The Miami Heat accomplished something Sunday it hasn’t done enough this season: take care of business against an inferior opponent.
But it wasn’t easy.
The Heat bounced back from Saturday’s ugly loss to the Chicago Bulls, escaping with a 112-100 comeback win over the struggling Detroit Pistons on Sunday night at Little Caesars Arena to close the quick trip at 1-1.
The victory sets up another important week for the Heat (39-34), as it fights to avoid the play-in tournament with just nine regular-season games left on its schedule.
The loss dropped the Pistons to a league-worst 16-56 this season. Detroit has dropped 14 of its last 15 games.
Despite the Pistons’ season-long issues, Sunday’s win still required a fourth-quarter comeback from the Heat.
The Pistons dominated the third quarter 34-22 to enter the fourth quarter with a seven-point lead. Miami’s offense went cold in the third period, shooting 6 of 16 (37.5 percent) from the field and 2 of 10 (20 percent) from three-point range.
The Pistons maintained their lead for the first half of the fourth quarter, finding themselves ahead by four points with 5:12 to play.
But the Heat then took control, closing the game on a 20-4 run to turn a late deficit into a double-digit win.
The Pistons’ final made field goal of the night came with 4:20 left in the fourth quarter. Detroit missed its final six shots of the game, with its only two points during this stretch coming on two made free throws from Jaden Ivey.
Jimmy Butler again led the Heat with another very efficient performance, recording 26 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 10-of-11 shooting from the foul line, four rebounds and 10 assists in 35 minutes.
Heat center Bam Adebayo added 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 8-of-9 shooting from the foul line, 10 rebounds, five assists and three blocks in 39 minutes.
Tyler Herro contributed 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field and 3-of-9 shooting on threes, six rebounds and four assists. He totaled 12 points in the fourth quarter.
Center James Wiseman finished with a team-high 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Pistons.
The seventh-place Heat now returns to Miami for an important two-game homestand against the two teams immediately ahead of it in the Eastern Conference standings. It begins Wednesday against the fifth-place New York Knicks at Miami-Dade Arena.
Five takeaways from the Heat’s comeback win over the Pistons on Sunday:
Butler spent the first half of the fourth quarter on the bench for his usual rest and then led the Heat to the win.
Butler came off the bench to re-enter the game with the Heat trailing by one point with 6:34 left in the fourth quarter.
It’s no coincidence that the Heat went on to dominate the rest of the way.
The Heat outscored the Pistons 24-11 over the final 6:34 of the game after Butler re-entered.
Butler scored 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and dished out two assists during this game-deciding stretch to close the game.
Kevin Love looked to be on the way to one of his best performances since joining the Heat last month, but he had to leave the game early after taking a shot to the head.
The veteran forward entered averaging 7.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 21.1 minutes per game in his first 12 games with the Heat.
Love exceeded all of those averages in Sunday’s win, finishing with 12 points, eight rebounds and two assists in 23 minutes.
Those numbers could have been even better, but Love was forced to exit the game with 3:29 left in the third quarter after Pistons center Jalen Duren’s chin hit the the side of Love’s head. Love head and face was covered in blood following the collision.
At first, the play was ruled a foul on Duren for making contact with Love on his shot attempt. But after a review, it was changed to an offensive foul on Butler for pushing Pistons guard Rodney McGruder into Duren to initiate the sequence of events.
Love went back to the locker room after the incident with blood coming from the side of his head. He received four stitches and returned to the Heat’s bench midway through the fourth quarter, but did not return to the game.
With Kyle Lowry back in the mix, Victor Oladipo was again out of the Heat’s rotation.
Oladipo received his second DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season on Sunday, and both healthy scratches have come in the last three games.
The only game Oladipo played in during this span was Saturday’s loss to the Bulls when Lowry was held out of the front end of the back-to-back as part of the team’s maintenance plan for his troublesome left knee.
But with Lowry returning to play against the Pistons on the back end of the back-to-back, Oladipo was again out of the rotation on Sunday.
The Heat again used the starting lineup of Gabe Vincent, Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love and Bam Adebayo in Detroit.
The bench rotation on Sunday included Max Strus, Omer Yurtseven, Caleb Martin, Haywood Highsmith and Lowry.
Lowry closed with seven points, six rebounds and six assists in 25 minutes . He only put up two field-goal attempts, both of them were threes that went in.
With reinforcement arriving from the G League, the Heat nearly had its entire roster available for one of the few times this season.
The Heat has dealt with injury issues throughout the season, entering Sunday with the most missed games in the NBA (270 games) this season due to injury, according to Spotrac’s tracker.
But for Sunday’s game in Detroit, backup center Cody Zeller (broken nose) was the only Heat player unavailable because of an injury. Two-way contract rookie center Orlando Robinson also missed the contest because he’s still with Miami’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
The other 15 players on the Heat’s 17-man roster were available to play against the Pistons.
That includes rookie forwards Nikola Jovic, who was the Heat’s first-round pick last year, and Jamal Cain, who is on a two-way contract with the Heat. Jovic and Cain rejoined the Heat in Detroit after spending time in the G League — Jovic had been with the Skyforce since March 5 and Cain had been with the Skyforce since Tuesday.
Robinson was also expected to rejoin the Heat in Detroit, but he missed his flight and remains with the Skyforce for now. He will instead rejoin the team when the Heat returns to Miami following Sunday’s game.
But the Heat could send Cain, Jovic and/or Robinson back to the G League soon, with the Skyforce fighting for a playoff spot in the final days of the G League regular season. The Skyforce has only two games remaining on its schedule and they are on Friday and Saturday in Sioux Falls, S.D.
“We’re planning on organizing that tomorrow,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Sunday when asked whether Cain, Jovic and Robinson could be sent back to the G League in the coming days to help the Skyforce clinch a playoff spot. “But that’s really important to us. When we talk about the developmental program, it’s also about learning how to win and when you have an opportunity with these final two games to secure a playoff spot, you have to go for it. Those experiences are really important for young players — not just to earn minutes, but to really learn how to impact winning.”
Meanwhile, the struggling Pistons were were without a chunk of their roster against the Heat because of injuries.
Detroit was missing seven players on Sunday: Bojan Bogdanovic (Achilles tendinopathy), Alec Burks (foot soreness), Cade Cunningham (tibia stress fracture), Hamidou Diallo (ankle sprain), R.J. Hampton (back spasms), Isaiah Livers (hip soreness) and Isaiah Stewart (shoulder impingement).
While the Heat still faces an uphill battle to avoid the play-in tournament, Sunday was a productive day for Miami in the playoff race.
With the New York Knicks idle and the Brooklyn Nets losing on Sunday, the seventh-place Heat (39-34) gained ground on both teams to move 3.5 games behind the fifth-place Knicks (42-30) and one game behind the sixth-place Nets (39-32) with only nine regular-season games left to play.
The tiebreaker with the Knicks is still up for grabs, but the Nets have already clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Heat. That means Miami is essentially two games behind Brooklyn in the standings and three games behind Brooklyn in the loss column because the Nets have played fewer games up to this point since the Heat doesn’t hold the tiebreaker edge.
But the Heat will have an opportunity to continue to get closer to both teams this week, with its upcoming two-game homestand including ultra-important matchups on Wednesday against the Knicks and Saturday against the Nets.
The bottom line, though, is the Heat needs to string together a bunch of wins to close the regular season just to avoid the play-in tournament. Even if Brooklyn goes 5-6 over its final 11 regular-season games, the Heat would need to close with a 6-3 record over its final nine games to pass the Nets.
To escape having to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament, the Heat needs to finish as a top-six playoff seed in the East. The seventh through 10th-place teams in each conference participate in the play-in tournament.
