Heat struggle with the kid stuff, escape Pistons 103-102 in season-opening victory
MIAMI — The Miami Heat got the kid stuff out of the way with Wednesday night’s season-opening 103-102 victory over the Detroit Pistons at Kaseya Center,
Barely.
Against an opponent that started three 22-year-olds, one 20-year-old and one 19-year-old, the Heat schooled the Pistons just enough on a night Tyler Herro was off early, Kyle Lowry was passive to the point of attempting only a single shot and Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo did as needed.
With the Heat’s starters with a combined 54 seasons of NBA experience to the Pistons’ nine, this wasn’t like what now will follow on a three-game trip that opens Friday against the Boston Celtics and concludes Monday against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Ultimately, it came down to survival, with Detroit’s Cade Cunningham off with a potential winning 3-point attempt just before the final buzzer.
For the Heat, it started as it played out almost all of the 2022-23 regular season, with another clutch game decided in the closing ticks.
“If you still guarantee we’ll get a win,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, “I’ll still take that 10 times out of 10.”
The Heat found enough offense behind 22 points from Adebayo, 19 from Butler, 16 from Herro, 15 from Duncan Robinson and 13 from Kevin Love to survive a 27-9 Detroit closing run.
From Adebayo, it was an aggressive bent, including 8 of 10 from the line, eight rebounds and two blocked shots.
“Being aggressive,” Adebayo said, “was the number-one thing that I wanted to work on.”
From Herro, it was maintaining confidence after nothing but clanking.
And from Robinson and Love there were the 3-pointers needed in the wake of the offseason free agency losses of Max Strus and Gabe Vincent.
Factor in energy provided by newcomer Thomas Bryant and first-round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. and the Heat got just enough to offset 30 points from Cunningham.
“I loved the emotion tonight,” Spoelstra said, “just the energy.”
Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday night’s game:
1. Closing time: The Heat trailed 29-26 at the end of the opening period, then led 58-47 at halftime. After taking a 15-point lead in the third period, they then went into the fourth quarter up 83-75.
From there, with Butler and Adebayo on the bench, Herro and the Heat’s second unit pushed the advantage up to 88-75, leading to a Pistons timeout 1:27 into the fourth quarter. A jumper by Jaquez and a 3-pointer by Caleb Martin followed, and suddenly, with most of the starters on the bench, it was 94-75 Heat, leading to another timeout by Pistons coach Monty Williams.
But from there, even with Butler and Adebayo returning, Detroit moved within 94-89 with 6:25 to play and then 97-93 with 4:25 left.
And then, after a pair of Heat turnovers and a Cunningham 3-pointer with 1:44 to play, the Heat’s lead was down to 103-102.
Lowry then attempted and missed his first shot of the night, with 1:24 to play, on what looked as much like a pass.
A pair of failed possessions followed for each team, leading to a Pistons timeout with 2.5 seconds to play, down one.
That’s when Butler set up defensively to help create Cunningham’s wayward game-ending attempt.
“That’s how we like to play,” Butler said of sweating to the finish, “We’ve played close games every year since I’ve been here.
“We’re undefeated.”
But not without sweating it out.
“At the end of the day,” Adebayo said, “a win’s a win, but we do want to correct what went wrong.”
2. For starters: As had been hinted by his preseason lineups, Spoelstra opened with Adebayo, Love, Butler, Herro and Lowry.
At various points during the offseason, three of those spots had been in question, with Herro linked to numerous trade rumors, Lowry having played off the bench in last season’s playoffs, and Love in and out of the lineup during the postseason.
Spoelstra’s rotations were somewhat compromised, with Josh Richardson out with a foot injury and Haywood Highsmith a knee issue.
Preseason standout Cole Swider was inactive, with the Heat limited on the number of games they can have such two-way players active. That had 14 players, instead of the maximum, 15 active against the Pistons.
In addition to the starters, also in Wednesday’s Heat rotation were Robinson, Bryant, Jaquez, Caleb Martin and Dru Smith.
Out of the mix were Nikola Jovic, Jamal Cain, R.J. Hampton and Orlando Robinson.
3. Strong, spry: After sitting out the entire preseason, Butler came out strong and spry, with seven points before the game’s first timeout and a pair of early steals. He was up to 11 points at halftime. He had his double-double by the midpoint of the third period, closing with 13 rebounds.
It was Butler’s first game action since the June 12 Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Denver.
Butler opened matched up against Pistons rookie forward Ausar Thompson, who is three seasons removed from playing at Pine Crest in Fort Lauderdale.
Thompson made an early statement with a pair of blocked shots against Butler, ending the first period with three, also up to seven rebounds by halftime.
But, at the finish, it was Butler seizing moments when moments needed to be seized.
Thompson finished with four points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots.
4. Rotation alteration: Spoelstra cycled through his rotation in order to feature Herro as quarterback and focus of the second unit., when Lowry, Butler and Adebayo were out.
It played out with mixed results, with Herro closing the first period 1 of 9 from the field and the first half at 3 of 12.
Herro opened the second period alongside Bryant, Martin, Robinson and Jaquez.
With Smith following to make it 10 deep, and keep the wear down on Lowry.
“The second unit,” Spoelstrs said, “can feel great about how they played.”
After opening 2 of 11, Herro then made four of his next six shots.
Herro said there was comfort with the reserves.
“It’s a good unit,” he said. “I’m excited to be a part of that.”
5. Halfcourt uncertainty: At one stage of the second period the Heat were outscoring the Pistons 19-0 off turnovers and only up three.
On one hand, it showed the Heat remain pesky on the defensive end.
On the other hand, it showed the lack of shot creation on the halfcourt offense when Herro goes cold.
That, of course, was the primary reason for the offseason interest in Damian Lillard, as well as questions about the Heat’s lack of pursuit of Bradley Beal.
The Heat were limited to 45 second-half points, including 20 in the fourth quarter.