For eight glorious minutes, it looked like the Pistons were going to duplicate Saturday’s best win of the season. They scored 32 points in those eight minutes, a symphony of offensive splendor, and led by 19 when Jerami Grant drained a 3-pointer. Miami coach Erik Spoelstra had already been forced to take two timeouts to catch his breath.
Maybe because the Pistons expected the game to be long since over – the scheduled 3 p.m. tipoff became an 8 p.m. tipoff when coronavirus testing issues for the Heat forced a delay – they ran out of steam shortly thereafter. It took them 19 more minutes to match the 32 points they scored in the first eight. They made it interesting, cutting a 12-point deficit early in the fourth quarter to three a few times in the last few minutes, but couldn’t finish off the holiday weekend sweep of the Heat.
Dwane Casey didn’t struggle to figure out where the cracks in the foundation began: 18 turnovers and sloppy transition defense that allowed Miami to turn them into 24 points and second-unit struggles that turned the game for the Heat.
“Usually our second unit comes in and does a great job. For whatever reason, tonight they didn’t come in with the same defensive disposition as the first group had,” Casey said. “You’re going to have nights like that, but they’ve got to be ready to play.”
The stars of the game were Grant – again, the 12th straight game he’s scored 20 or more points for the Pistons, this time leading them not only in scoring (27) but assists (six), too – and Miami’s Bam Adebayo (28 points, 11 boards, five assists and a big blocked shot late on Grant).
But the supblot was the 3-point shootout between Miami’s Duncan Robinson and Pistons veteran Wayne Ellington. Robinson’s transition triples were instrumental in Miami’s first-half comeback and he had perhaps the game’s biggest basket, a triple seconds after Mason Plumlee’s dunk attempt clanged off the rim. Instead of the Pistons pulling within two, they found themselves seven points down with five minutes to play.
“He’s lethal,” Ellington, who once held Robinson’s role with the Heat. “You’ve got to stay with him all night long. You can’t give him any air space and when you do, he makes you play for it. Simple as that. He’s one of the best shooters in the game and it shows. He’s very dangerous.”
Ellington, who didn’t play in five of the first six games, made his fifth start and scored 24 points, 21 on seven 3-pointers (in 11 attempts) and the other three when Miami fouled him while shooting a triple.
“He’s one of the best shooters in the league and tonight he showed it,” Casey said of Ellington. “It just gives us another weapon out there.”
Robinson took all nine of his shots from the 3-point arc, making six of them, to finish with 18 points.
“We have terminology for players that are hot; he’s a hot player once he walks on the floor,” Casey said of the former University of Michigan shooter. “Not only this game, the other game we lost him twice in transition and that was a point of emphasis we didn’t execute. We’ve got to do a better job with that.”
“I think he creates problems just like Wayne creates problems,” Plumlee said. “You have a guy like that on the floor, you have to know where he is. If you don’t, he’s going to make you pay and that’s what great shooters do.”
The Pistons got 21 points from Derrick Rose as his recent surge in play continued after feeling he was rusty early due to the extended time away from the game caused by the March suspension of last season and late start to this one.
“Huge,” Casey said. “Derrick’s played great.”
But he couldn’t drag the rest of the second unit along with him. Only Josh Jackson besides Rose scored in double figures, but the Pistons were outscored by 27 points in Jackson’s 21 minutes. Rookie Isaiah Stewart registered his first career double-double in Saturday’s win but went scoreless with two rebounds in 12 minutes on Monday. Fellow rookie Saddiq Bey played less than four first-half minutes and came out shortly after a tentative pass led to a transition triple for Robinson.
“The first unit did their job, built a 19-point lead. They needed a rest,” Casey said. “The time had come to substitute in. Our second unit, who has done a great job all year, no question – tonight, they didn’t. I’m not even talking about offense. I’m talking about defense – lose guys in transition, not switch properly. A lot of little things we’ve got to learn to do.”