NBA Notes: Heat, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Spurs, Wizards, Alex Sarr

October 26, 2026

Heat

The Heat traded for Giannis Antetokounmpo to become a contender. They’d probably settle for becoming a team with a win Monday night.

Miami is 0-3 heading into its meeting with the Mavericks, and the losses haven’t offered much comfort. Even Saturday’s late rally against the shorthanded Hornets came after the Heat entered the fourth quarter down 21.

Too soon to panic? Sure. Too soon to expect better basketball? Not at all.

As Major Passons of Sports Illustrated notes, Miami has needed time to get talented teams working together before. The LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh group famously started 9-8 before reaching the Finals.

That doesn’t tell us where this team is headed. It does offer a reason to give Erik Spoelstra more than a week to figure it out.

Ethan Skolnick, contributing to the piece, put the immediate responsibility on Giannis, Bam Adebayo and Spoelstra.

“Role players take the lead of the leading men,” he wrote. “All need to be better, and show the way this can and will work.”

Spurs

The Spurs finally won Saturday. Mitch Johnson wasn’t interested in throwing a party.

“If you were in (the locker room), you would have thought we lost the game,” De’Aaron Fox said, via Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News.

San Antonio beat a Mavericks team missing six players, including Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving. But Dallas scored 46 points in the paint in the first half, a franchise record, and the Spurs again allowed more than 30 first-quarter points.

“Our floor right now is way too low,” Johnson said.

Victor Wembanyama wasn’t arguing. He understands that opening-week basketball won’t necessarily resemble a playoff performance. There’s a limit to that understanding, though.

“It’s normal that we’re not as good as we were during the playoffs,” Wembanyama said. “It’s not normal that we’re as bad as we’ve been so far.”

That’s a fairly direct assessment from the franchise player. The Spurs are 1-2, with plenty to address beyond getting that first win.

Wizards

Alex Sarr doesn’t need to win a shooting contest to help the Wizards. With Trae Young, Anthony Davis and Deandre Ayton now around, finding other ways to contribute is becoming essential.

Sarr supplied 10 points and three blocks against the Bulls over the weekend, his best totals of the young season. More encouraging than the numbers was how he got involved, as Henry Brown of Sports Illustrated detailed.

Sarr has been running the floor, cutting into open space and finding Davis with interior passes. Those are useful options for a young big man whose jumper has been less reliable.

Washington is 2-1 without rookie AJ Dybantsa having debuted. The veteran additions have made minutes and touches harder to come by for the younger players.

For Sarr, that means making himself useful when someone else has the ball. Catching a pass from Young near the rim seems like a pretty good use of his time.