Saturday in Miami broke the right way for the guys who actually needed it to. Every name you’d pay to watch wore warmups: Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Jaden McDaniels, Jonathan Kuminga, Rudy Gobert, and Ayo Dosunmu too. The men who played for keeps were the end-of-bench holdovers and the camp hopefuls doing math on partial-guarantee dates in their heads, and they dragged a 125-124 win out of Kaseya Center that nobody will cite in April and nobody in that locker room will forget.
The night belonged to the roster bubble
Chris Finch rested his top six and handed the keys to everyone else. That’s exactly what you do in the third game of the preseason, when the bodies that matter are the ones you’re keeping off the injury report.
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The top six sat, and the night turned into an open casting call. There’s a bigger reason these reps matter. Donte DiVincenzo is still rehabbing the Achilles he tore in last spring’s playoffs, so every backcourt rep in October has purpose. You can see who’s healthy and who isn’t on the injury report, and right now the backup guard minutes behind Edwards and Ball are genuinely up for grabs.
Finch’s lineup card made the stakes plain:
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That’s a starting lineup earning a combined fraction of what Gobert alone will bank this season, and it played the Heat dead even for 48 minutes while the guaranteed money watched in street clothes.
Bones Hyland and Zyon Pullin made it their audition
If you’re keeping a roster spot warm, this is the film you send to the front office. Hyland put up 23 points on 6-of-9 shooting, drilled five of six from three, went a perfect 6-of-6 at the line, and tacked on four rebounds, four assists, and three steals in 21 minutes, per CBS Sports. He was the best player on the floor in either jersey, and he did it running the point. That’s the role that keeps him employed, even if the scoring is what makes him worth the damn headache. Rotowire flagged Hyland as the logical beneficiary of DiVincenzo’s injury, and nights like this are the reason.
Then there was Zyon Pullin, who may have played his way into a conversation he wasn’t in a week ago. The young guard went for 22 points on 7-of-9 from the floor and a flawless 8-of-8 at the stripe, and he was the one answering every time Miami surged down the stretch. He’s on the roster bubble for a reason and the margins are thin, but a night like this is exactly how that conversation starts to turn. Terrence Shannon Jr., the one genuine rotation candidate in the starting group, chipped in 19 on 8-of-16 with three triples to go with six rebounds and four assists. Shannon is the guy in this box score whose minutes actually forecast anything about opening night, and he looked the part.
The fourth quarter nearly undid all of it
For three quarters this was tidy. Minnesota led 91-84 after 36 minutes, Hyland had his 23, and Beringer had blocked everything that came near the rim.
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Then Miami remembered it was home and hung 40 points in the fourth, the kind of number that turns a comfortable preseason W into a genuine sweat. The Heat chipped away all quarter, traded haymakers with Minnesota’s kids, and finally pulled ahead 124-123 on a Vladislav Goldin basket with 14.8 seconds left. Ryan Conwell had a hell of a 22-point, nine-assist, two-steal night in 32 minutes that was the best individual performance anyone turned in; Goldin added 18 inside on 7-of-10. Miami outscored Minnesota 40-34 in the final frame and still lost. That tells you plenty about how the first 36 minutes went.
The finish was pure chaos, and I mean that as the highest compliment preseason can pay. Down one with the clock bleeding out, a broken possession spat a loose ball to Antonio Reeves, who gathered it and dropped a runner from the free-throw line with 2.3 seconds left for a 125-124 lead. Miami burned its timeout, drew something up, and never got a clean look.
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Reeves’ line was a quiet five points. The two that mattered were the only two anyone will mention. A win’s a win, even the ones held together with duct tape and a lucky-ass bounce.
The duds, and a rookie big worth watching
Not everyone helped their case. Cody Williams, the piece Minnesota pried out of Utah in the Josh Green deal and would love to see take a leap, went 1-of-7 for four points with two turnovers and a team-worst minus-17 in 20 minutes. One ugly October night isn’t a verdict, but when you’re the reclamation project in the frontcourt pecking order, you want the film arguing for you, not against. Trey Lyles shot 1-of-8 and it barely registered, because he grabbed eight boards, handed out three assists, and finished plus-9 doing the connective work that keeps a veteran on the floor when his jumper’s gone dark.
The real keeper from the frontcourt was Joan Beringer. The second-year center went for 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting, seven rebounds, and a game-high four blocks in 24 minutes at plus-16, and he looked like exactly the rim-protecting insurance you want stashed behind Gobert. KJ Martin added 12 and got to the line seven times, Norchad Omier posted seven points and three assists in 10 tidy minutes, and Isaiah Evans, the rookie wing who came over in the LaMelo trade, hit three of seven from deep for nine. The kids can shoot. Minnesota buried 14 threes as a team and went 29-of-33 from the line, the kind of discipline that wins exhibitions and, every so often, a one-point game you had no business sweating.
What it actually means
Six of the players who will decide this season didn’t take the floor, so nothing here tells you a thing about the top of the rotation. What it does tell you lives at the bottom of the roster, which is where it’s supposed to live in October. The backup guard spot behind Edwards and Ball is a live competition now that DiVincenzo’s hurt, and Hyland, Pullin, and Reeves all made Saturday loud. Beringer gave the staff a reason to trust the backup-five minutes. Shannon looked ready for a real job. And Cody Williams gave everyone something to chew on, none of it encouraging.
The next time these two meet, it counts. Minnesota opens the regular season October 21 at this same Kaseya Center, and both franchises spent Saturday treating the night like a save-the-date.
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By opening night Edwards and Ball will be dressed and this supporting cast will be back to scrapping for the last two spots and the garbage-time minutes. The partial-guarantee dates come due before the season does, and the front office just watched the bubble win a game it ran by itself. One or two of Saturday’s names talk their way onto this roster; the rest go back to being guys you only notice once it’s already decided.
