(Photo via Imagn Images)
Despite the Miami Heat looking super impressive to start the 2025-26 season, they are now kicking off a difficult four-game west coast trip.
Winners of three straight and sporting a 3-1 record, Miami will begin their road trip with a matchup against rising superstar Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs are a perfect 4-0 so far on the year, and Wembanyama has looked dominant. The 7-foot-4 versatile big man is averaging an All-NBA caliber 31 points and 13.8 rebounds double-double on 60.3% shooting through San Antonio’s first four games.
For the Heat to compete on the defensive end, the size of the Bam Adebayo-Kel’el Ware starting frontcourt duo will need to be sharp. Ironically, Ware has shown success on both ends of the floor in his brief NBA career when going up against Wemby. Ware is coming off a 14-point and 9 rebounds outing in the Heat’s previous win against the Charlotte Hornets.
Unfortunately for Miami, it appears that they will need to brace themselves for Norman Powell to remain sidelined. The veteran guard is listed as doubtful heading into the game, after suffering some groin soreness from morning shootaround prior to Tuesday’s game this week. That means that the Heat will likely be without two of their 24+ points per game scorers in a difficult matchup— as Tyler Herro still remains out himself.
However, Herro is making the road trip with the team, signaling that his inevitable return to the lineup may be on the horizon.
Look for Pelle Larsson to get another starting nod in Powell’s absence. Larsson contributed 17 points in his first start of the season in the win against Charlotte. When it comes to offensive contributions, it will have to be another team effort to make up for Powell and Herro. Adebayo and Jaime Jaquez Jr. will be the lead candidates to provide a scoring boost, with both players coming off a 26 and 28 points outing, respectively.
Can the Heat extend to a four-game winning streak tonight? Let us know in the comments!
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- Nikola Jovic (hip) — QUESTIONABLE
- Norman Powell (groin) — DOUBTFUL
- Tyler Herro (foot) — OUT
- Kasparas Jakucionis (groin) — OUT
- Terry Rozier (not with team) — OUT
San Antonio Spurs:
- De’Aaron Fox (hamstring) — OUT
- Kelly Olynyk (heel) — OUT
- Luke Kornet (ankle) — OUT
- Jeremy Sochan (wrist) — OUT
- Lindy Waters (eye) — OUT
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Davion Mitchell, G
- Pelle Larsson, G
- Andrew Wiggins, F
- Bam Adebayo, F/C
- Kel’el Ware, C
San Antonio Spurs:
- Stephon Castle, G
- Devin Vassell, G
- Julian Champagnie, F
- Harrison Barnes, F
- Victor Wembanyama, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 8:30 PM EST
- TV: FanDuel Sports Network Sun (Eric Reid & John Crotty)
- Radio: AM 560 Sports WQAM & The HEAT Radio Network (Jason Jackson)
- Spanish Radio: WAQI 710 AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda)
Come back to Hot Hot Hoops at game time to join our GameThread and chat about the game live with other Heat fans!
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Do you see any signs of the Spurs getting tired? Wrong thread.
For anyone who is not up to speed on why the NBA is unfairly punishing the Heat on the Rozier issue, this from Miami Herald.
So, to recap, the 7 ways Heat have been wronged so far: 1). NBA, in approving Rozier trade, did not tell Heat about ongoing feds investigation of Rozier. 2) Charlotte did not tell the Heat. 3) Miami must continue paying Rozier salary (not to Terry, but into interest bearing account). 4). Heat, so far, has been given no cap relief to replace him and continues with 13 players, minus injured guys (so 9 or 10 tonight). 5). Per Windy, Heat cannot use Rozier as salary cap ballast in trade. 6). Heat has not been given draft pick back (at this point), meaning next 4 1st rounders are frozen for trade purposes. 7). NBA hasn’t voided Rozier deal (unlike Jontay Porter, who was voided by NBA before federal charges), meaning Heat has no room under tax line to sign replacement
There has to be some compensation coming, doesn’t there? Could the NBA possibly be satisfied by saying that only medical issues had to be disclosed? Our team has been too clearly wronged for them to try to sleaze out of their responsibility on a technicality, right? And it’s too important of an issue to attempt to sweep what happened here under the rug, isn’t it?
Everyday we continue with the status quo only makes it worse for us. This is probably the biggest test our relatively new commissioner has faced. .
Silver sleeping on the job. I’m still hopeful he’ll make some compensatory move. Riles and Micky might be cooking something.
Go Heat! 4-1 😁😁
Hey HHH, it’s been a while! Great to see the same names on this board, if not so much on the Heat roster.
I have tried to comment earlier but the moderator nixed me. Hey moderator, I have had this user name for a decade.
Tough matchup tonight. Lucky for you that their star forward, Olynyk, is not playing.
Hope you keep signing in we need more heads here 😆
Stick around, CHF, it must be a bit boring watching KO sitting on the bench most of the time.
He hasn’t played, just returning from injury when he became a father.
He was injured a lot in past years, if I remember it right. I wonder if there is a place for him in rotation with SA.
Here’s another spin on the Rozier case. NBA never cleared him and deferred to the feds. (Per Luke Adams, Hoops Rumors)
“Despite his lawyer’s assertion that the NBA “cleared him two years ago,” Terry Rozier was never technically cleared of wrongdoing after the league looked into suspicious betting activity involving the guard in 2023, a source in the league office tells investigative reporter and podcaster Pablo Torre.
As Torre outlines, the NBA hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate Rozier following a flurry of activity on his “under” prop bets before a March 23, 2023, game when he was a member of the Hornets.
According to Torre, Rozier was interviewed via Zoom and turned over his phone to investigators, who looked for specific search terms. After failing to find a “smoking gun,” those investigators ultimately deferred to the feds, while the guard was permitted to continue playing, first for the Hornets and later for the Heat.”
Based on these latest developments, it now appears more clearly than ever that the NBA’s decision not to inform Miami of the federal investigation of Rozier denied the team the opportunity to make an informed decision. Had they had all the facts, it is highly unlikely that Riley would have wanted to take a chance by trading for him and including the Heat’s 2027 first round pick in the deal.
The question now is the NBA going to resolve this matter to Miami’s satisfaction or does the team need to sue the NBA to receive appropriate compensation?
P.S. Veteran NBA sharpshooter Malik Beasley has also been investigated by the U.S. District Attorney’s office and the NBA for possible illegal betting activity, and Torre hears from sources that both of those investigations are still ongoing.
For those who have been critical of Jaime’s defensive ability, maybe this will help convince you otherwise. According to NBA.com, he ranks 2nd in the NBA in Defensive rating.
Jaquez Jr’s Career Defensive Field Goal Percentage (DFG%) Vs. All-Stars/All-Star Caliber Players :
1. LaMelo Ball — 10.0%
2. Stephen Curry — 28.6%
3. Anthony Edwards — 33.3%
3. Kristaps Porzingis — 33.3%
3. Lauri Markkanen — 33.3%
6. Paolo Banchero — 36.4%
Ware may be Wemby’s Achilles heal. If run & gun really works as well as we all hope it does, tonight will be the first real test. Our four first
opponents were not among this year’s top teams. Fortunately,
Spurs also have a few players out. Should be a very good game…unless Spurs have trouble hanging with the best conditioned & deepest team in the NBA.
GO HEAT!
Fox is a big loss being injured, and Sochan is a nice player too. And Kornet leaves them thin at backup bigs. So, the injuries are fairly even. I think you guys are right that we do have a decent chance.
And, thanks for the interesting data on Jaime’s defense. It may be that Jaquez holds his ground well, doesn’t get pushed around, as well as being reasonably quick on his feet.
I think this game will be a good barometer.
If it looks like the Hornets or Grizzlies game, especially if Powell is still out, then I’m willing to declare that this new Miami team is a legit championship contender and that Jimmy Butthurt was holding us back for the last three years more than he was helping.
If this looks like the Knicks game, I think we’ve still got more to prove, but we’re certainly trending in the right direction.
If it looks like the Magic game, then we’ve gotta hope that Powell and Herro come back quick.
If San Antonio blows us out completely, then we have to be open to the possibility that our first four games may have been a fluke, and Spoelstra needs to come up with an new plan.
Yes, we can!
Going to be a tough one. It’s now happening that Wemby is becoming the dominant force that we all knew he possibly could become. And he’s probably going to get even better. It may get to a point, if he bulks up, where he becomes a little like Wilt the Stilt, and will be hard to stop.
For us, we are shorthanded against a much better opponent this time, no offense to Charlotte as they are improved. It will be interesting to watch and see how far our run and gun offense can take us. Maybe we can wear the Spurs down.
I believe that all that hype with Wemby is a bit too much. Great player, sure, but till then SA played only bad teams.
Remember the preseason, where was bad against Heat.
I m optimistic. SA game is winable.
sa maybe houston no.glad we dont play that team they got 4 guys they play around 7ft.
gotta be physical with him wares not physical player need some rough rider in there banging with wemby.we need a ud 2.0