Game Recap/Notes: Game #26. Pistons 116 - Heat 96. (7-19)
First off, my deepest apologies for my miscue on the opponent scouting. I’m not sure how I missed that the Heat played last night and Butler got hurt but that’s exactly the sort of info you no doubt would hope to learn while reading a preview. My apologies.
A good win. You can argue this is somewhat of a schedule loss given that the Heat played last night and didn’t have Butler today, but the Pistons are missing guys too. I’ve brought it up regularly this season but even in a tanking year it is important to get some wins, getting them against teams that don’t suck is even better. Winning this game is the type of thing that really helps keep morale up in the locker room.
Killian Hayes:
Not an impressive outing for Hayes. He got in a couple of excellent defensive plays early with a block and drawing a charge but he struggled outside of that. Hayes finished with just 6 points on 2-8 shooting (went 2-4 from deep at least!) but did manage 6 assists against 2 turnovers in just 23 minutes of work.
Jaden Ivey:
Same deal as his young back-court mate. Ivey got 10 points on 3-9 shooting (and 3-4 from the line along with 3 assists in 26 minutes. The main disappointment here is that Ivey, for the second straight game, simply didn’t play with the aggression you would hope for. He only got up 9 attempts and 4 of them were from deep. It worked out tonight because Bojan went nuclear and the Heat lost their legs but he really needs to make efforts to force himself into the game more. It should also be noted that while it was a team effort (or lack thereof) that allowed Tyler Herro to score a hyper-efficient 34 points (Herro didn’t miss a single shot until midway in the 3rd quarter) Ivey was particularly cooked when he was matched up. Just about everyone gets some blame here courtesy of switching but it was disheartening to see multiple possessions where Ivey just go beaten so clearly.
BOJAN-MUTHA-FOOKIN-BOGDANOVIC:
The Heat did an excellent job on Bojan in the early parts of the game/the entire first half. They stuck close to him beyond the arc, walled off the paint, and swiped at his drives. Kyle Lowry in particular got at least a couple of steals when Bojan tried to put it on the floor. I don’t know exactly what he had at the end of the half ut it wasn’t much. In the second half though, and especially in the 4th quarter, Bojan awoke with a vengeance. He basically seemed to decide that he didn’t care anymore if the Heat defenders were in his grill anymore so he fired away to the tune of 31 points on 12-16 shooting from the field and 7-9 from deep. The fact that he didn’t take a single free-throw is indicative of how effective the Heat were in keeping him away from the hoop, the 7-9 from deep is indicative of how Bojan simply decided that it didn’t matter.
And to be clear, this was not him hitting some open spot-up threes where the Heat defense was broken down. He just put on a clinic in shot-making over the last 20 or so minutes of game time. He smelled blood in the water when the Heat started to look gas and he went for the throat. Once he got an onslaught going it sapped what energy the Heat still had and pretty much put the game to bed.
Marvin Bagley:
Another starter who had a mediocre night. Only played 19 minutes, 4 points on 2-6 shooting. Generally wasn’t impactful.
Isaiah Stewart:
Solid outing for Stewart. 11 points on 5-9 shooting from the field (missed both his free-throws) along with 11 boards. He had a couple of plays later on in the game where the Heat’s lack of legs really let him go for the kill. Also had two plays where he successfully put it on the ground from outside of the arc, on one he dropped off a nice bounce-pass to Ivey (who unfortunately couldn’t finish the play) and one that ended in a layup. 11 points on 10 shot equivalents is still not very good for how little attention is paid to him, but it’s still something and at least defenses are not completely ignoring him these days.
Kevin Knox:
Still isn’t that good but does continue to at least be serviceable. 7 points on 3-5 shooting (1-3 from deep) in 18 minutes isn’t incredible but it is what the Pistons need to get out of him, he even had a play where he pump-faked beyond the line and successfully hit a contested layup which is not something he manages to do very often.
Saddiq Bey:
14 points on 4-10 shooting from the field (1-3 from deep) and 5-5 from the line. His ability to continue getting to the line regularly is the thing that is keeping him above water. I’m still not sure if that’s something he can keep getting away with, but for now, he is making it a central part of his game. It should also be noted that Bey had a game-high +30 on the night and had a couple of awesome moves to the hoop for buckets in the 4th quarter. He still looks kind of awkward at times in his new 6th-man role, and I’m still not sold that it is a good idea to try and put him in that role, but he did a decent job tonight.
Corey Joseph:
Even on a night when he did well. I don’t want to talk about CoJo.
Jalen Duren:
Only played 18 minutes, and other than one thunderous dunk he didn’t have much impact on the game.
Alec Burks:
Remains an absolute rock for the bench offense. 18 points in 22 minutes is pretty much the definition of a spark-plug scorer, he also snagged 9 rebounds to boot which is always nice. It will be kind of sad to see Burks go when he is traded but he is so obviously a guy that a contender could want that there’s no reason for him to stick around here, even if it sinks the Pistons bench back into the abyss.
General:
Regardless of how much it may be a schedule loss for Miami, we will take whatever we can get. I’d prefer if some of the good performances came from the young guys as well, but whatever. When Bojan is on like that it is simply fun. That fun aspect is also a reason why its valuable to have these games, its good to remind the players that it is fun to play basketball.