Miami Heat guard Norman Powell (24) and New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3) chase a lose ball during the first half of their NBA basketball game at Kaseya Center in Miami on October 26, 2025.
adiaz@miamiherald.com
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 115-107 win over the New York Knicks (2-1) on Sunday night at Kaseya Center in its home opener. The Heat (2-1) will close its quick two-game homestand on Tuesday against the Charlotte Hornets:
The Heat’s strong start to the season continued with a quality win over a Knicks team that’s expected to be one of the best teams in the Easter Conference.
After a competitive first half that included seven lead changes and eight ties, the Heat entered halftime with a narrow 57-54 lead behind a 16-3 advantage in fast-break points. It helped that the Knicks shot just 6 of 28 (21.4 percent) on threes in the first half.
The teams continued to trade baskets in a third quarter that included six lead changes and six ties. But the Heat held on to the lead, entering the fourth quarter ahead by seven points.
The Heat then opened the fourth quarter on a 12-5 run to take its biggest lead of the game, pulling ahead by 14 points and finally taking control with 7:36 to play.
The Heat’s lead grew to as large as 18 points in the fourth quarter, but the Knicks didn’t go away. New York used an 18-5 run to trim the deficit to just five with 1:32 to play.
But the Heat stopped the Knicks’ late-game push right there, as Andrew Wiggins hit a three-pointer off a Davion Mitchell assist to extend the lead to eight with 1:20 left and put the game away.
The big story surrounding the Heat in the first week of the season has been its new uptempo offense, as it entered Sunday playing at the fastest pace in the league.
While Sunday’s game was played at a slower pace that the Heat’s first two of the season, Miami was opportunistic in transition. The Heat closed the win with a 31-10 edge in fast-break points.
The Heat also won behind its paint attacks, finishing with a 48-42 advantage in paint points and 26-15 advantage in points from the foul line.
The Knicks also simply just missed too many shots, closing 15 of 54 (27.8 percent) on threes in the loss.
The Heat was led by the duo of Bam Adebayo and Norman Powell, who combined for 48 points.
Powell recorded 29 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Adebayo finished with 19 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and one steal.
Knicks star guard Jalen Brunson ended the night with a game-high 37 points.
Powell continued his strong start to the season, impressing in his first regular-season home game in a Heat uniform.
Powell, who was traded to the Heat this offseason after spending the last three-plus seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers, started Sunday’s home opener strong.
Powell scored 13 of the Heat’s first 20 points, finishing the first quarter with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting from three-point range and 1-of-1 shooting from the foul line, three rebounds and one assist.
Powell closed the win with a team-high 29 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field, 3-of-6 shooting on threes and 12-of-12 shooting from the foul line, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
It’s just the continuation of Powell fast start to the season, as he entered Sunday averaging a team-high 21.5 points per game on 48.3 percent shooting from the field 6-of-12 (50 percent) shooting on threes through the Heat’s first two games.
It’s also the continuation of what Powell has been doing for the last few years, as he was among just six NBA players who averaged at least 21 points per game while shooting better than 48% from the field and better than 40% from three-point range last regular season. The others with Nikola Jokic, Kevin Durant, Karl-Anthony Towns, Zach LaVine and Kawhi Leonard.
The Heat went with the starting frontcourt of Adebayo and Kel’el Ware for the second straight game.
This is notable because the Heat opened the season by using a starting frontcourt of Nikola Jovic and Adebayo in Wednesday’s road loss to the Orlando Magic.
But the Heat has now started Adebayo and Ware together in the second and third games of the season, alongside the trio of Davion Mitchell, Norman Powell and Andrew Wiggins.
In their season debut as a starting duo, the Heat was outscored by two points in the 11 minutes that Adebayo and Ware played together during Friday’s road win over the Memphis Grizzlies.
In their second start of the season together, the Knicks outscored the Heat by four points in the 11 minutes that Adebayo and Ware were on the court at the same time.
While the starting lineup remains fluid, especially the spot alongside Adebayo in the frontcourt, it appears that Ware is the starter and Jovic will play as a reserve for now.
The Heat also used a double-big starting lineup featuring the 7-foot-Ware and the 6-foot-9 Adebayo for the final three months of last season.
Ware started 33 games alongside Adebayo last regular season and the Heat posted a 14-19 record in those games with that double-big frontcourt. The Heat outscored opponents by 4.6 points per 100 possessions in the 541 minutes that Adebayo and Ware played together last regular season.
But Jovic is still playing plenty of minutes as part of an impressive Heat bench attack.
For the second straight game, Jovic played 25-plus minutes off the Heat’s bench.
Jovic recorded six points, four rebounds and five assists in 25 minutes off the bench in the Heat’s win over the Knicks.
Jovic was part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Jaime Jaquez Jr., Dru Smith, Simone Fontecchio and Pelle Larsson on Sunday.
Jaquez continued his strong start to the season with 17 points, five rebounds and five assists in 27 minutes.
Fontecchio contributed 14 points, four rebounds and one assist in 18 minutes.
The Heat’s bench outscored the Knicks’ reserves 44-21.
The available Heat players who didn’t get into the game were Keshad Johnson, Jahmir Young, Myron Gardner and Vlad Goldin.
The Heat was only without Tyler Herro (left ankle surgery), Kaspras Jakucionis (right groin strain) and Terry Rozier (not with team) on Sunday.
The Knicks were missing Miles McBride (personal reasons) and Mithcell Robinson (left ankle injury management).
Mitchell has played a big role in the Heat’s early-season offensive surge as a facilitator and defender. He was again important in the second half on Sunday after battling foul trouble in the first half.
Mitchell had the tough task of defending Brunson on Sunday, and that led to foul trouble.
Mitchell was called for his second foul with five minutes left in the first quarter, with Brunson drawing both fouls. That forced Mitchell to head to the bench.
Mitchell re-entered the game with 6:22 left in the second quarter, but he picked up his third foul less than a minute later. That led to Mitchell spending the final 5:39 of the second quarter on the bench.
Mitchell only played 7:43 in the first half, recording just 2 points and two assists in that limited playing time.
But Mitchell played 16 minutes in the second half, recording seven points and four assists in the final two quarters.
This story was originally published October 26, 2025 at 8:45 PM.
Related Stories from Miami Herald
Anthony Chiang
Miami Herald
Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.
