First the perspective: The Miami Heat’s semifinal game in the Las Vegas NBA Summer League on Sunday was bumped from ESPN to ESPN2 by . . . flag football, with the Heat replacing cornhole on the ESPN2 schedule.
Then the reality: There was a game to win and now a chance for a trophy to secure, so the Heat played for keeps, their 102-99 victory on the UNLV campus over the summer roster of the Golden State Warriors putting them into Monday’s championship game against the Memphis Grizzlies (8 p.m. Eastern, ESPN).
“I think the most important thing to think about for these guys is they want it bad,” said Heat assistant Dan Bisaccio, who is guiding the team’s summer roster. “We want to win a championship.”
In improving to 5-0 in Las Vegas, the Heat got balanced contributions across the board, including 23 points and the go-ahead three-point play with 40 seconds left by free-agent guard Josh Christopher.
Two weeks ago, in the first game in the first of their two summer leagues, the Heat fell 105-66 to the Golden State on the Warriors’ home court in San Francisco at the California Classic.
Since then, the Heat now have strung together seven consecutive victories with a roster built around 2024 draft picks Kel’el Ware and Pelle Larsson.
“When we got together, back in San Francisco, and we met as a group that first night,” Bisaccio said, “we talked about being here on Monday and being here to win this championship.”
Larsson, the second-round pick out of Arizona, closed with 19 points, six assists and four rebounds, with Ware, the first-round pick out of Indiana, finishing with 18 points and five rebounds.
“This game means a lot for us,” Larsson said. “We’ve been fighting for a long time.”
This time, the Heat found a determined opponent in Kevin Knox II, the No. 9 pick in the 2018 draft by the New York Knicks, who since has also played for the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons and Portland Trail Blazers. Knox, the guard out of Kentucky, closed with 31 points and 11 rebounds Sunday.
Beyond the contributions of Larsson and Ware, the Heat also got 15 points and seven assists from guard Isaiah Stevens and14 points from guard Alondes Williams. That helped compensate for an off afternoon for Heat 3-point specialist Cole Swider, who closed 0 for 5 from the field.
With undrafted Keshad Johnson, the Arizona forward who has been signed to a two-way contract, not available, the Heat again opened with a lineup of Ware, Larsson, Swider, Christopher and Stevens.
Johnson remained sidelined with the ankle sprain sustained in Wednesday’s victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
It was the third consecutive game that Stevens started ahead of Zyon Pullin. Stevens, the undrafted guard out of Colorado State, holds only an Exhibit 10 camp tryout contract. Pullin, the undrafted guard out of Florida, holds one of the Heat’s three two-way contracts. Two-way contracts can be subbed out at any time.
Pullin, who played four scoreless minutes, was part of the Heat’s second wave of substitutions, along with Caleb Daniels, after Williams previously entered.
Swider and Williams, who finished last season on Heat two-way contracts, are without contract offers for the Heat for next season, continuing as unrestricted free agents.
While listed on the Warriors’ summer roster, among those who did not play Sunday for Golden State were 2023 draft picks Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Similarly, Heat 2023 first-round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. was listed on Sunday’s Heat roster but left the team last week after his two scheduled appearances.
The Heat led 22-19 at the end of the opening period, but then trailed 47-45 at halftime. The game got testy at that point, with Christopher charged with a technical foul after the intermission buzzer. The Warriors then took a 70-65 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Heat went up 88-82 with 4:56 to play on a Christopher 3-pointer, before a Knox layup put the Warriors up 89-88 with 2:46 remaining. The teams then traded baskets before a Stevens layup put the Heat up 92-91, with a Larsson 3-pointer then putting the Heat up 95-91.
Still, the Heat eventually found themselves down 96-95, before Christopher converted a 10-foot jumper, was fouled, and completed the three-point play for a 98-96 Heat lead with 40 seconds to play.
“For Josh, he has nothing to lose,” Bisaccio said of Christopher being in Las Vegas without a contract. “Sometimes when you have nothing to lose, you can play free out there. And that’s something that he’s really done a great job of.”
But Christopher said he also has something to gain.
“The goal hasn’t changed,” he said. “Even from our first game, when we got destroyed, our goals still stayed the same — championship. Here we are.
“Winning is fun and playing together is fun. So hopefully we can do it one more time.”
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