After losing their last four games, the Miami Heat beat the Detroit Pistons 108–95 on Friday night. Bam Adebayo scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds in 29 minutes.
Adebayo made 10 of 14 shots from the field before taking a break in the fourth quarter. Miami easily won to seal the win. Porter Rozier and Caleb Martin both scored 18 points.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, “Bam was going to make this game his own, and he did it on both ends of the court.” Leaders do things like that. They step up when things get tough during the season, and you just have to follow them.
It had been since the 2021–22 season that the Pistons had a three-game winning streak. However, they made 18 mistakes that let Miami score 33 points.
Pistons coach Monty Williams said, “That’s a big part of the game because giving up that many points is hard to deal with.” “We were disorganized on offense during some really tough possessions.” That led to some mistakes. Fontecchio scored 24 points, and Duren scored 15 points and grabbed 17 boards.
With Fontecchio in the starting lineup instead of Ausar Thompson (who was sick), “it’s easy for me to play with this group,” Thompson said. “They make things easier for me, especially when I play with Cade Cunningham.”
Even though his knee hurt, Cunningham played for 31 minutes and had 11 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists.
They play again on Sunday in Detroit in the afternoon.
At halftime, Miami was ahead 56–54, but in the first two minutes of the third quarter, Miami beat Detroit 8–2. The Heat scored 24 points in the game, with 4 of those points coming from Detroit’s mistakes.
This is very hard to do when you give up 33 points off of mistakes and don’t make many shots, Fontecchio said.
In the first two and a half-quarters, the Heat had a hard time making 3-pointers. They missed 17 of their first 20 shots, but Duncan Robinson made three straight to give the Heat an 83-65 lead with 2:14 left in the quarter.
Spoelstra said, “He’s as flame-like as anyone in the league.” It was one of the tougher shots he’s taken in the last few games. The first one was at the clock.
“That could turn into an avalanche if he hits one of those.”
They were ahead 84–72 going into the fourth, and the Pistons never got Adebayo back into the game. Thomas Bryant, who steps in for Adebayo, scored 11 points in the quarter.
In the first half, Adebayo and Fontecchio both scored 16 points, and Duren had 11 points and 10 boards.
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