Kel’el Ware’s size and 2 more Heat observations from loss to Suns

Three observations from the Miami Heat’s 115-112 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night at Footprint Center.

Haywood Highsmith eating up space

Two years ago, Highsmith cracked Miami’s rotation by playing defense and hitting enough open 3s to stay on the court. Last season, he bumped his 3-point shooting percentage up to 40 on nearly three attempts per game.

Highsmith has been in and out of the rotation this season but played a season-high 30 in Phoenix on Wednesday night. He came in for Nikola Jovic five minutes into the game, then started at power forward in the second half. It’s the first time coach Erik Spoelstra changed his starting lineup this season.

Highsmith scored 19 points off the bench on a tidy 7 for 8 shooting – 2 for 3 from 3-point range and 5 for 5 on 2-pointers. That work inside the arc is new. Last season, when opponents closed out, Highsmith kept the ball moving with a simple pass. Against the Suns, he showed off new skills attacking off the dribble.

Last season, that’s a pass to Terry Rozier. Rozier is open, but Kevin Durant is X-ing out. Rozier would have taken a contested side-step 3 or found someone else to pass it to, and the Heat would have been working deeper in the shot clock.

If Highsmith is consistently doing stuff like this, he should be the starting power forward.

Kel’el Ware’s size matters

Ware got his first real minutes of the season on Wednesday night, checking in as Bam Adebayo’s backup in the first quarter over Thomas Bryant (Kevin Love is still returning to playing condition). Ware’s 13 minutes were up and down. He got blocked twice and seemed unsure of where to be on both ends of the court. But if he happened to be around the ball on defense, he made an impact.

At 7 feet, Ware is a lot to human to worry about, even for a former All-Star like Bradley Beal, who hit the U-turn when he saw Ware lurking in the paint.

This happened a few times with Ware dropping in coverage. Rewatching the film, there were even more impressive defensive sequences by the rookie. It’s a work in progress on offense but, like they say, you can’t teach size.

What happened to Terry Rozier’s defense?

Spoelstra praised Rozier’s defensive effort in the preseason, but that same effort and attention to detail hasn’t been there most of the regular season. Suns shot 85.7% when defended by Rozier, according to NBA.com’s tracking data. He also recorded only one deflection. Rozier’s shot hasn’t been falling this season (he’s making 38.4% of his attempts), but they need more from him defensively.