after scoring 35 on Wednesday night<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut as with that loss to the Timberwolves, the support system wasn\u2019t there, with early foul trouble creating a particularly miserable night for Antetokounmpo frontcourt running mate Bam Adebayo, who closed with four points and five rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we can be better. I think we can be a lot better,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cI feel like we just expect that the other teams come in this building and lay down and let us play our game. But it\u2019s not going to be that way. Teams are good. Minnesota is good. Detroit is good.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the second time in as many games, the defense wasn\u2019t there when needed. For the second time in as many games, the 3-point shooting couldn\u2019t keep pace. And for the second time in two games, preseason good will turned into crowd impatience, this time with jeers in the third period as the deficit moved into the 20s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll get there,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cThese are two frustrating games, where we weren\u2019t able to command the game the way we know we\u2019re capable of. And sometimes you just can\u2019t explain it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five Degrees of Heat from Friday night\u2019s game:<\/p>\n
1. Game flow: The Pistons moved to 11-0 and 17-2 leads, with their lead later moving to 17 before the Heat closed the opening period down 41-26.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, the start of the game, they just blitzed us up from three,\u201d Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n
From there, the Heat then went into halftime down 65-53.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwice, we let the other team hit first,\u201d Antetokounmpo said of these opening two games. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to set the tone. We\u2019ve got to figure out a way to set the tone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with Pistons center Jalen Duren sidelined for the night in the second period with a thigh ailment and Ausar Thompson limping off in the third, with the two playing only a combined 19 minutes, the Pistons did not miss a beat at the start of the second half, moving to a 78-57 lead with 9:19 left in the third period, forcing Spoelstra to call time.<\/p>\n
It was 103-80 Pistons entering the fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just need to play better,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cWe need to compete and do things better until we get that first W.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Early trouble: The Heat rotation had to be adjusted early, with Adebayo called for his second foul with 5:50 left in the opening period and forced to the bench in favor of Bobby Portis.<\/p>\n
Spoelstra then gambled by reinserting Adebayo with 2:35 left in the opening period, in order to give Antetokounmpo his first rest.<\/p>\n
The gamble did not pay off, with Adebayo called for his third foul with 1:13 left in that first period, again forced to the bench.<\/p>\n
Adebayo was scoreless with two rebounds in those initial eight first-period minutes, the Heat then opening the second period with Portis at center.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously I can\u2019t have three fouls in the first quarter, which is crazy,\u201d Adebayo said. \u201cIt\u2019s just aggravating when they come to me at halftime and say one or two of them were bad ones. At that point, damage is done.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Almost more: It appeared that Davion Mitchell also would be sidelined early with a second foul, but the Heat challenged that call with 4:38 left in the opening period and won the video ruling, allowing Mitchell to play on.<\/p>\n
At the time, Mitchell was the lone Heat player to make a 3-pointer, draining an early pair. Mitchell closed that first period with a team-high 10 points, with no teammate with more than five.<\/p>\n
Mitchell closed with 18 points and five assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got to figure out how to do a better job of getting them shots,\u201d Mitchell said of running the offense, \u201cand just to get a feel to a game.\u00a0 And we also got to just have a better start.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think both games we got hit in the mouth. So I think we\u2019ve got to do a better job of just keep being aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. Giannis\u2019 night: After going for those 35 points in Wednesday night\u2019s season opener, Antetokounmpo got off to an uneven start, forced by the Pistons into several jumpers.<\/p>\n
The extended minutes as Adebayo sat with foul trouble also took a toll, with Antetokounmpo forced to the bench late in the second period with a third foul of his own.<\/p>\n
After an 11-point, 4-of-11 first half, he came around in the third quarter, with 16 third-period points.<\/p>\n
He closed 15 of 26 from the field, with 12 rebounds and five assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just got to spark it. Somebody has to spark it. That\u2019s all,\u201d Antetokounmpo said of the team needing a jolt. \u201cWe know, we\u2019ve seen it. We know it\u2019s here. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s getting to know one another more now because it\u2019s official games. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s jitter, a little bit nervous, new season. I don\u2019t know what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. The 3 thing: The thought after completing their offseason moves was the Heat reloaded with ample 3-point shooting. Instead, more struggles, after being outscored 63-24 on 3-pointers in the opening loss to the Timberwolves.<\/p>\n
This time, Klay Thompson opened 1 of 7 from beyond the arc, Andrew Wiggins 1 of 6, Pelle Larsson 1 of 4, Tim Hardaway Jr. 1 of 4 and Mitchell 2 of 8.<\/p>\n
On a night the Pistons\u2019 Duncan Robinson and John Collins had five 3-pointers apiece by the midpoint of the third period, that hardly was optimal.<\/p>\n
The Heat closed 15 of 51 on 3-pointers, the Pistons 18 of 38.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe basket went the other way for us,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cIt got smaller and smaller and smaller even when we had open looks. I think the basket got bigger for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Based on how the season opened with Wednesday night\u2019s 25-point home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,296,188,3860,165,189,6,297,66],"class_list":["post-866382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-basketball","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-pistons","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117494529616789199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866382","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=866382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}