A new injury, Cain continues to impress, other takeaways from Heat’s preseason loss to Nets

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 107-104 loss to the Brooklyn Nets in its fourth of five preseason games on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center:

If you thought the Heat’s final home preseason game would be its dress rehearsal game for the regular season, you were wrong.

The Heat (2-2) played Wednesday’s preseason game without Jimmy Butler (return to competition reconditioning), R.J. Hampton (right hip muscle strain), Tyler Herro (left thigh contusion), Caleb Martin (left knee tendinosis), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (left groin strain), Kyle Lowry (resting to give younger players an opportunity to play more minutes) and Kevin Love (resting to give younger players an opportunity to play more minutes).

Butler and Martin have missed each of the Heat’s first four preseason games. Hampton and Jaquez have missed the Heat’s last three preseason games. Herro, Lowry and Love did not play Wednesday after appearing in Sunday’s preseason contest.

This meant a chunk of the Heat’s projected rotation was sidelined against the Nets, and little could be taken away from the lineup and rotation decisions that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made Wednesday.

Butler, Herro, Martin, Lowry and Love, who all did not play against the Nets, are expected to be in the Heat’s rotation to start the regular season. And Jaquez is competing for a spot in Miami’s rotation.

The Heat has one more opportunity before the start of the regular season to have a dress rehearsal game, when it closes its five-game preseason schedule Friday against the Rockets in Houston.

The Heat opens the regular season on Oct. 25 against the Detroit Pistons in Miami.

Unfortunately for the Heat, Heat guard Josh Richardson also left Wednesday’s game early because of an injury.

Richardson went scoreless and finished with one assist and one steal in seven minutes before exiting the contest early because of a right foot injury. He did not return.

Richardson, 30, missed the previous two preseason games with left foot discomfort. On Wednesday, he injured the other foot.

Spoelstra said after the game that Richardson will receive treatment on his injured foot on Thursday and will be re-evaluated then. The Heat opens the regular season next week.

“I just talked to [Richardson],” Spoelstra said during his postgame press conference. “I don’t take anything a player says right now. He says he’s fine, but we’ll just treat him tomorrow and probably have a better idea in the next couple days.”

Richardson, who the Heat signed in free agency this summer, enters the season as a member of Miami’s projected rotation. He has been working as a point guard for much of the preseason to help provide depth at a thin position for the Heat.

Richardson spent the first four seasons of his NBA career with the Heat before Miami traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers as part of the sign-and-trade transaction for Butler during the 2019 offseason. Richardson played for five different teams in the past four seasons prior to returning to the Heat this past offseason.

With so many Heat regulars out, Wednesday turned into an opportunity for many of the Heat’s young developmental players to log extended minutes.

The short-handed Heat went with a starting lineup of Richardson, Duncan Robinson, Jamal Cain, Haywood Highsmith and Bam Adebayo against the Nets.

Adebayo, who made his second NBA All-Star Game last season, was one of the only projected opening night starters to play for the Heat on Wednesday. He recorded 14 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the field, seven rebounds and four assists in 16 first-half minutes before sitting out the entire second half.

The Heat also played Dru Smith, Cole Swider, Thomas Bryant, Nikola Jovic and Justin Champagnie off the bench in the first half.

Jovic, 20, was the one who most eyes were on after a knee injury limited him in the Heat’s first three preseason games.

Jovic, who the Heat selected late in the first round of last year’s draft, finished Wednesday’s loss with nine points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-6 shooting on threes, five rebounds and two assists in 24 minutes after missing the previous two games because of a right knee contusion he sustained in the Heat’s preseason opener on Oct. 10. He played a total of only seven minutes through the first three preseason games because of the injury.

“It was good to have Niko back out there,” Spoelstra said. “He’s put in a lot of time and he was frustrated with this minor bone bruise that kept him out a little bit of time. It was good to have him back out there.”

But another Heat preseason storyline continues to be the competition for the final spots on the regular-season roster, specifically the 14th spot on the standard roster and the three two-way contract spots.

Cain, Smith and Hampton currently hold the Heat’s three two-way contracts, but those slots can be swapped out at any time. And Exhibit 10 tryout contract players Champagnie, Swider and Cheick Diallo are also battling for a roster spot.

The expectation is the Heat will promote one of those players to its standard roster.

Cain, who is in his second season in the Heat’s development program after spending his rookie year last season on a two-way deal with Miami, continues to stand out among that group. He finished Wednesday’s loss with seven points and 14 rebounds in 29 minutes.

“Cain’s energy, you felt him,” Spoelstra said.

Cain has now totaled 45 points while shooting 18 of 32 (56.3 percent) from the field and 8 of 12 (66.7 percent) from three-point range and 31 rebounds (15 offensive and 16 defensive) over the Heat’s second, third and fourth preseason games after not getting into the preseason opener until there was 5:50 left in the fourth quarter.

Swider also turned in a quality preseason performance, finishing with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 shooting from three-point range. He scored nine points in the fourth quarter.

Smith contributed nine points, five rebounds and 10 assists in 28 minutes on Wednesday. Champagnie added eight points, six rebounds and two assists.

With the Heat trailing by nine points with 6:23 to play, many of its young players were on the court for a 16-10 run to end regulation. But Miami’s comeback fell just short, as Swider missed what would have been a game-tying three-pointer from 28 feet out with 0.3 seconds left.

The only available Heat player who did not play in Wednesday’s game was Diallo.

The Heat will finalize its roster for opening night in the coming days, as NBA teams have a 5 p.m. deadline on Monday to cut rosters to the regular-season maximum of 15 players (not including the three two-way contract slots). But teams will need to make those moves by 5 p.m. Saturday because of the 48-hour waiver period.

Highsmith’s improved three-point shot has been on display this preseason.

Highsmith finished Wednesday’s loss with an efficient 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes, three rebounds and one assist in 27 minutes. He’s now shooting 9 of 15 (60 percent) from three-point range through the first four preseason games.

“The more reps you take, the more confidence you’re going to get, the more comfortable you’re going to get,” Highsmith said of his improvement. “It’s just me putting extra work in, everything building up from the first year I was here to last year and this year getting more comfortable and confidence and understanding your role.”

Albeit a small sample size, Highsmith’s preseason success from beyond the arc is encouraging because it will be a big part of his role this season as a three-and-D forward option. He didn’t get consistent playing time last season, but is expected to be a more consistent member of the Heat’s rotation this season.

Highsmith, 26, has worked hard since joining the Heat’s development program in December 2021 to improve his three-point shot. He made 32.1 percent of his three-point attempts in 19 regular-season games with the Heat in 2021-22 and 33.9 percent of his three-point attempts in 54 regular-season games with the Heat last season.

But Highsmith really opened eyes during the Heat’s playoff run to the NBA Finals last season, when he shot 8 of 16 on threes while totaling 10 steals and two blocks in 161 minutes.

While some of the Heat’s regulars are dealing with injuries, the good news is most of them don’t appear to be serious.

Butler is working his way back after recently undergoing two dental surgeries. He’s expected to be ready for the regular-season opener.

Herro suffered a left thigh contusion in Tuesday’s practice and is considered day-to-day by the team. When asked if Herro will be ready for opening night, Spoelstra said Wednesday: “It’s looking like it.”

Martin has not played yet this preseason because of a lingering knee issue, but he’s ramped up his on-court workload in recent practices. Spoelstra said Martin is “definitely making progress.”

“He went through the majority of the scrimmage,” Spoelstra said Wednesday of Martin, referring to Martin’s participation in Tuesday’s practice. “It was a pretty hard ‘Hunger Games’ practice yesterday. He went through a good part of it. I believe he did the whole thing and he already has been doing more and more each day. So today he went through the shootaround, but it was also a little bit of a recovery day. We’ll just see how he feels tomorrow. But I’m encouraged by his progress.”

Love and Lowry aren’t dealing with injuries. They rested on Wednesday to give the younger players on the Heat’s preseason roster an opportunity to play more.

It remains to be seen if Jaquez will be ready for the start of the regular season. He strained his groin a week ago and did not take part in Tuesday’s practice, but did go through an on-court workout prior to Wednesday’s game.

It also remains to be seen whether Richardson’s new foot injury will force him to miss any time.