Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 118-112 victory over the Detroit Pistons:<\/p>\n
\u2013 Put aside the shooting for the moment.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Because this wasn\u2019t going to be about the shot-making of Bam Adebayo and Kel\u2019el Ware.<\/p>\n
\u2013 This was going to be about whether the Heat could hold their own against the Pistons\u2019 incredible bulk.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Yes, Jalen Duren was lost for the night for the Pistons in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But by then, the Heat showed they wouldn\u2019t be pushed around by Duren or Isaiah Stewart.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Who have done plenty of pushing around this season on the Pistons\u2019 pathway to the top of the East.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So, yes, Adebayo 5 of 14 from the field.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But also 14 rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So, yes, Ware 1 of 6 from the field.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But also 13 rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And yes, Nikola Jovic 1 of 10 from the field.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But add in another five rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So no Detroit dominance on the offensive glass.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And an impressive, muscle flex of a Heat win.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Tyler Herro and Pelle Larsson out, the Heat again opened with a lineup of Kel\u2019el Ware, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Norman Powell and Davion Mitchell. That lineup entered 4-3.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With the appearance, Adebayo tied Alonzo Mourning for third place on the Heat\u2019s all-time regular-season games list (593) , behind only Dwyane Wade (948) and Udonis Haslem (879).<\/p>\n
\u2013 Ware extended his career-best run of games with multiple offensive rebounds to 15.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Tobias Harris out, the Pistons opened with a big lineup of their own, with\u00a0 Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Detroit entered 4-0 with that lineup.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jaime Jaquez Jr. again was first off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Nikola Jovic followed.<\/p>\n
\u2013\u00a0 With Dru Smith and Kasparas Jakucionis then entering together to make it nine deep.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jakucionis\u2019 minutes were ceded to Larsson the previous game.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Then, late in the second quarter, Simone Fontecchio entered for his first rotation action in four games.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Immediately draining a 3-pointer against his former team.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Powell went in stressing that the Heat could not allow the three-game winning streak entering the night impact the team\u2019s process.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cI think a lot of times around the league, when you start winning, you let things slide because you\u2019re getting Ws,\u201d he said at the morning shootaround. \u201cBut in winning, you can still have lessons in ways you can get better. So as long as we continue to focus on how we can continue to improve, that\u2019s the biggest thing, you know, not letting our wins cover up all the mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Heat coach Erik Spoelstra did not necessarily want to hear going in that the previous six games between the teams were decided by single digits.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThey\u2019ve won the last four. I\u2019m assuming that has everybody\u2019s attention, too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It did.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Mitchell stressed going in that sharing the ball has to remain the Heat\u2019s way.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cA lot of teams, you\u2019ve got one player just scoring all the points and all the other guys are kind of just roaming around,\u201d he said. \u201cBut us, I don\u2019t feel like we play like that. We share the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 While always making sure Powell gets his.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra said the goal going in was clear, \u201cThey protect the paint, they protect the rim, first in blocks, so you have to make great rim decisions when you get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra pregame again praised the efforts of J.B. Bickerstaff in elevating the Pistons to the top of the East.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThey\u2019ve built this really in steps. They haven\u2019t skipped any steps along the way. I mean, it was just a couple years ago they had a long losing streak, but you could see they\u2019re building some habits,\u201d he said. \u201cThen last year, J.B. knows how to build a culture, knows how to get a team committed to an identity, and then they build those habits every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 His team having scored 140 in the previous two, Spoelstra reiterated pregame there never was a definitive goal of establishing a record-setting offense in terms of pace and other unique elements.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cI wasn\u2019t really thinking about trying to break records or anything,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were just trying to put together something that makes sense for our team, that brings out the best version in our group and also that would be scalable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra also made clear pace can\u2019t be paramount.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cWe want our fan base to be excited about the style of play,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we also have to do whatever is necessary to win in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 And then, as always, the cautionary from Spoelstra, \u201cIf it\u2019s in the mud or if it\u2019s not going fluidly, you still have to find a way to overcome and get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The game was the Heat\u2019s lone visit of the season.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The game was the first of 17 for the Heat in January, the most for any month this season and tying for the most games during the month of January in franchise history (also 17 in January 2016, 2012 and 2010).<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat are now 8-3 on New Year\u2019s Day over the franchise\u2019s 37 seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 118-112 victory over the Detroit Pistons: \u2013 Put aside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,165,189,3880,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-511472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-miami-heat","11":"tag-miami-heat-blog","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115824702639925217","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}