Takeaways from Heat’s win over Kings to kick off Disney scrimmages. What stood out?

The Miami Heat still looks like itself.

Coming off the NBA’s four-month shutdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Heat’s offense still looked sharp in the first half of a 104-98 win over the Sacramento Kings to open its three-game scrimmage schedule Wednesday at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista. Miami has featured a top-10 offense for most of the season.

“There were some good things tonight,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But more than anything, it was just good to be back out there. We didn’t really know what to expect. But once you got out there in between the four lines, that’s probably the most normal any of us in that locker room could feel during this pandemic. It was just terrific to be out there together.”

Wednesday’s exhibition game was different in many ways because of the unprecedented situation surrounding the league’s return. For one, the first scrimmage for every team features 10-minute quarters instead of the usual 12-minute periods. Games will return to the typical 48 minutes, instead of 40, for each team’s final two scrimmages.

The Heat continues its scrimmage schedule with an exhibition game against the Utah Jazz on Saturday at 4 p.m. Miami’s real games begin on Aug. 1, when it opens its eight-game “seeding” schedule against the Denver Nuggets.

Five takeaways from the Heat’s scrimmage win over the Kings on Wednesday at HP Field House ...

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1. The Heat’s efficient offense and Duncan Robinson picked up right where they left off after more than four months away from game action.

It didn’t matter that it was Miami’s first time on the court against an opponent since the season was suspended on March 11. The Heat’s offense didn’t waste any time Wednesday, scoring 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting (62.5 percent) from the field and 7-of-12 shooting (58.3 percent) on threes while dishing out nine assists in a shortened 10-minute first quarter.

Robinson, who entered the league shutdown ranked third in the NBA with 243 made threes this season, was the catalyst behind Miami’s first-quarter offensive explosion. He scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from deep in the first period.

“I think the connection and the ball movement is still evident with this group,” Spoelstra said. “This group really enjoys sharing the game, sharing the ball with each other and trying to help each other play well. That’s a really special quality about this ball club.”

None of this is especially surprising, considering the Heat enters the restart with the league’s seventh-best offensive rating (scoring 112.2 points per 100 possessions). It’s the most efficient offensive rating Miami has posted since the NBA began recording the stat in the 1996-97 season.

Other numbers that are representative of the Heat’s efficient offense this season: Miami owns the NBA’s ninth-best team shooting percentage (47), top three-point shooting percentage (38.3) and 13th-best free-throw shooting percentage (77.8) while assisting on the third-highest percentage of made shots in the NBA at 65.6 percent.

“I think we’ve been doing a great job of sharing the ball all year long, before this whole hiatus thing,” Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler said. “We talked about it in practice, we work on it in practice. I just think we all want each other to be successful. Pass it to the open guy, everybody’s going to touch the ball, everybody will get an opportunity to shoot and we’ll have an opportunity to win.”

As for Robinson, only Houston’s James Harden (271) and Sacramento’s Buddy Hield (244) have made more threes than him this season. Among the 29 players averaging seven or more three-point shot attempts per game, Robinson owns the league’s top three-point shooting percentage at 44.8 percent. The 26-year-old Robinson has also posted a team-best plus/minus of plus-315 this season.

“He’s the best shooter in the league, I would say,” Heat guard Goran Dragic said of Robinson.

The Heat entered halftime with a 56-44 lead behind 48.6 percent shooting from the field and 9-of-25 shooting on threes. Miami recorded 13 assists on 18 made baskets over the first two quarters.

But the second half didn’t go as well for Miami, with the Kings outscoring the Heat 54-48 over the final two quarters. Miami ended the night with 104 points in a shortened 40-minute game on 47.1 percent shooting from the field and 14-of-44 shooting on threes.

Butler, who finished with nine points, three rebounds and two assists in 11 minutes, and Dragic, who finished with 11 points, two rebounds and one assist in 11 minutes, did not play in the second half.

Robinson ended the night with a team-high 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting on threes in 21 minutes.

It was a tough shooting night for Heat rookie guard Tyler Herro, though. Herro still managed to finish with 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field and 0-of-7 shooting on threes.

2. The Heat opened its scrimmage schedule without two members of its starting lineup.

Center Bam Adebayo and guard Kendrick Nunn were not available to play Wednesday, as both were still in the middle of their required quarantine after joining the team in the NBA’s Disney bubble on Tuesday evening. The two Heat starters arrived to Disney two weeks later than the rest of their teammates for reasons that the team and players declined to disclose, citing privacy reasons.

“It’s great to have them with us,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo and Nunn before Wednesday’s scrimmage. “We had a team dinner last night. And so we were on the other side of the lake, socially distanced outside, and we had them come out to their windows. We all waved to them, which was pretty funny.”

Adebayo and Nunn must go through the same quarantine period in their hotel room that their Heat teammates experienced when they arrived at the league’s Central Florida campus earlier this month. That means returning two negative COVID-19 tests at least 24 hours apart upon arrival before beginning team activities — a quarantine that began Tuesday evening and is expected to last approximately 36 to 48 hours.

Based on this timetable, Adebayo and Nunn can clear quarantine as soon as Thursday to exit their hotel rooms and begin practicing with their Heat teammates. With Miami scheduled for an off day Thursday, their first practice will likely come Friday.

Spoelstra was non-committal when asked whether the duo would be available for either of Miami’s final two scrimmages (Saturday vs. Jazz and Tuesday vs. Memphis Grizzlies ) before “seeding” games begin.

“We’ll just have to see what they look like when we get them on the court,” Spoelstra said.

The Heat’s other 15 players were available Wednesday.

While Miami was without two starters, the Heat entered Wednesday’s game in better shape than the Kings’ depleted roster. Sacramento faced Miami without forwards Marvin Bagley III, Harrison Barnes and Richaun Holmes, guard De’Aaron Fox and center Alex Len because of various injuries and issues.

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3. Without Adebayo and Nunn, the Heat used a starting lineup of Dragic, Robinson, Butler, Derrick Jones Jr. and Meyers Leonard to begin its scrimmage schedule.

This lineup is temporary, with Adebayo and Nunn expected to slide back into the Heat’s starting five when they return. Moving Dragic and Jones to the bench to make room for Adebayo and Nunn in the starting lineup would make sense because the Nunn-Butler-Robinson-Adebayo-Leonard combination has been very good.

The Heat has used the Nunn-Butler-Robinson-Adebayo-Leonard lineup to start 38 games this season, and it has posted an impressive plus/minus of plus-121. That’s, by far, the best plus/minus for any five-man Heat group this season, with the second-best lineup at plus-60.

One noteworthy item from Wednesday: Leonard started and played in his first game, albeit a scrimmage, since a Feb. 3 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. The 7-footer missed 16 consecutive games prior to the league shutdown because of a sprained left ankle.

Leonard finished with three points and three rebounds in 12 minutes.

4. Wednesday served as the first opportunity for Heat players, coaches and staff in Disney to get used to the COVID-19 health and safety protocols that will make game days feel very different, and it sure was different.

With Miami playing as the home team, “Let’s Go Heat!” chants came from a video of fans on the arena’s Zoom screens alongside the court in the empty arena. Other advantages of playing as the home team: The familiar sound of “Dos Minutos” at the two-minute mark of each quarter and other noises that would normally play at a Heat home game at AmericanAirlines Arena.

“The NBA has done a great job rolling out the red carpet,” Robinson said. “This is as close to feeling at home as you can get. It was great to have that thrown in there on the screens, to see our logos. It was just fun to be out there.”

Dragic added that “it was great to have the Miami Heat logo and to have the pictures. It makes it feel a little bit like home, but it’s way different.”

The other noticeable changes Wednesday included Spoelstra coaching in slacks and a polo. Spoelstra usually wears a suit and tie for games, but coaches across the league have turned to more casual sideline attire for the restart.

There was also the physical distancing on team benches, with players on both teams sitting in their own chairs at least six feet apart from each other. Trainers and coaches wore masks during the game.

“It’s different with no fans, so we could hear everybody talking,” Dragic said. “It’s going to be interesting. But we know what we need to do on the court, and today we’re happy with our performance.”

5. Although Spoelstra said he wanted to play all 15 available Heat players in the scrimmage opener, only 12 ended up getting on the court Wednesday.

Kyle Alexander, Udonis Haslem and KZ Okpala were the three available Heat players who did not play against the Kings. Forward Chris Silva (six points and three rebounds in 10 minutes) and two-way contract guard Gabe Vincent (six points and two assists in 10 minutes) did play.

Spoelstra used 10 players in the first half — Butler, Robinson, Leonard, Jones, Dragic, Herro, Andre Iguodala, Kelly Olynyk, Solomon Hill and Jae Crowder. As previously mentioned, Butler and Dragic did not play in the second half.

Iguodala, 36, was solid off the bench with 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 shooting on threes in 21 minutes. Olynyk contributed 12 points, six rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes.

“It was pretty close to what we had designed in terms of minutes and getting guys playing together,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s first scrimmage. “Get that five-on-five conditioning.”