Miami Heat

Miami's Trae Young on anyone who forgot he can score: "maybe I just have to continue to be more aggressive and be more myself. And that's all I'm gonna do this year." He involves teammates early so they attack late; age has made him better at "knowing when to pick my spots."

Davion Mitchell needed stitches near his eye in Miami's preseason game and stayed in. He shot his free throws, then got stitched: "this is just going to be a handful of stitches. I want to play." Erik Spoelstra said he still wanted the fourth quarter, and they let him.

Nick Richards has been playing with Miami's starters, and Erik Spoelstra likes it: "I've been encouraged by his minutes in all the games that he's played." He cited Richards' rebounding, paint presence and conditioning. On the opening-night rotation: "I'm not stressed out."

Bobby Portis is still learning the Heat's system, Giannis Antetokounmpo said, and "when he has that down, he's going to be... big threat for our team." Teams leaving Portis open for corner threes, he added, have to pick their poison.

"I definitely need one, one more game for sure." Giannis Antetokounmpo wants to play the Heat's final preseason game rather than sit it out, chasing as many reps as he can. Teammates and coaches want him to be aggressive and make plays, and he says he'll keep at it.

"When Ryan comes into the game and when Davion is out, like, our pace kind of slows down." Giannis Antetokounmpo says the Heat lose speed when rookie Ryan Conwell replaces Davion Mitchell, whose pace he called "dangerous" and said he never wanted to face as an opponent.

Klay Thompson's fit in Miami: Erik Spoelstra expects him to get 3s off Davion Mitchell's kick-ahead and cross-court passes in transition. "Klay would be a big beneficiary of those kind of plays," he said. His reputation: "you never, ever take a body off of him."

Miami hasn't settled on staggering Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo. Erik Spoelstra wouldn't commit: "we'll see where it eventually goes, but it makes sense... to have one of those guys on the floor... as often as you can." He also wants to maximize their time together.

Bam Adebayo says Erik Spoelstra keeping him and Giannis Antetokounmpo apart was probably a test: "we're still trying to figure this thing out. So I know it's not absolute." If the Heat starters get longer stints in the last three preseason games, he expects "more one-on-one."

"Now it was a technical, but Spo said he'll pay it. And do technicals really count in preseason?" Bam Adebayo on Myron Gardner, whose energy sparked the Heat's fourth quarter. Erik Spoelstra is covering the fine, and Adebayo said the team sometimes has to calm Gardner down.

Giannis Antetokounmpo says he's "not there yet" in Miami: "I've played with the Bucks, what, 900+ games. I've played with the Heat 2 games." The Heat's pace is faster than he's used to, and he and Bam Adebayo are still sorting out who brings the ball up.