Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Heat strengthens playoff position
Win gives Miami four game lead for 8 seed
MIAMI — It didn’t matter how. Only that the Miami Heat did.
So on a night when an 18-point lead almost disappeared, what ultimately mattered most was finding a way to close out Saturday night’s 105-96 victory over the Detroit Pistons at AmericanAirlines.
A victory that put the Heat four games clear, with 19 games to play, of the Pistons for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference and now within a half-game of the No. 7 Milwaukee Bucks, having already clinched that tiebreaker.
The tiebreaker with the Pistons remains to be decided, with the season series concluding at 2-2. But a loss could have created a far less comfortable standings placement.
And the Heat did it even with the Pistons featuring the game’s two best players, Blake Griffin closing with 31 points and Andre Drummond adding 22 points and 18 rebounds.
But a team that stressed ensemble play got enough of that on a night coach Erik Spoelstra rolled out his 20th starting lineup of the season, with center Hassan Whiteside closing with 19 rebounds and just about everyone in the rotation contributing.
The Heat opened with their 20th lineup of the season, removing Justise Winslow and Kelly Olynyk in favor of James
Johnson and Luke Babbitt.
The move with Olynyk was announced at the morning shootaround, with coach Erik Spoelstra saying additional depth was needed at center with Bam Adebayo missing the game for personal reasons.
With James Johnson starting, Winslow was moved to the second unit to provide secondary ballhandling.
The Heat remained with Whiteside opening at center, Josh Richardson at shooting guard and Goran Dragic at point guard.
The rotation got further muddled with Whiteside forced out with his second foul 2:39 into the game, leading to Olynyk’s first action.
Spoelstra followed with Rodney McGruder as his second reserve, followed by Winslow and then Dwyane Wade with 3:30 left in the opening period. Later, Udonis Haslem entered to play the final seconds of the second quarter.
The Heat remained, for a third consecutive game, without guard Tyler Johnson and Wayne Ellington, with both out with bruised left quadriceps.
With Griffin unable to get back into the game without a stoppage, the Heat got 3-pointers midway through the fourth quarter from McGruder and Olynyk to move to a 94-83 lead with 6:46 to play, nursing the lead home from there, as the Pistons wilted on the second night of a back-to-back set.
The Pistons then began fouling Wade late, with Wade falling to 5 of 9 from the line, with the Heat holding on from there, even with a few shaky moments at the line from James Johnson, who missed four in a row.
The Pistons trimmed their deficit to two in the third quarter before going into the fourth down 74-70.
The Heat continued to lack an answer against Griffin and Drummond at that stage, with Griffin with 29 points going into the fourth and Drummond with 14 points and 17 rebounds.
The Heat built an 18-point lead in the second quarter off an 11-0 start to the period. But even with a 9-0 run later over the 12 minutes, the lead was down to 59-46 at the intermission.
Detroit trimmed their deficit with a five-point possession late in the second period after a flagrant foul on Winslow.
Griffin was up to 20 points by that stage, with Drummond with 10 points and 12 rebounds by the intermission.
The game opened with a pair of wild swings, with Detroit jumping to a 14-5 lead, only to see the Heat then outscore them 19-4. The Pistons righted themselves in time to go into the second period up 28-27.
Griffin led the Pistons with 13 first-quarter points.
The game concluded the four-game season series.
The Heat lost the first meeting 112-103 Nov. 12 in Detroit at the end of a sixgame trip, then beat the Pistons 111-104 Jan. 3 at AmericanAirlines Arena, before most recently losing 111-107 Feb. 3 in Detroit.
The Pistons were seeking to win the season series for the first time since going 3-1 against the Heat in 2013-14.
The Heat entered having won three of their previous four home games against the Pistons.
The game was the fourth on a five-game homestand for the Heat, which concludes Monday against the Phoenix Suns.
The game completed a back-to-back set for the Pistons, who were coming off a Friday overtime loss in Orlando. It was the second game of a three-game trip for Detroit, which concludes with a Monday game in Cleveland.
The Pistons were without Reggie Jackson (ankle) and Jon Leuer (ankle).