How will Heat rookie Kel’el Ware respond after rough playoff debut? ‘We need him big time’ (2025)

Miami Heat rookie center Kel’el Ware has surpassed expectations this season, stepping into a starting role and recording the most double-doubles among NBA rookies in his first regular season. But Sunday served as a reminder of Ware’s youth.

Not only did Ware turn 21 on Sunday, but he also was limited to just two points and three rebounds in 20 minutes in the Heat’s 121-100 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena in Game 1 of their best-of-7 first-round playoff series. Ware, who started in his first playoff game, also tallied two assists and two blocks while posting a plus/minus of minus 12 in his playoff debut.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Ware, who played just one minute in the fourth quarter of Game 1. “The ball was moving, it was finding everybody. I was just playing through the flow of the game.”

Ware was especially quiet in Sunday’s first half, going without a point or rebound while playing 12:30 in the first two quarters. The 7-footer grabbed his first rebound of the night with 10:10 left in the third quarter and scored his first and only points of the night on a tip-in dunk with 7:08 remaining in the third quarter.

That’s not normal for Ware, who averaged 10.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game during his final 38 regular-season appearances this season after becoming a full-time Heat starter in January. Ware also struggled to defend the Cavaliers’ lethal pick-and-rolls at times, as the Heat allowed 150 points per 100 possessions in the 20 minutes that Ware played on Sunday compared to 126.4 points per 100 possessions in the 28 minutes that Ware spent on the bench in the contest.

“I think, obviously, Kel’el being in that environment, going through his very first playoff game, it probably surprised him a little bit,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “But he’ll be better and he’ll continue to improve and figure out what works in each series. Obviously, we need him big time if we’re going to compete in this series.”

The Heat hopes Ware learns from his first playoff experience and is better in Game 2 on Wednesday in Cleveland (7:30 p.m., NBA TV and FanDuel Sports Network Sun). History says going down 2-0 in the series could be fatal for the Heat, as it has rallied to win a best-of-7 playoff series after dropping the first two games just once in franchise history and that came in the 2006 NBA Finals.

The Heat needs Ware to be a net-positive in a series against a Cavaliers team that starts a double-big lineup featuring the 6-foot-9 Jarrett Allen and the 6-foot-11 Evan Mobley.

“He has to go through it,” Heat captain Bam Adebayo said of his rookie frontcourt partner. “He’s young, but the thing about it is we know he’ll bounce back. He’s one of those rookies who retains a lot of information very well and we need him. So from that standpoint, understanding we get two days to lock in and he gets to refocus and he’s already got that first game out of the way. Now we go into this game Wednesday with a different mindset.”

Ware is in a unique position, as he’s just the third Heat rookie who has started a playoff game at age 21 or younger. The others are Justise Winslow and Herro.

“Just getting this game under my belt, seeing what the physicality is actually like and change it for the second game,” Ware said after his rough playoff debut.

Ware, who was selected by the Heat with the 15th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, has been through a lot this season. He logged double-digit minutes in just two of the Heat’s first 25 games this season before earning consistent minutes and then being promoted to a starting role in January.

Now, Ware is facing a different challenge in his first playoff series. Whether he overcomes this rookie hurdle could help determine whether the Eastern Conference’s eighth-seeded Heat makes this a competitive first-round series against the East’s top-seeded Cavaliers.

That’s a lot of pressure, but that’s the type of pressure that comes with being a rookie starting in the NBA playoffs.

“This is the life of a young player,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about Ware after Game 1. “You’re being fed through a fire hose and he’s important to what we do. He’ll get to work. That’s the thing I really respect about Kel’el. And the areas that he’s gotten a lot better, we’re going to need in this series.”