The early returns on the Giannis Antetokounmpo-Bam Adebayo haven’t been good. The Heat have been outscored by 46.9 points per 100 possessions in the 34 minutes that they have played together during the first two games.

Minnesota coach Chris Finch, whose team beat the Heat in the season opener, believes the pairing will soon become a dominant force.

“They’ll figure out how to play off each other really well. It just takes time,” Finch said, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “Trying to mesh bigs is a lot harder. I’ve done it many times. It’s a lot harder to mesh bigs than it is to mesh smalls, and a lot of that just has to do with spacing and understanding that, and whatever that is in their offense. I can’t speak to that, but it’ll happen for them, and they’re going to be a handful, no doubt.”

Adebayo had just four points in 23 minutes against the Pistons on Friday.

Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

• The Heat never led on Friday as Detroit rolled to a 17-point victory. “Here we are,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told Chiang and other media members. “So we’re getting to know each other right at the beginning of the season. Our preseason was great, and everything was terrific in training camp. It was pretty smooth, it was pretty easy, you could see the vision of where we’re going, and where we will end up. But we’re facing a little bit of adversity to start.” The starting unit, which also includes Davion Mitchell, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins, was outscored by 18 points in the 13 minutes it played together. The Heat now play the second game of a back-to-back against Charlotte. “Probably the best thing for us to do is go on the road with a tough turnaround, with less than 24 hours to play our next game,” Spoelstra said.
• The Hornets aren’t exactly coming into the matchup against Miami with positive vibes. They were clobbered by the Hawks on Friday, 128-81, the largest margin of victory in Atlanta’s franchise history, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Lauren Williams. Hawks guard Dyson Daniels had seven steals in 23 minutes. “This game, they were just giving it to me. I’m not going to lie,” he said in a TV interview. Daniels is in the first year of a four-year, $100MM extension he signed last October.
• Magic guard Anthony Black has yet to make his season debut due to an ankle injury but he’s getting close. He participated in the team’s shootaround on Friday, Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel tweets. “No setbacks, no,” Magic coach Sean Sweeney said. “He’s doing a good job, still ramping up and looked good. So, (we’re) excited with how he’s progressing and when he’s ready to go, we’ll get him out there.” Black failed to reach a rookie scale extension agreement prior to the deadline this month.