The Miami Heat are making a change to their starting lineup to account for the size of the Milwaukee Bucks.
After giving up 52 points in the paint in Game 2’s blowout loss, the Heat will move Kevin Love back into the starting lineup. Love will replace Duncan Robinson, and start alongside Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
“We’re going big,” Love told ESPN in a pregame interview. “Tonight we need multiple possessions, we need offensive rebounds.”
The Bucks will be without star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who suffered a lower back contusion early in Game 1 and has not played since. They will start the game with Jrue Holiday, Grayson Allen, Khris Middleton, Bobby Portis and Brook Lopez.
The lineup change gives the Heat a big body to match up with Lopez to start the game, and allows Adebayo to guard Portis, a physical power forward with perimeter skills. In Game 2, the Heat were forced to have Strus guard Lopez, and the Bucks targeted that mismatch early and often.
With Love no longer coming off the bench, it shifts other parts of the rotation. Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin will continue to anchor the second unit, and coach Erik Spoelstra could also give Victor Oladipo, Duncan Robinson and Cody Zeller some minutes.
Tyler Herro is out for the next six weeks after suffering a broken right hand in Game 1 of the series.
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