Inside The Heat

With Jimmy Butler Out, Miami Heat Have New Starting Lineup

Shandel Richardson

Dec 16, 2024; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons forward Ronald Holland II (00) shoots as Miami Heat guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11) defends in the second half at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
Dec 16, 2024; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons forward Ronald Holland II (00) shoots as Miami Heat guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11) defends in the second half at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images / Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
In this story:

The Miami Heat have a brand new starting lineup for tonight's game against the Brooklyn Nets.

It is: Jaime Jaquez, Haywood Highsmith, Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and Duncan Robinson. It's the sixth different lineup this season.

Here's the game preview:

Game time: 7:30 p.m., Kaseya Center, Miami


TV: FanDuel Sports Network

Betting line: Heat -8

VITALS: The Heat and Nets meet for the first of three regular season matchups. Last season, the teams split the season, 2-2. The Heat are 80-60 all-time versus Brooklyn during the regular season, including 43-26 in home games and 37-34 in road games.


PROJECTED STARTERS

HEAT

G Duncan Robinson

G Tyler Herro

C Bam Adebayo

F Haywood Highsmith

F Jaime Jaquez

NETS

F Cam Johnson

F Noah Clowney

C Nic Claxton

G Keon Johnson

G Ben Simmons

INJUY REPORT

HEAT

Jimmy Butler: Questionable - stomach

Kevin Love: Probable - Personal reasons

Josh Christopher: Probable - G League

Keshad Johnson: Probable - Two-way

Josh Richardson: Out - Heel

NETS

Bojan Bogdanovic: Out - Foot

Trendon Watford: Out - Hamstring

Dariq Whitehead: Questionable - G League

Ziaire Williams: Out - Knee

Jaylen Martin: Questionable - Two-way

De'Anthony Melton: Out - Knee

Cam Thomas: Out - Hamstring

Dorian Finney-Smith: Questionable - Calf

QUOTABLE

Ethan Skolnick of Five Reasons Sports Network on the Heat's loss to the Magic: "Essentially you're talking about five of the eight players in Orlando's mix ... unavailable," Skolnick said on his podcast. "I don't want to hear that Jimmy Butler did not play. It does not excuse what happened in the fourth quarter. The guys on the court should've done enough to close out that game and they did not."

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Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here