It was a great night for Gerald Green.

It was another rough one for the Heat's starting five.

With one game left in the preseason and less than a week before the Charlotte Hornets visit AmericanAirlines Arena in the season opener, it's obvious Chris Bosh, Hassan Whiteside, Goran Dragic, Luol Deng and Dwyane Wade have a ways to go in terms of building chemistry.

In Wednesday's 110-105 victory over the Washington Wizards, the starting unit shot 17 of 54 from the field (31.4%), two of 14 from three-point range and looked uncomfortable establishing a rhythm. Miami's bench -- buoyed by a red-hot Gerald Green (28 points, nine rebounds) -- made 21 of its 39 field goal attempts (53.8 percent) and was 6 of 10 from beyond the arc.

It's par for the course this preseason. With Whiteside sidelined for three weeks with a strained right calf and then held out Sunday in Atlanta with a sprained ankle, Miami's starters haven't had a lot of time to gel. And it's shown on the offensive end.

Miami's starters are shooting 41.9 percent from the field and 22.4 percent from three-point range this preseason.

Green seems to be the only person not having any issues scoring. He is 14 of 34 from three-point range this preseason (41.2 percent). The rest of the Heat is 26 of 132 (19.7%) from beyond the arc.

"Second unit is playing fantastic basketball," Bosh said. "They're saving our ass right now.

"Coach is allowing Gerald to be who he is, which is Mr. Instant Offense. He's playing incredible basketball right now. The part I like about it most is that he's bringing that energy and toughness on the defensive end as well.

"Like I told Gerald, I'm happy he's playing that well. I just want him to keep the enthusiasm when things tough. Just like right now with the first five. We're in a bit of tough situation right now, but that's the league. And we're not being realistic with ourselves if we think we're just going to show up, practice a couple times and go out there and play the best basketball we can. It takes time."

What does Bosh see right with Miami's starting five? Nothing, he said.

"I think just looking at the film it's a little bit congested right now," Bosh said. "We get into situations where we take quick shots, especially against super talented guys like John Wall; they get into the open court it makes it extremely tough and dig ourselves a hole with every quick shot that we take. So first and foremost we have to address that.

"Really, just to get a sense of what how we're going to run and what style we're going to play when we're out there. Of course we've been talking about pushing the pace and everything. But we need to get the ball where it needs to go. I think right now we're not playing together. It's early. We have to understand that. We can't get frustrated with it. That has to be a common theme. We have to continue to preach it, talk about it, look objectively at the film and be open to criticism and suggestions."

Coach Erik Spoelstra said the starting unit just needs more time. Wade agrees.

"As we say every day, just a work in progress," he said. "Every game we get an opportunity to go out there and make mistakes and learn from it the next day when we come here, learn from them on the fly. It's going to take awhile. We've got a lot of new guys. We have a starting unit that hasn't played together more than three times. It's going to take a little time. But we know we have enough. We just have to figure it out.

"Our defense is not bad in halfcourt. Transition, we've got to continue to get better. But our halfcourt defense is pretty good. We have guys that can score the basketball. We just have to play together more and figure it out. It's going to take a lot of time. You can't fastrack it if you want to. You just have to get comfortable with the system, get comfortable with each other. Like I said, we've only played together in a game twice, maybe three times and practiced once. We're behind the eight-ball from a lot of teams."