Adebayo and Herro dominate, and other takeaways from Heat’s preseason win over Grizzlies

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 132-124 win over the Memphis Grizzlies in its third of five preseason games on Sunday night at Kaseya Center:

Through three preseason games, the Heat (2-1) has yet to have a dress rehearsal game for the regular season.

The Heat was again without a chunk of its roster for its third preseason game on Sunday.

The Heat ruled out Jimmy Butler (dental procedure), Caleb Martin (left knee tendinosis), Nikola Jovic (right knee contusion), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (left groin strain), Josh Richardson (left foot discomfort), R.J. Hampton (right hip muscle strain) and Dru Smith (right hamstring strain) against the Grizzlies.

Butler is the Heat’s best player, and Martin and Richardson are projected to be major components of the Heat’s regular-season rotation. And Jaquez and Jovic are competing to be part of Miami’s rotation this season.

Without those five players, there was very little to take away from the Heat’s lineup and rotation decisions on Sunday. Meanwhile, Hampton and Smith are competing for spots on the Heat’s regular-season roster this preseason.

Butler and Martin have missed each of the Heat’s first three preseason games. Jovic, Jaquez, Richardson and Hampton have missed the Heat’s last two preseason games. And Sunday marked the first game Smith has missed this preseason.

When asked before Sunday’s contest whether any of the Heat’s injured players could miss extended time, coach Erik Spoelstra said: “We’re listing everybody as day-to-day. But we’ll get a better indicator over these next couple days.”

Asked specifically whether Jaquez will miss the rest of the preseason after tweaking his groin in Wednesday’s practice, Spoelstra offered a similar answer.

“I don’t know,” Spoelstra said. “We’re taking it one day at a time. We’ll probably get a better idea in the next couple days. He was able to do some stuff in the training room while we were gone [for Friday’s preseason game in San Antonio]. I’ll give you probably a better indicator on Wednesday.”

The Heat has two preseason games left to play — Wednesday vs. the Brooklyn Nets at Kaseya Center in Miami and Friday vs. the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center in Houston.

The Heat opens the regular season on Oct. 25 against the Detroit Pistons in Miami.

But there were some Heat regulars available on Sunday, with Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro leading the way.

With seven players ruled out, 12 of the 19 players on the Heat’s preseason roster were available against the Grizzlies: Adebayo, Herro, Kyle Lowry, Kevin Love, Haywood Highsmith, Duncan Robinson, Jamal Cain, Thomas Bryant, Orlando Robinson, Cole Swider, Justin Champagnie and Cheick Diallo.

On Sunday, the Heat went with a starting lineup of Lowry, Herro, Highsmith, Love and Adebayo.

The Heat then played four players off the bench in the first two quarters (Duncan Robinson, Jamal Cain, Thomas Bryant and Cole Swider) to complete its nine-man rotation in the first half.

Adebayo and Herro did most of the scoring for the Heat, combining for 35 of the team’s 58 first-half points. They scored 56 of the Heat’s 98 points through three quarters before Adebayo sat out the entire fourth quarter and Herro played only a few minutes in the fourth quarter.

Adebayo, working against last season’s NBA Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. for most of the game, closed with 26 points on 12-of-20 shooting from the field, six rebounds, three assists and four blocks in 25 minutes.

“Bam is just reading the game and being more assertive regardless of who it’s against,” Spoelstra said.

Herro finished with a game-high 30 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field, 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range and 4-of-5 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds and two assists in 31 minutes.

“He’s prepared himself all summer long and he just makes our offense so much more dynamic,” Spoelstra said of Herro. “Tonight was a case in point. And you’re playing against a very good defense. It’s preseason, I get it. But our offense just looks a lot different when he’s on the court.”

Lowry played the role of distributor, contributing 5 points on just four field-goal attempts, five rebounds and a game-high nine assists in 25 minutes.

Love added 10 points, seven rebounds and two assists in 23 minutes.

Bryant scored 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line and grabbed four rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench.

Duncan Robinson scored 12 points on 2-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc in 26 minutes off the bench.

The competition for the final spot on the Heat’s standard regular-season roster will be decided in the coming days. Cain made another strong impression in his bid for that opening.

After totaling 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 shooting on threes and 10 rebounds while providing quality defense in 27 minutes in Friday’s preseason loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Cain again impressed on Sunday.

Cain, 24, recorded 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 1-of-2 shooting on threes, seven rebounds and one steal in 25 minutes against the Grizzlies. His defensive versatility, improved three-point stroke and athleticism has been on display during this two-game stretch.

Cain received extended playing time for the second straight preseason game after not entering the preseason opener until the fourth quarter.

Cain, who went undrafted out of Oakland University last year, is entering his second season in the Heat’s player development program after spending his rookie season on a two-way contract with the Heat.

Cain is again on a two-way deal this season, but is hoping to be promoted to a standard contract before the start of the regular season.

With only 13 players on standard contracts, the Heat has two open spots on its standard regular-season roster. But Miami is expected to only fill one of those spots to get to 14 players for the start of the regular season because of its position against the luxury tax.

Cain is one of six players on the Heat’s preseason roster vying for the 14th spot on the regular-season roster. Fellow Heat two-way contract players Smith and Hampton, and Exhibit 10 tryout contract players Champagnie, Diallo and Swider are the others.

NBA teams have a 5 p.m. deadline on Oct. 23 to cut rosters to the regular-season maximum of 15 players, which does not include the three two-way contract slots. But teams will need to make those moves by 5 p.m. Saturday because of the 48-hour waiver period.

The Heat can also make changes to its three two-way contract slots at any time.

While it’s still unknown if Butler will play this preseason, he’s on track to be ready for the start of the regular season.

Butler is recovering from two separate dental surgeries he underwent in recent days, but is expected to be ready to return to game action by the end of the week ahead of the Heat’s Oct. 25 regular-season opener.

But there’s no guarantee Butler will return to play a game before the end of the preseason. The last NBA game Butler played in was Game 5 of the 2023 NBA Finals on June 12.

Butler, 34, is entering his fifth season with the Heat and 13th NBA season.

Butler has been selected for an All-NBA team in three of his first four seasons with Miami, leading the Heat to three Eastern Conference finals appearances and two NBA Finals appearances during that span. But the Heat has yet to win an NBA championship in the Butler era.

The Heat hopes to keep Drew Peterson and Alondes Williams in its player development program.

The Heat waived Peterson and Williams, who were both on Exhibit 10 tryout contracts, on Saturday after they spent the summer and first two weeks of the preseason with the team.

Because Peterson and Williams spent most of the preseason with the Heat, they can now be transitioned to the organization’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, unless another NBA team signs them to a two-way or standard contract or they choose not to play in the G League.

Peterson, a 6-foot-9 sharpshooting forward, went undrafted this year out of Southern Cal.

Williams, a 6-foot-4 and 210-pound guard, went undrafted out of Wake Forest in 2022 after being named the ACC Player of the Year in his final college season.

Both players were part of the Heat’s summer league team this year.

“We’re encouraged by both of them,” Spoelstra said Sunday when asked about Peterson and Williams. “This was part of the agreement to transition them and get guys on to Sioux Falls. It happens in stages. These can be great opportunities still. We want to invest in them for the entire season. That’s ideally the plan. They got a lot better these last eight weeks and we’re looking forward to this next step in Sioux Falls.”