HEAT 105, Pistons 89 Recap

MIAMI, October 5 -- This was it. After a summer of speculation and a training camp on the panhandle, Dwyane Wade’s “It’s all happening” moment finally came.

“My moment came at like 5 o’clock when all three of us came in to warm up and we were on the court together,” Wade said. “It was just us three. Me and LeBron were doing guard stuff and Chris was doing his thing, and I look and I was just like, ‘Wow, these are my teammates.’

“It feels great.”

And even though Wade was only on the court for a little more than three minutes – leaving with a strained right hamstring – the end result, a 16-point win over the Detroit Pistons, was as close to great as the early preseason allows.

The disclaimers first. Whatever may have transpired Tuesday, it was always going to be a preseason game in early October. Neither team would be operating with a complete playbook, nor would the results mean much outside of what coaches wanted to pick apart for film.

Still, in dispatching the Pistons, 105-89, the Miami HEAT hardly looked anything like a team playing its first game together, ever. They didn’t appear, as a unit, playoff vetted, either, and the defensive rotations weren’t razor sharp, but the team play was there to a high degree.

“We had a few looks that we will clean up, but from an overall standpoint of defense and intensity, we passed the test,” LeBron James said.

Twenty-three assists on 42 made field goals is a good start, as the ball was moving, finding its target often enough to keep the HEAT to 12 turnovers. There was the occasional overpass, but that’s always a good problem to have.

The unavoidable, and unfortunate, storyline is Wade’s exit from the game with a strained right hamstring, but with three weeks to go until the regular season opener, nobody appears overly concerned.

In Wade’s absence, though, James and Chris Bosh put on a show. They only played 53 combined minutes, but each shot over 50 percent from the field, with James adding highlight material – including a full-court drive, spin and dunk that drew a moment of shock from the crowd – and Bosh doing the dirty work on the glass with some put-backs before taking over from mid-range in the third.

“I’ve just been trying to find my way in this offense,” Bosh said. “They kept finding me in the same spots, and we were moving the ball pretty well. It was nothing really special that we ran, it was just in the flow of our regular offense, and I got some open looks.

“It was really nice to get some open looks,” he added, laughing. “I have to capitalize.”

The rest of the game belonged to the supporting players, who were a main reason why the team kept to a slow, 89-possession pace (ironically the exact pace the HEAT played at the previous season).

Mario Chalmers hit a pair of threes (of four attempts) while dishing out seven assists, and Udonis Haslem (tied with James Jones for the best raw +/- of the night at +17) put up a 14 points and 13 rebounds. Mike Miller was effective as a playmaker, with four assists in less than 20 minutes, and made the Pistons pay for playing too far up on him on the perimeter with drive-and-kicks. And Dexter Pittman showed his strength in the post, finishing strong and boxing out more effectively than his two rebounds may suggest.

As for what the game, itself, suggests? That training camp went very well, mostly, and this team is not going to get in its own way. Wade’s injury is a setback, but with the team clearly striding in the right direction, the momentum continues.

“We don’t want to be in that situation a lot, when one of our guys go down,” James said. “But we know over the course of the season it’s going to happen, and guys have to step up.”