Heat coach Erik Spoelstra continues to experiment with his bench as Simone Fontecchio and Myron Gardner both saw extended playing time in Tuesday’s win over Utah, writes Anthony Chung of The Miami Herald (subscription required). Fontecchio had 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 a little bit of an energy group out there and they were great in the second quarter.” Spoelstra explained.
Bobby Portis, Andrew Wiggins and Ryan Conwell spent most of his minutes on the bench as a free agent Tim Hardaway Jr received his first DNP-CD. Through the first seven games of the season, Hardaway played 18.4 minutes a night, but saw his shooting decline, averaging 4.6 points per game while shooting 26.9% from the field and 23.7% from three.
“The only thing I know about Tim, I’ve known him for a long time,” Spoelstra said. “He’s got grit, he’s got grit. He’s going to find a way to get back into this thing and have a big impact. The kind of impact we’ve been waiting for. It’s just for now, we’ll go with it. And we’ll see where it goes.”
More on Heat:
- A new kind of starting line-up, p Pele Larson replaced Wiggins for the second straight game, got another positive result, outscoring Utah by five points in 20 minutes combined, Chan says. Larson is excelling in his new role with 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists in 31 minutes.
- Janice Antecumba was downgraded from probable to questionable before Tuesday’s game with a sprained right wrist, but played 31 minutes, Chan adds. Antetokounmpo iced his wrist when he wasn’t on the court. “We really appreciate him making himself available,” Spoelstra said. “There are a lot of guys that maybe got scratched on games like that. At the end of the trip, not being 100%, he put himself out there. And he was great for us tonight.”
- Doc Riverswho coached Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee, he said sent an apology for his recent negative commentsbut Antetokounmpo did not want to discuss the matter on Tuesday, trans Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel (subscriber link). “I don’t know if he texted me. I wasn’t looking at my phone.” he said. “But even if he texted me, like I said, it’s personal. It’s between me and him. And it always will be.”
