Heat fall to Pistons
Six-game road trip ends with 112-103 loss.
DETROIT — When the 3-point shots were falling, the Miami Heat looked like a team about to conclude a long road trip with a victory.
Once they stopped, there went the chances of ending the stretch on a positive.
The Heat fell, 112-103, to the Detroit Pistons on Sunday at Little Caesars Arena, ending their sixgame road trip with a 3-3 record. They shot just 13 of 37 from the 3-point line.
“In the first half, [the 3-point shots] were much more to our liking, inside-out, extra ball movement good to great,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “The second half, [Detroit] really stepped up and flattened us out, made those threes tougher at the end of the clock, without any kind of dribble penetration, paint penetration, [or] attack penetration. So we were caught with some tough ones and we’ll just have to get better with the details, get better with the execution, better at the screening, better poised.”
Center Hassan Whiteside led the Heat with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Guard Goran Dragic had 18 points and seven assists while Dion
Waiters finished with 16 points and five assists.
Pistons forward Tobias Harris led all scorers with 25 points and guard Avery Bradley added 24. Detroit was 14 of 28 from the 3-point line. The Pistons (10-3) are off to their best start since the 2005-06 season when they lost to the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.
“It was just a little bit too up and down, and they were able to really capitalize in some numbers situations, to open threes and they went on a roll on those,” Spoelstra said. “Seems like every time we were in any kind of numbers disadvantage, they also capitalized on those 3s and made us pay for them.”
The Heat were in position to close the trip strong when a layup by Whiteside put them ahead 73-62 with 7:03 remaining in the third quarter. It was the most dominant stretch for Whiteside, who scored 11 points in the quarter. He recorded his fifth doubledouble and fourth 20-point game this season.
“Guys were just finding me,” Whiteside said. “I talked to the guys, I was like, ‘let’s keep it simple.’ Dion’s getting in the paint, nobody can stop him from getting into the paint. He got in there, he made the right plays, he made my job easy.’ ”
With the Whiteside outburst came the Heat’s inability to execute in other offensive areas. After making 11 from behind the arc in the first half, they finished just 2 of 14 the remainder.
“The first half we kind of exploded,” Dragic said. “The ball was moving well and we had a lot of open threes. In the second half, the ball didn’t move. It was taking a little bit and that’s why we couldn’t get those open threes we had. But still the priority is the defense.”
Detroit took advantage of the Heat’s inept offense. The Pistons grabbed their first second-half lead on center Andre Drummond’s layup that made it 79-78 and never trailed again. A pair of free throws by James Johnson pulled the Heat to within 93-92 with 7:55 remaining, but the Pistons responded with a 10-point run to put things away.
“They changed a lot,” Dragic said. “The second unit came in and elevated the tempo. They really played up-tempo with Ish Smith and it kind of hurt us a little bit. They got some open transition threes that we didn’t contest and they made those shots and made that little run. In the end, it wasn’t enough for us.”