Winderman’s view: Lowry return allows Heat to restore order in rotation

Observations and other notes of interest from Wednesday night’s 124-98 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans:

– It’s a small thing, perhaps not even statistically tangible.

– But Kyle Lowry being back for the Heat restores order.

– Perhaps not in the classic sense of floor-leading point guard seizing Wednesday’s moment.

– But the way the rotation falls into place.

– With Lowry back in the starting lineup, the reserve rotation now has structure.

– Victor Oladipo enters as scorer.

– Max Strus as shooter.

– Gabe Vincent as steadying backcourt presence.

– And Orlando Robinson keeping it simple and basic as the backup big man.

– With Lowry back, it could be argued the Heat rotation was whole.

– Considering Duncan Robinson seemingly had fallen out of the rotation prior to his finger surgery.

– So it was back to the preferred starting lineup of Lowry, Tyler Herro, Caleb Martin, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.

– Which, in turn, also got others back to projected roles, such as Vincent and Strus off the bench.

– With the appearance, Adebayo tied Chris Bosh for 12th place on the Heat all-time list, at 384 games.

– Lowry’s first basket was the 5,000th of his career.

– Lowry’s first 3-pointer tied Klay Thompson for 12th on the NBA all-time list.

– Herro’s fourth assist moved him past Dan Majerle for 21st on the Heat all-time list.

– Butler’s fourth assist was the 3,000th of his career.

– Coach Erik Spoelstra warned pregame not to overstate being whole as some sort of comfort zone.

– “In a perfect world, you will have the role clarity and consistency,” he said. “And in the NBA, you probably won’t. Either way, we understand how we can win basketball games, whether we’re feeling good, whether we’re feeling confident, whether we’re feeling in rhythm. We know what our blueprint is.

– He did add, “But it is nice that we’re starting to become whole and hopefully we don’t have to play guys so many minutes, and you can just concentrate on playing your minutes as hard as you possibly can and impact winning.”

– Spoelstra stopped short of saying Lowry was on a minutes restriction, after missing the previous four games due to knee discomfort.

– The Pelicans have found a way to stay afloat even in the injury absences of Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, who were out again Wednesday, as was New Orleans’ Herb Jones.

– “We just try to continue to trust in each other,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said, “have faith that our preparations will allow us to go out and compete against some of these good teams that we’re playing against, and try to keep things simple, have a good, simple gameplan.”

– He added, “Make sure we’re dialed in, and I think the beauty in it is the character around our group across the board is at a high level. It allows us to go through adversity and still enjoy coming to work and still enjoying to be around each other and having fun.”

– The Pelicans opened with a lineup of CJ McCollum, Dyson Daniels, Naji Marshall, Trey Murphy and Jonas Valanciunas.

– Orlando Robinson again played as the Heat’s first center off the bench, ahead of Dewayne Dedmon.

– Oladipo also entered during the first Heat substitution.

– Oladipo’s first defensive rebound was the 1,900th of his career.

– Strus and Vincent then followed

– With Vincent promptly draining his first two 3-point attempts.

– That again left Haywood Highsmith shuffled out of the rotation until garbage time.