The Heat's New Starting Lineup Looks Like a Salary Cap Glitch

The Miami Heat are rolling out a starting five on Wednesday that looks like a glitch in a basketball video game salary cap. According to Underdog NBA, Miami is starting Donovan Mitchell, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Bam Adebayo against the Los Angeles Clippers.

This is the kind of lineup that makes opposing coaches want to fake a stomach bug and stay on the team bus. You have two MVP-level forces inside, a legendary shooter, a former number-one overall pick on the wing, and an elite scoring guard all sharing the same floor.

"Underdog NBA tweeted: 'Lineup alert: Heat will start Mitchell, Thompson, Wiggins, Giannis, Adebayo on Wednesday.'"

It took a minute for this fantasy-draft roster to actually click. Miami stumbled out of the gates to an 0-4 start this season. The spacing was a mess, and Thompson was shooting a brutal 32.4 percent from deep over his first five games while the new pieces tried to figure out where to stand.

Then the math finally corrected itself. Thompson drilled seven three-pointers for 25 points in a 145-125 blowout over the Indiana Pacers, proving head coach Erik Spoelstra right about needing Klay to stretch the floor. They followed that up by hanging 138 points on the Los Angeles Lakers just a few days later.

When you have Antetokounmpo and Adebayo operating in the paint, defenses are already forced into panic rotations. Adding Mitchell's downhill speed and Thompson's gravity turns a standard defensive possession into a fire drill. If you are holding a ticket for the under on any Clippers defensive props tonight, you might want to look away.

Miami tips off against the Clippers tonight before heading to play the Golden State Warriors on Thursday. If this starting five stays healthy and keeps figuring out how to share the basketball, the rest of the league is just playing for second place.