MIAMI – At a stage when figuring it out is far more significant than the final score, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Jimmy Butler settled into comfort zones Tuesday night with the Miami Heat’s new starting lineup.

While the result, a 120-117 exhibition victory over the San Antonio Spurs at Kaseya Center, didn’t count for anything, the chemistry did.

Chemistry that Adebayo, Butler and Herro seemed to find now working in an opening unit with Terry Rozier and Nikola Jovic.

“I love the intent so far,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of his starting lineup. “They’re intentional in the work, the process, to get this together, to start the season.”

With the starting unit playing 23:21 together, each otherwise watching from the bench, Adebayo closed with 20 points, Herro 14 and Butler 12.

Jovic added seven points and Rozier five.

The Heat also got 15 points, six rebounds and five assists from Jaime Jaquez Jr., as well as 10 points from Duncan Robinson.

Five Degrees of Heat from Tuesday night’s exhibition against the Spurs:

– 1. First five: If there was any doubt about the Heat’s opening-night starting lineups, those questions seemingly have been answered.

The Heat for the second consecutive game opened with Adebayo, Jovic, Butler, Herro and Rozier. All but Herro also started the first of the three exhibitions played to this point, with Herro missing the preseason opener with a groin strain.

The three exhibition appearances by Butler match the three he played up on his Heat arrival in 2019, having appeared in two or fewer each preseason before this past week.

The starters played 15:36 together in the first half, with the Heat outscoring the Spurs by six over that span. They then played the first 7:55 of the second half before checking out for good, closing at +2 for the night.

“I like it,” Spoelstra said of the starting unit. “But who cares what the head coach thinks? They like it.”

– 2. And then: As has been the case this preseason, Spoelstra then went with a five-man second unit, with Kevin Love, Alec Burks, Robinson, Jaquez and Dru Smith inserted late in the first quarter.

Burks, who was given the night off for Sunday’s exhibition victory over the Pelicans, this time played in place of Haywood Highsmith.

That second five then were subbed out when the starters returned with 6:45 left in the first half, each of the units +4 to that stage.

Jaquez was key with that second unit.

“That’s part of Jaime’s talent,” Spoelstra said. “He can create something out of nothing.”

As was the case in the first three exhibitions, Thomas Bryant then played with the second unit in the second half in place of Love.

– 3. Appreciation offered: Having coached him to Olympic gold with Team USA in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich noted the growth in the game of Adebayo, who won Olympic gold this past summer under Steve Kerr in Paris.

“He’s more confident offensively, for sure,” Popovich said. “He feels better about his jump shot. He’s shooting a couple of threes now. That’s the main thing.

“But everything else is steady as hell. He’s going to be a worker. He’s going to rebound. He’s going to move, cut, be a team player. All that’s the same, just offensively, more confident and a little bit more breadth to his game.”

Then, as if on cue, Adebayo drained a corner 3-pointer on his first attempt Tuesday (before airballing a 3-pointer on his second attempt). Later, Adebayo converted a transition 3-pointer in the third quarter to close 2 of 3 from beyond the arc as part of his overall 6-of-10 effort from the field.

“Spacing the floor, that’s probably the only thing people notice. I’m seeing the other parts of his game continuing to grow,” Spoelstra said.

– 4. Limited appearance: With Popovich pregame saying the plan was to limit Victor Wembanyama to about 15 minutes, the 2024 Rookie of the Year went 16:44, playing only the first half.

The versatile 7-foot-3 big man closed with eight points, seven rebounds and three assists, draining a 3-pointer.

The moment had Spoelstra again coaching against Wembanyama after coaching against him in August as an Olympic assistant for Team USA in the gold-medal game against France at the Paris Olympics.

“We saw this summer in the Olympics, particularly in France, when there were great expectations for that team, in the biggest moments is when he played the best, including our final game,” Spoelstra said.

– 5. Up next: Next up for the Heat is a Wednesday night return to Kaseya for the home exhibition finale against the Atlanta Hawks, a game that had been scheduled for last week but then was postponed by Hurricane Milton.

From there, the Heat will close out their preseason Friday on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies, before next Wednesday’s season opener against the visiting Orlando Magic.