Exploring some of the changes to Heat rotation in final week of regular season. Will it stick?

With less than a week left in the regular season, the Miami Heat appears to be turning to a new-look rotation that features some of its best offensive lineups and promotes improved floor spacing around the leading duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.

The late-season changes have Max Strus starting in place of Kevin Love and Love moving to a reserve role to play as the backup center. With starting center Bam Adebayo returning from a hip injury, the Heat’s new rotation made its debut in Tuesday’s 118-105 win over the Pistons in Detroit just days before a potential appearance in the play-in tournament next week.

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The Heat also tightened its rotation ahead of the playoffs, using just eight players against the Pistons instead of the usual nine. It looked like this on Tuesday:

▪ Starting lineup: Gabe Vincent, Tyler Herro, Strus, Butler and Adebayo.

▪ Bench: Kyle Lowry, Caleb Martin and Love.

This left veteran center Cody Zeller out of the rotation. Zeller, who has been used as the Heat’s backup center since he joined the team during the All-Star break, received his first DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season Tuesday.

Duncan Robinson, Haywood Highsmith, Victor Oladipo and Omer Yurtseven are among those who remained out of the Heat’s rotation.

These changes come with the Heat as healthy as it has been all season, with 16 of its 17 players available for Tuesday’s game against the Pistons. Rookie forward Nikola Jovic (back spasms) was Miami’s only player unavailable for the contest.

“Now for really the first time this year, we have basically everybody available,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So there are some dominoes that are impacted by that and we just want to have the guys available.”

The Heat’s new starting lineup entered Tuesday’s game as a dominant combination, albeit in a very small sample size. The Vincent-Herro-Strus-Butler-Adebayo lineup had outscored teams by 16.6 points per 100 possessions in 48 minutes this season.

The results weren’t as positive in Detroit. The Heat’s new starting lineup was outscored by five points in 15 minutes together against the Pistons.

As for Love’s new role as the Heat’s backup center, he has been very productive in that spot since signing with Miami in February. He posted a positive plus/minus of plus-seven on Tuesday against the Pistons and is now a plus-24 in the 65 minutes that he has played as a small-ball center with the Heat.

It’s clear the Heat’s rotation remains a work in progress even with just three games left in the regular season. And with the Heat set to open its final back-to-back set of the season Thursday against the 76ers in Philadelphia before taking on the Wizards in Washington on Friday, more changes to the rotation may be inevitable.

Lowry has not played on both ends of a back-to-back since returning from left knee soreness on March 11.

“Right now I do like the fact that we have our depth and we have options, and we plan on utilizing any or all of them based on what we need for that night, that game,” Spoelstra said.

INJURY REPORT

The Heat’s injury report for Wednesday’s game against the 76ers listed Adebayo (left quadriceps tendon strain) and Lowry (left knee soreness) as questionable. Jovic remains out for Miami because of back spasms.

The only 76ers rotation players on the injury report for Wednesday’s contest are Tyrese Maxey (neck stiffness), De’Anthony Melton (right calf tightness) and P.J. Tucker (right calf tightness). All three are listed as questionable.

▪ The Heat announced that tickets for the entire postseason, including the play-in tournament and all four rounds of the playoffs, will go on sale to the general public on Thursday at noon. Tickets can be purchased online at Heat.com/postseasontickets and Ticketmaster.com, and in person at the Kaseya Center box office on game days.

The Heat is currently in seventh place in the East but could finish anywhere from sixth to ninth in the standings, which means Miami could still avoid the play-in tournament that features the seventh through 10th-place teams in each conference.