Davion Mitchell

Bam Adebayo Endorses Heat’s Roster Moves

August 2nd, 2025 at 5:11pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Heat haven’t won a playoff series since their surprising run to the 2023 Finals, but Bam Adebayo believes the team’s offseason moves have it headed back toward contention, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Adebayo spoke to reporters Saturday at his youth basketball clinic in Miami, marking his first public comments since the Heat were knocked out of the playoffs by Cleveland in April.

“It’s a very good shake-up for our team and now there’s a different dynamic to it,” Adebayo said.

Miami added another dynamic scorer last month by acquiring Norman Powell from the Clippers in a three-team trade. After two straight top-four finishes in the Sixth Man of the Year voting, Powell moved into L.A.’s starting lineup last season and responded with a career-high 21.8 points per game. Chiang notes that he was one of just six players who averaged at least 21 PPG while shooting better than 48% from the field and 40% from three-point range.

The Heat were able to land Powell at a bargain price, sending versatile forward Kyle Anderson, veteran big man Kevin Love and a 2027 second-round pick to Utah in the deal.

“I feel like Norman is one of those guys that floats under the radar,” Adebayo said. “But as you saw this year, he’s really shown that he can be an All-Star caliber player. You’ve seen what he’s done and you’ve seen him grow in this league. And, obviously, he wants to take the next challenge. Obviously, the next challenge is being with the Miami Heat. So I’m happy to have him.”

Miami was also able to re-sign free agent point guard Davion Mitchell, who was acquired from Toronto in February. Mitchell responded to the trade by putting up 10.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.4 steals in 30 games with Miami while shooting 50.4% from the floor and 44.7% from beyond the arc. Chiang states that he also made a difference with his aggressive defense, as the Heat gave up 3.4 fewer points per 100 possessions when he was on the court.

“Davion being back, obviously, we’ve been missing somebody that can really play on-ball defense,” Adebayo said. “And having him come in and be that guy and understand his role, I’m looking forward to him being here for a full year and all of us being together and getting to know one another and turning this into more of a brotherhood. We were kind of disconnected a little bit trying to figure out everybody’s role and trying to figure out everybody’s style of play. But now we’re going to have a good training camp and then we go from there.”

Adebayo also talked about the teammates he lost as the Heat retooled their roster. In addition to parting ways with Love and Anderson, Miami sent Duncan Robinson to Detroit in a sign-and-trade deal that brought back Simone Fontecchio.

“I’m going to miss them, obviously,” Adebayo said. “Just because Duncan has been here for eight years and having that connection was special. And then K-Love was a leader that could speak to somebody from a championship level, could obviously encourage the younger group, be an example, but also he was the bridge between some of the coaches and the players. So like I said, I’m going to miss both of them. I’m glad we had the time that we did. It was, obviously, helpful for my growth and my development as a player and as a captain.”

Heat Notes: Mitchell, Powell, Beal, Lillard, Fontecchio, Ware

July 8th, 2025 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Davion Mitchell, who re-signed with the Heat this week after playing the best basketball of his NBA career following a trade-deadline deal that sent him to Miami, said on Tuesday that the organization is “completely different” from the other NBA teams he has spent time with (Sacramento and Toronto).

“One, coach (Erik Spoelstra) is one of the greatest coaches of all time,” Mitchell said when asked what makes Miami different, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “So just learning from him, just asking questions, you won’t get any better answers from anybody else, I think. And just my teammates, my teammates wanted me here, they embraced me here, they wanted me to be myself. If I can be somewhere and be myself, I know I can be the best player I can be.”

As good as Mitchell was in during his 30 regular season games with Miami, the team struggled during those contests, posting a 10-20 record. He’s optimistic that working together this offseason will help put the Heat in a better position to open the 2025/26 season.

“It’s going to be good for me and the team, just the chemistry that we can build,” Mitchell said. “We won a couple games, we even made it to the playoffs with very little chemistry, especially with injuries and just getting traded here. So we didn’t really know how to jell with one another. I feel like we kind of figured it out a little bit (near the end of the season. But to have a training camp with one another, just to go at each other, just to learn from one another, spend time outside of basketball with each other, I think is going to build a lot of team chemistry.”

Here’s more on the Heat:

Mitchell is excited about Miami’s addition of Norman Powell, noting that the veteran wing will bring championship experience to the team. “He’s a winning player, he plays both sides of the ball, he can score with the best of them,” Mitchell said. “He kind of does it all. Even if he’s not shooting the ball well, he can disrupt defensively. So you want guys like that on the floor that can help you win like that.”
While the acquisition of Powell makes a Bradley Beal signing a long shot, the Heat are still in play as a possible Damian Lillard landing spot, Chiang writes in another Miami Herald story. However, Chiang believes Miami’s odds would increase if Lillard waits until midway through the season or next offseason to sign his next contract.
New Heat forward Simone Fontecchio, acquired from Detroit in the Duncan Robinson sign-and-trade, is hoping to fill a similar offensive role to the one Robinson played in Miami, according to Chiang. “I watched a lot of Duncan Robinson in the last three years, because I think our skill set is pretty similar,” Fontecchio said. “Of course, he’s a tremendous shooter and he did an amazing job all the years in Miami and I was always kind of looking at him, the way he was getting off shots and I always kind of wanted to do the same thing. I think I can try to play like a little bit off handoffs, running off screens, do a little bit of that.”
Sharing his takeaways from the Heat’s second Summer League game at this week’s California Classic, Chiang writes that the team will want to see more going forward out of second-year center Kel’el Ware, who put up an underwhelming stat line of 12 points (on 4-of-10 shooting) and three rebounds in 28 minutes in Sunday’s loss to the Lakers. As we noted last week, the Heat’s coaching staff had hoped Ware would “dominate” Summer League play ahead of his second NBA season.

Davion Mitchell Re-Signs With Heat On Two-Year Deal

June 28th, 2025 at 12:53pm CST by Luke Adams

July 7: Mitchell has officially re-signed with the Heat, per the transaction log at NBA.com.

June 28: Free agent guard Davion Mitchell intends to re-sign with the Heat, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), who hears from sources that Mitchell has agreed to a two-year, $24MM contract. The deal will be fully guaranteed, Charania adds.

The ninth overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft, Mitchell spent his first three seasons in Sacramento, where he earned a reputation as a tenacious perimeter defender but struggled to provide value on offense, averaging 7.4 points and 2.8 assists in 20.4 minutes per game across 227 outings, with a .434/.327/.703 shooting line.

However, Mitchell had a solid first half in 2024/25 after being traded from Sacramento to Toronto last summer, then took his game to another level down the stretch following another trade that sent him from the Raptors to the Heat.

The 26-year-old emerged as a full-time starter in Miami, averaging 10.3 points and 5.3 assists per game with a .504/.447/.702 shooting line in 30 regular season contests for the Heat. He was even better in the postseason, making 59.3% of his field goal attempts and 52.0% of his three-pointers with averages of 15.2 PPG and 6.5 APG in six play-in and playoff outings.

Mitchell also played his usual strong defense in 2024/25. As Charania notes (via Twitter), among players to contest at least 500 shots, Mitchell ranked in the top five in opposing field goal percentage as the contesting defender, per ESPN Research.

The Heat issued an $8.74MM qualifying offer to Mitchell earlier this week, making him a restricted free agent. The Heat would have had the right to match any offer sheet he signed with a rival team, but he directly negotiated with Miami instead, opting not to test the market.

Mitchell’s new contract means the Heat will likely have to waive Duncan Robinson or negotiate a new contract with him in order to avoid crossing the luxury tax line, tweets Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

Robinson has until Sunday to make a decision on an early termination option worth $19.9MM. If he opts in for 2025/26, his salary would be guaranteed for $9.9MM, so Miami could create $10MM in cap savings by waiving him (or more than that waiving him and using the stretch provision on his partial guarantee).

Mitchell was ranked 27th on our list of this year’s top 50 free agents.

Heat Pick Up Johnson’s Option; Give QOs To Mitchell, Smith

June 24th, 2025 at 3:39pm CST by Luke Adams

The Heat have completed a series of roster moves, according to reports from Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald and Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Those moves are as follows:

Exercised their team option on Keshad Johnson ($1,955,377).
Issued a qualifying offer to Davion Mitchell ($8,741,210), making him a restricted free agent.
Issued a qualifying offer to Dru Smith (two-way), making him a restricted free agent.

Johnson, who celebrated his 24th birthday on Monday, played a limited role for the Heat as a rookie, appearing in just 16 games and logging 98 total minutes at the NBA level. However, he impressed in the G League, with averages of 17.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in 35.1 minutes per game across 32 appearances for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. The undrafted rookie earned a promotion from his two-way contract to the standard roster in December.

While some team options remain non-guaranteed after they’re exercised, that’s not the case for Johnson, whose $1.96MM salary for 2025/26 is now fully guaranteed. He’s on track to be eligible for restricted free agency during the summer of 2026.

Mitchell, a former ninth overall pick who has always had a reputation as a tenacious defender, earned his qualifying offer by emerging as an offensive weapon during the second half of the ’24/25 season.

After being traded from Toronto to Houston, the 26-year-old averaged 10.3 points and 5.3 assists per game with a .504/.447/.702 shooting line in 30 regular season outings for the Heat. He was even better in the postseason, making 59.3% of his field goal attempts and 52.0% of his three-pointers with averages of 15.2 PPG and 6.5 APG in six play-in and playoff outings.

Mitchell, who ranks 28th on our top-50 free agent list, will have the option of accepting his $8.7MM qualifying offer, which would set him up to become an unrestricted free agent in 2026. However, he’ll likely explore a multiyear deal with the Heat or another team. If he signs an offer sheet with a rival suitor, Miami would have the opportunity to match it.

Smith had his 2024/25 cut short due to a torn Achilles, but has always been a Heat favorite and will apparently have the opportunity to return on another two-way contract. He was the only one of three Miami two-way players to receive a qualifying offer — it doesn’t appear Isaiah Stevens will get one, while Josh Christopher was ineligible for a QO.

Southeast Notes: Hornets, Mitchell, Burks, Hawks

May 30th, 2025 at 8:03pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Hornets have the ignominious honor of holding the league’s longest active playoff drought, leaving them with many questions to answer heading into the offseason, according to The Charlotte Observer’s Roderick Boone.

In a mailbag column, Boone writes that he expects the team to add more veteran presence to its young core, along the lines of last year’s Taj Gibson signing. The goal would be to help build a winning locker room culture and assist in the development of head coach Charles Lee, who himself is still learning the ropes of being an NBA veteran coach.

Boone also advises fans not to overreact if 2024 lottery pick Tidjane Salaün spends more time in the G League next year, writing that rushing his development would be a mistake and would hurt him in the long run. The sixth pick in last year’s draft averaged 5.9 points and 4.7 rebounds in 20.7 minutes per night for Charlotte, while shooting just 33.0% from the field and 28.3% from three, though he was always known to be a project who would take multiple years to be ready for major contributions.

As for roster moves, Boone says the team could use another center or power forward, especially one who can shoot. Meanwhile, Tre Mann appears to be on the road to recovery from a back injury that cut his season short and is entering restricted free agency. If he’s healthy, Boone believes that he might be more likely to sign a qualifying offer and hit the open market next year than to sign a long-term deal.

We have more from the Southeast Division:

6’4″ shooting guard V.J. Edgecombe is rumored to be a favorite for the Hornets‘ fourth overall pick in the 2025 draft if he’s still available, writes Boone. Boone points to his strong defensive pedigree as a great fit between LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller in Lee’s system, but warns that he’ll need to improve his ball-handling to become a more well-rounded offensive threat.
After a strong second half of the season following a mid-year trade to the Heat, Davion Mitchell is expected to receive an $8.7MM qualifying offer making him a restricted free agent, writes Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. However, Chiang writes that the most likely outcome is that the Heat allow another team to pursue an offer sheet with the 26-year-old defensive-minded guard before deciding how he fits into their future plans. Chiang writes that Mitchell could garner offers that approach the full mid-level exception ($14.1MM), and the Heat are only around $4MM from the luxury tax without much hope of putting together a top-tier team for next year. They are also expected to pursue as much cap space in 2026 as possible, making multiyear deals complicated.
After a career shooting year, Alec Burks is hoping to be back with the Heat next season, writes Chiang. “It was a good year. I learned a lot. Even though I’m in my 14th year, I still learned something. So I’m glad I was here,” Burks said. The soon-to-be 34-year-old started both play-in games for Miami but only appeared in Game 1 of the team’s first-round matchup with the Cavaliers. Coach Erik Spoelstra praised his ability to stay ready for whatever was asked of him, saying, “There aren’t a lot of vets that really want to accept these kinds of roles. That’s just the reality. And he is not only able to accept it, but he thrives in that role.”
The Hawks are desperately trying to move out of the middle of the pack to become a legitimate contender, writes Keith Smith of Spotrac. The front office has decisions to make regarding the free agency of longtime center Clint Capela, who was supplanted this year by Onyeka Okongwu in the starting five, as well as new acquisitions Caris LeVert and Larry Nanc e Jr., which could decide how the team’s depth looks next season. Smith writes that it would make sense for LeVert and Atlanta to come to terms on a deal in the ballpark of $12MM annually over two or three years, while the team’s ability to retain Nance may rest on what kind of outside offers he gets. Dyson Daniels and Trae Young are both extension-eligible this summer, though Smith believes it would make more sense to extend Daniels than Young, given that Young’s role in the team’s long-term plans remains uncertain. And, of course, none of this is likely to happen before the team replaces recently fired general manager Landry Fields.

Heat Notes: Mitchell, Ware, Draft Prospects, Butler

May 21st, 2025 at 4:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Davion Mitchell played well enough during his two months with the Heat to become part of their future plans, but tax considerations and other concerns will complicate that decision, according to Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Mitchell started 15 of the 30 games he played for Miami after being acquired from Toronto at the deadline in the five-team Jimmy Butler trade. He provided a strong defensive presence in the backcourt and averaged 10.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 31.6 minutes per night while shooting 50.4% from the field and 44.7% from three-point range.

Mitchell will be a restricted free agent this summer if the Heat tender an $8.7MM qualifying offer by June 29. If he doesn’t reach a new agreement before the start of free agency, he can sign a deal with another team that Miami would have the right to match. Winderman points out that the Heat are close to the luxury tax and not far from the first apron, which will factor into the decision on whether to keep Mitchell.

Another consideration is the health of Dru Smith, who was kept on his two-way contract after suffering an Achilles tear in December. Smith played a similar role as Mitchell during the 14 games he appeared in, and he could be fully recovered in time for training camp.

Winderman also notes that Terry Rozier will make $26.6MM next season, so the Heat could be reluctant to make a significant investment in another point guard like Mitchell if Rozier can’t be traded. Isaiah Stevens showed promise in the G League as well, and as a two-way player he’s much cheaper than Mitchell will be.

“I don’t know what the future holds,” Mitchell said in his exit interview. “I’m not gonna try to get into that. But I mean I had an amazing time here. I love my teammates, love the coaching staff, love the adversity that we went through and we accomplished something no one’s ever done before, being the 10th seed, getting into the playoffs.”

There’s more on the Heat:

After earning second-team All-Rookie honors, Kel’el Ware appears headed for a regular starting spot next season, Winderman states in a mailbag column. However, he cautions that could change if the Heat are able to pull off a major deal for Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo or Zion Williamson without giving up Bam Adebayo.
Team president Pat Riley and other Heat officials traveled to Southern California to attend Pro Day workouts, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. They were able to watch a few players who might be available with the No. 20 pick, including Illinois forward Will Riley, Florida point guard Walter Clayton Jr. and St. Joseph’s power forward Rasheer Fleming.
Former Heat star Dwyane Wade recently spoke on his podcast about the team’s deteriorating relationship with Butler that led to his trade to Golden State, Jackson adds. Wade questioned Butler’s approach to the game after the Warriors fell to Minnesota in the second round. “I know Jimmy is a pass-first guy. I know he’s about getting his teammates the ball, and want to see them shine,” Wade said. “But it’s a point where, you’re getting $60 (million). This ain’t working. You gotta go. He won’t look at the basket. And I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen it in the Heat jersey.”

Florida Notes: Anthony, Bitadze, Ware, Heat

May 16th, 2025 at 10:00am CST by Rory Maher

Guard Cole Anthony had an up-and-down fifth season with the Magic, writes Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. While the 25-year-old had some big performances, including a team-high 26 points in Orlando’s play-in victory over Atlanta, he wound up averaging career lows in multiple counting stats, including points (9.4), rebounds (3.0), assists (2.9) and minutes (18.4) per game during the regular season.

After taking some time off to recuperate both physically and mentally after a long season, Anthony says he plans to work on all aspects of his game this summer, with one particular area of emphasis.

“I just want to continue to become a better defender,” Anthony said. “That’s a big one for me. And just keep polishing my game, keep working on my jump shot, tighten up the handle, get stronger. … I don’t think there’s any part of the game I don’t want to improve. I’m just going to have a good summer and just lock in.”

Here a few more notes from the two Florida-based teams:

Although Magic center Goga Bitadze posted career-best numbers in several categories in 2024/25, he was out of the rotation by the end of the regular season and in the playoffs, Beede writes in another story for The Orlando Sentinel. Bitadze says he’s “super proud of himself” for the way he helped the team amid role changes and injuries, and he wants to continue to take strides in the offseason. “My shooting is going to be the first I’m going to work on,” Bitadze said. “Because it’s already there, it’s got to be a different mindset. All I’ve got to do is just trust in it and it’s going to help this team moving forward offensively. I’ve just got to keep working.”
Heat center Kel’el Ware will likely be named to one of the All-Rookie teams after a solid debut season, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. The 21-year-old big man says he gained confidence over the course of the season and learned from Miami’s first-round thrashing by Cleveland, but he knows he needs to add more muscle to his frame this summer. “I would say definitely the strength part of it,” Ware said. “That was really the main thing for me. That’s probably going to be the main thing I continue to work on during the offseason, to get better and get stronger. I would say that, definitely that.”
Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) previews the Heat‘s offseason, including whether the team can trade for a star, how Davion Mitchell‘s restricted free agency might play out, and potential extensions for Tyler Herro and Nikola Jovic (the latter Gozlan views as unlikely). Gozlan also discussed the team’s offseason on a YouTube stream with Ethan Skolnick of 5 Reasons Sports.

Heat Notes: Sweep, Draft, Free Agents, Grades, Offseason Outlook

April 29th, 2025 at 8:18pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Heat got a serious dose of reality in the playoffs, getting swept by Cleveland in the opening round and losing Game 4 by 55 points, which coach Erik Spoelstra described as a humbling experience.

“These last two games were embarrassing, but Cleveland is also a very good team,” he said, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “We won whatever we won, they won 64 games. We’re as irrational as we usually are, thinking that we have a chance to win this series and they showed us why we weren’t ready for that.”

Changes are coming for a team that had to fight out of the play-in tournament just to get the last playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.

“As an organization, yeah, we’re going to look at this and say this is unacceptable,” Spoelstra said. “We got to get to another level.”

We have more on the Heat:

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald details the draft assets the Heat have and the free agent decisions they must make this summer. Miami possesses the No. 20 pick, courtesy of the Jimmy Butler trade, but Oklahoma City will get their pick at No. 15. Other than the No. 20 pick, the Heat can only use their 2030 first-rounder in a trade before or during the draft. The team will likely issue Davion Mitchell a qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent but that doesn’t necessarily mean the front office would match any offer sheet. The Heat also have to figure out what to do with Duncan Robinson‘s partially guaranteed contract.
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel handed out his regular season and postseason grades for each player, with Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and Mitchell at the top of the class and Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Terry Rozier drawing a D-minus and F, respectively, for the regular season, and matching F’s for the playoffs.
Patience must be exercised as the Heat look for ways to improve, ESPN Insider Bobby Marks opines in his offseason outlook. They have some expiring contracts to dangle and could have much more flexibility to chase free agents in the 2026 offseason if they’re prudent. HoopsHype’s Mark Deeks also takes an extensive look at the Heat’s offseason, including the contract situation for each player on the roster.

Heat Notes: Game 3 Loss, Starting Lineup, Ware, Herro

April 26th, 2025 at 9:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Heat were hoping to make their series against the top-seeded Cavaliers competitive after a close call Wednesday at Cleveland. Instead, they suffered the worst playoff loss in franchise history on Saturday and are staring at a likely insurmountable 3-0 deficit, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

Miami built an early 15-6 lead, but things fell apart quickly as the Cavs strung together a 33-5 run to put the game out of reach. The lead got up to 40 points in the second half as Miami fans expressed their displeasure with the effort.

“Once we jumped on them at the start of the game, then they just took control of it from there and it became an avalanche going the other direction,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And sometimes when you care, there’s a level of discouragement that kind of fed into that avalanche and that’s what we all feel disappointed about.”

The Cavaliers dominated the game near the basket, registering 11 dunks and outscoring Miami 60-30 in the paint. Cleveland also collected 13 offensive rebounds while building a 22-10 advantage in second-chance points and had a 21-11 edge in points off turnovers.

“I know how much everybody cares,” Spoelstra added. “We just laid an egg today. A big part of it was Cleveland.”

There’s more from Miami:

Davion Mitchell replaced Alec Burks in the starting lineup for Game 2, and Spoelstra went with the same approach on Saturday, Chiang adds. The starting five kept the game even during their 13 minutes together, but Miami was outscored by 37 points otherwise. Chiang notes that Cleveland was relentless in its attack on rookie center Kel’el Ware, who is minus-24 in 57 minutes so far in the series. “I understand he’s being fed through a fire hose,” Spoelstra said. “… We’re coaching him hard and I feel for him because there’s an expectation that he has to be there like a vet. These are important learning experiences.”
In an interview with Jared Weiss of The Athletic, Tyler Herro speculates that Miami’s season would have turned out much better if Jimmy Butler hadn’t forced a trade. Butler, who played just 25 games with the Heat this season before being dealt to Golden State in February, provided Herro with a complementary offensive weapon. “Obviously, I know I need Jimmy to win. If we had Jimmy right now, I feel like it’d be a completely different situation,” Herro said. “We probably wouldn’t even be the eighth seed. So finding that middle balance of like, damn, we need him, but also understanding, sh–, that’s his career and what he wants is ultimately his right to want what he wants. It was just tough to be in the middle of both sides.”
Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson commented on this week’s war of words between Herro and Darius Garland, Weiss tweets. “I don’t control what they say at all,” Atkinson said. “… Tyler is a great player, he’s an All-Star. Great competitor on both ends, much like Darius. It’s like the playground, you got someone you’re going at at both ends and there’s some verbal stuff that’s overblown. But once the ball goes up, none of it matters.”

Heat Notes: Mitchell, Jovic, Rotation, Wiggins

April 24th, 2025 at 8:14pm CST by Earnest Marshall

The Heat made a number of changes after a blowout loss to the Cavaliers in Game 1 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Chief among them, Davion Mitchell took over a starting role ahead of Alec Burks. While the Heat still fell in Game 2, Mitchell helped the Heat make a late comeback and get into the game in the closing minutes of regulation.

The starting lineup change led to a fast start for the Heat, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald notes, with the team getting out to an early lead. Mitchell ended up with 18 points and six assists, with 14 of his points coming in the fourth quarter.

“It was a couple different factors with that,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of the starting lineup change. “We wanted to be able to organize ourselves offensively at the start a little bit better. Get Tyler off the ball, Wiggs off the ball. Then obviously some defensive presence. [Mitchell’s] competitive spirit on the ball was very good all night and you’re dealing with two guards who can put a lot of pressure on you.”

In addition to adding Mitchell to the starting rotation, the Heat used Nikola Jovic heavily off the bench for his first big workload since he broke his hand in late February. He finished with 11 points and eight rebounds in 25 minutes and on the floor in the closing minutes of Game 2.

“We just look different when he’s on the floor,” Spoelstra said of Jovic. “He creates some stress with his skill and I’m pleased that he was able to play those 25 minutes. It’s a credit to him putting in all that time conditioning the last month or so.”

Pelle Larsson also saw some minutes off the bench, while Andrew Wiggins was limited to 28 minutes. Burks did not play after starting Game 1.

We have more from the Heat:

Jovic took the blame for Miami’s loss in Game 2, Chiang writes in a separate story. He played the entire fourth quarter and helped spark the Heat’s comeback and Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson was complimentary of the boost Jovic provided. However, the 21-year-old forward was hard on himself after missing four threes in the fourth and committing two turnovers in the final three minutes. “I got what I wanted and that’s to close the game in the playoffs,” Jovic said. “The stuff that I did at the end is really unacceptable. I really did cost us the game and I just got to be better. This is my third year. I’m not a rookie anymore. I’ve seen what’s the deal and how to get to the playoffs, and the stuff that I did today was just not good. I’m really grateful that coach gave me the opportunity. I’m not worried about my shot. I know if I have those shots again, I will shoot them every time because I know I’m open and I know I can make them. They just didn’t go in and I got to be better.“
Wiggins not playing for the entire fourth quarter with Jovic taking over his spot raises some questions going forward, Ira Winderman of South Florida’s Sun Sentinel writes. Spoelstra said the intention was for Wiggins to come back into the game but he rode the hot hand with the group closing in on a comeback. “I actually put him at the scorer’s table at six to go,” Spoelstra said, “And the group wanted to keep on pushing through.” Spoelstra said the lack of minutes was not an indictment of Wiggins.
Donovan Mitchell put the game out of Miami’s reach with eight points in just over a minute of game time late in the fourth quarter. Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel opines that Mitchell is exactly the sort of superstar Miami lacks and could use. “He made some tough shots, shots that we can’t really — nothing we can do about them,’’ Davion Mitchell said. “The pull-up. A step-back, deep three-pointer. Those are the kind of shots you can’t get to.“

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