In the midst of what turned out to be a fairly meaningless Heat win (from a seeding standpoint) against Atlanta on Sunday, something very encouraging happened: Norman Powell looked like himself.
After an exceptional first half of the season, resulting in his first All-Star Game appearance, Powell has suffered through injuries and a drop in production since late February.
But on Sunday against Atlanta, he was back to the pre-All-Star break Powell, delivering 25 points on 8-for-17 shooting in 23 minutes off the bench, providing hope that he can deliver a spark in the Heat’s play-in game at Charlotte on Tuesday (7:30 p.m., Amazon Prime).
“It’s been a tough stretch for him with the injuries and the sickness,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He hasn’t been able to get into full rhythm. This one looked like a little bit more like himself.”
Sunday marked only the third time that Powell has scored 25 points in a game since the All-Star break and the first time since Feb. 24. He played in 13 games and missed 13 since the break, slowed by a lingering groin issue and then by an upper-respiratory infection that sidelined him for four games.
“Working through illness, respiratory illness is always tough; going through injury is always tough,” he said. “But, yeah, this is the healthiest I’ve been in terms of just being able to do what I want, not get super fatigued. Even in the games I played in returning, I was still coughing up and trying to catch my breath and stuff throughout the course of the game. But I’m finally clearing up symptoms, so it felt good to actually be able to breathe running up and down the court.”
On Sunday, Powell played as a reserve for the third straight game that he has suited up for, and for the sixth time this season. He started his first 49 appearances this season before this recent stint as a reserve.
“I’m just out there playing and doing what I can in the minutes given to me,” he said. “So it’s good to kind of work through everything and get in a good rhythm, get my mind right and everything going into the play-in.”
An impending free agent, Powell closed the season averaging 21.7 points on 47% shooting (38% on threes) in 58 appearances.
He averaged 22.9 points and shot 39.6% on threes before the All Star break, but scored just 17.4 per game and shot 31.7% on threes in his 13 appearances since the All-Star break.
Health update, news and notes
Pelle Larsson, who missed the regular-season finale with a lower leg contusion, did not practice Monday but went through an individual workout afterward and said he feels fine and expects to be available on Tuesday.
Spoelstra said Dru Smith (right big toe sprain) likely will not play. Nikola Jovic continues to recover from an ankle injury.
▪ Bam Adebayo finished the season averaging 20.1 points and 10 rebounds, reaching those 20/10 averages simultaneously for the first time. He joins Shaquille O’Neal and Alonzo Mourning as the only Heat players to average 20 and 10 in a season. Mourning did it twice, O’Neal once in a Heat uniform.
“I know it was something I was capable of,” Adebayo said. “To be in the company with only two other guys is a milestone for me in a lot of respects.”
▪ Jaime Jaquez Jr., who started one game this season and missed seven, led all NBA bench players in points and ranked second among reserves in assists and fifth in rebounds. His 1,152 points were the second-most scored off the bench in a season in franchise history, 10 short of Tyler Herro’s team record.
▪ Dating to 1975 (when data is available), Jaquez joined Washington’s John Williams as the only players to produce 340 rebounds and 340 assists off the bench in a single season.
▪ The Heat finished second in the league in scoring behind Denver (120.9 to 122.1), partly because of its fast pace; Miami was the league leader in pace. But Miami finished 12th in offensive rating (points per 100 possessions) at 115.8.
Miami’s defensive rating wasn’t up to its usual standards – 13th overall (tied with Orlando) at 113.6 points permitted per 100 possessions.
▪ The Adebayo/Kel’el Ware frontcourt combo ended the season as a plus-85 in 505 minutes. No other Heat two-man tandem outscored opponents by as many points in so few minutes.
They’ve started the past two games together, but Spoelstra stopped short of saying they would start together on Tuesday. Adebayo said the fact that Charlotte spreads the floor and shoots threes should not affect the feasibility and effectiveness of that two-big lineup because the Hornets centers don’t shoot many threes.
▪ Amazon Prime’s lead NBA team, Ian Eagle and Stan Van Gundy, will call Heat-Hornets.
This story was originally published April 13, 2026 at 1:50 PM.
Barry Jackson
Miami Herald
Barry Jackson has written for the Miami Herald since 1986 and has written the Florida Sports Buzz column since 2002.
