Heat coach Erik Spoelstra continues to experiment with his bench, as Simone Fontecchio and Myron Gardner both saw expanded playing time in Tuesday’s win at Utah, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (subscription required). Fontecchio scored three points in seven minutes, while Gardner had four points, three rebounds and an assist in 10 minutes in a rare opportunity for two players who have been out of the rotation for most of the season.
“I wanted to have a little bit of an energy group there, and they were great in the second quarter,” Spoelstra explained.
Bobby Portis, Andrew Wiggins and Ryan Conwell saw most of the minutes off the bench as free agent addition Tim Hardaway Jr. received his first DNP-CD. Hardaway played 18.4 minutes per night during the season’s first seven games, but he’s been mired in a shooting slump, averaging 4.6 PPG while connecting at just 26.9% from the field and 23.7% from three-point range.
“The one thing I know about Tim, I’ve known him for a long time,” Spoelstra said. “He has fortitude, he has grit. He’s going to find a way to get back in this thing and have a big impact. The kind of impact that we anticipated. It’s just for now, we’ll go with this. And we’ll see where it goes.”
There’s more on the Heat:
- The new-look starting lineup, with Pelle Larsson replacing Wiggins for the second straight game, turned in another positive outing, outscoring Utah by five points in its 20 minutes together, Chiang states. Larsson is excelling in the new role, contributing 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists in 31 minutes.
- Giannis Antetokounmpo was downgraded from probable to questionable before Tuesday’s game due to a sprained right wrist, but he wound up playing 31 minutes, Chiang adds. Antetokounmpo was icing his wrist when he wasn’t on the court. “We really appreciate that he made himself available,” Spoelstra said. “There are a lot of guys that might have scratched on a game like this. At the end of a road trip, not being 100%, he put himself out there. And he was great for us tonight.”
- Doc Riverswho coached Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee, said he sent an apology for his recent negative comments, but Antetokounmpo didn’t want to discuss the matter on Tuesday, per Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel (subscriber link). “I don’t know if he texted me. I haven’t looked at my phone,” he said. “But even if he texted me, as I said, that’s private. That’s between me and him. And it will always be that way.”