Takeaways from important Heat win over Pistons, and why ‘in some ways it feels like two wins’

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 113-107 win over the Detroit Pistons (3-10) on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, at AmericanAirlines Arena to snap a three-game losing skid:

Heat digs out of early 19-point hole for much-needed win against league-worst Pistons

With a disappointing 4-7 record through its first 11 games and a four-game trip ahead, the shorthanded Heat (5-7) earned a very important early-season victory on Monday behind Bam Adebayo and an efficient shooting night.

The struggling Pistons, which defeated the Heat by 20 on Saturday, led by as many as 19 points in the first quarter. But the Heat outscored the Pistons 89-71 during the final three quarters to pick up the win, including a 33-19 edge in the third period.

“I was just honest. I told them we were [expletive] around and they were playing harder than us,” Heat veteran guard Goran Dragic said of his message to teammates during a timeout early in the game with the Pistons ahead by double digits. “... Tonight was not pretty, but we won the game and we had to win it.”

Miami’s defense held Detroit to 39 percent shooting during the final three quarters, while the Heat’s offense shot 61.1 percent from the field and 10 of 21 from three-point range during that 36-minute stretch.

For the game, the Heat shot a season-best 57.3 percent from the field.

Adebayo tied a season-high with 28 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 10-of-11 shooting from the foul line, 11 rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block in 35 minutes.

The fourth quarter was Adebayo’s best, as he recorded 13 points and shot 7 of 8 from the foul line in the period. He also had a spectacular block on a Jerami Grant layup attempt with 30.6 seconds to play.

While a 5-7 start is disappointing for the defending Eastern Conference champions, especially with seven of the first 12 games coming at home, it has been hard to judge the Heat because All-Star wing Jimmy Butler has played in just six of the first 12 games. Butler missed his fourth consecutive game Monday because of the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

The shorthanded Heat was also without Avery Bradley (health and safety protocols), Tyler Herro (neck spasms) and Meyers Leonard (left shoulder strain).

“Probably in some ways it feels like two wins because we are persevering through a lot of different things without feeling sorry for ourselves or making excuses,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the victory. “I really commend the way the guys have handled all of this — this entire week — and just coming together, not making those excuses that would be easy to make.”

Next up for the Heat is a challenging four-game trip that begins Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors in Tampa. That trip also includes another game against the Raptors on Friday, before it comes to an end with two straight games against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday and Monday.

It’s not yet known if Butler, Bradley, Herro and/or Leonard will be available for the upcoming trip.

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Another game, another different Heat starting lineup ... and it did not go well. But guard Kendrick Nunn’s performance off the bench was encouraging.

With two starters — Herro and and Butler — out Monday, the Heat used its ninth different starting lineup in the 12th game of the season. That’s tied for the most different starting lineups used by a team so far this season, which is a sign of the lack of roster continuity Miami has experienced early on because of injuries and COVID-19 issues.

Spoelstra inserted Dragic into the starting five, alongside Duncan Robinson, KZ Okpala, Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo.

In Dragic’s first start of the season, he was impressive with 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting in 33 minutes.

But this five-man combination wasn’t impressive, only playing the first 3:23 of the game before Spoelstra subbed in forward Moe Harkless for Okpala with the Pistons already ahead 12-2.

Spoelstra used a different lineup to open the second half.

The Heat’s bench rotation included Harkless, Kendrick Nunn, Andre Iguodala, Precious Achiuwa and Gabe Vincent. Spoelstra turned to his reserves early, as all 10 Heat players who played Monday logged minutes in the first quarter.

Nunn, who started in each of his 67 appearances during the regular season as a rookie last season, provided a spark off the bench Monday. He finished with a season-high 18 points while shooting 8 of 15 from the field and 2 of 4 on threes, five rebounds, three assists and a team-best plus/minus of plus-17.

“K-Nunn got in a great rhythm,” Spoelstra said. “When Goran came out, we were needing somebody to step up and get us into some triggers, generate some offense and K-Nunn got in a real nice flow balancing making plays.”

It represented one of Nunn’s best performances in a while. He entered Monday averaging 5.5 points on 40 percent shooting and 1.7 assists in limited playing time to begin his second NBA season.

The Heat finally found a way to limit its turnovers to an acceptable number Monday, then the fourth quarter happened.

After committing a season-high 23 turnovers that the Pistons scored 27 points on Saturday, the Heat finished Monday’s win with 18 turnovers.

But eight of Miami’s 18 turnovers came in the fourth quarter.

Miami entered Monday averaging the most turnovers in the NBA at 18.3 per game, and also with the league’s highest turnover rate (percentage of plays that end with a team turnover) at 17.7 percent.

Despite 18 turnovers, the Heat posted its second-best single-game offensive rating of the season on Monday with 116.5 points per 100 possessions because of efficient shooting.

The Heat is now 2-5 this season when committing 18 or more turnovers.

Okpala started for the second consecutive game, but he only played four minutes. Harkless played ahead of Okpala for most of the night.

As previously mentioned, Okpala was subbed out for Harkless just 3:23 into the game and he didn’t return to the court until there was 17.7 seconds left in the first half for a defensive possession.

Harkless started the second half in place of Okpala, who did not play in the final two quarters.

Okpala, 21, finished scoreless and committed two fouls in his limited time on the court.

These past two games marked the first two starts of Okpala’s NBA career.

Okpala finished his first start with a career-high 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting on threes, one rebound and one assist in 27 minutes in Saturday’s loss to the Pistons.

Harkless, who had fallen out of the rotation after beginning the season as a starter, recorded three points on 1-of-2 shooting on threes, two rebounds, three assists and two steals in 30 minutes on Monday. It marked the first time Harkless has logged more than 10 minutes in a game since the season opener.

“It was impossible not to notice Moe,” Spoelstra said. “He made us all take notice with his energy, multiple efforts defensively and he’s extremely disruptive, and that ignited that second unit with his energy.”

Monday was just further proof that holding an NBA season during a pandemic is really hard.

The start of Monday’s matchup between the Heat and Pistons, which was originally scheduled to begin at 3 p.m., was moved to 8 p.m because of the league’s health and safety protocols.

Both teams had enough available players to meet the NBA minimum of eight to play a game, but the switch was made to allow for more time for COVID-19 testing to be processed prior to the contest.

“All the tests from today had to be back,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus. I think the 3 o’clock game was a curveball. Look, everybody in the NBA, there’s nobody at fault on this. Everybody is dealing with so much and nobody was prepared to handle this additional workload. It never would have been an issue if it was an 8 o’clock game or 7 o’clock game. It was the 3 o’clock turnaround that had to be adjusted to.”

The NBA has postponed 15 games since the Dec. 22 start of the season because of the health and safety protocols, and 14 postponements have come since Jan. 10.

“In many ways, I’m amazing at players and how much they’ve been able to adapt and just roll with it,” Spoelstra said. “If you said a year ago that these would be the requirements and the protocols that you would have to go through every single day to play this game, you probably would think to yourself there’s not a chance that everybody would be willing to do that. Not only are guys willing to do it, but they’re not complaining about it. They understand it’s extreme circumstances, it’s an extraordinary time.”