day salary.

The Heat’s machinations largely have been set, with 14 players under standard, guaranteed contract. The Heat will open with that total, one under the NBA limit, due to their position hard against the punitive second apron of the luxury tax.

Those 14 players are  Butler, Adebayo, Herro, Rozier, Robinson, Love, Burks, Richardson. Jovic, Jaquez, Highsmith, Bryant, Ware and Larson.

Expect to remain on two-way contracts are Christopher, Johnson and Smith, the league-maximum three for those spots.

“It fits our player-development philosophy,” Spoelstra said of moving players to the team’s G League program, “that we get to spend more time with our players and develop them. Sioux Falls is a branch of exactly what we do.

“It also helps the players, where it’s not so transactional.”

4. Smaller matter: Ahead of the NBA’s cutdown deadline, the Heat’s G League affiliate conducted some business Friday, trading the G League rights of guard Jamaree Bouyea to the San Antonio Spurs’ affiliate.

Bouyea, who previously spent time with the Heat, had been with the Spurs last season.

In return, the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, received the G League rights to Jamorko Pickett and Sir’Jabari Rice, along with a first-round pick in next week’s G League Draft.

5. Name change: Friday’s game was the Heat’s last on Bally Sports Sun, but in name only.

Starting Monday, the same network, which will continue to broadcast the Heat’s games, will become known as FanDuel Sports Network Sun.

Because of Florida’s agreement with Hard Rock, FanDuel’s Sportsbook is not legal in Florida.