How Heat defense turned into its best offense vs. Pistons to end four-game skid, and more takeaways

It wasn’t always pretty, but the Miami Heat got exactly what it needed.

With one month left in the regular season and still fighting to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament, the Heat snapped a four-game skid by opening an important four-game trip with a 108-95 victory over the struggling Detroit Pistons on Friday night at Little Caesars Arena.

“It’s a welcomed reminder you just don’t take anything for granted,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following the win. “It feels earned and you just realize how tough it is to win in this league. Collectively, we were able to come together and get the job done tonight. It doesn’t matter how, who, when or what. It’s just a matter of getting the game and we were able to do that.”

The Pistons, which entered with the NBA’s second-worst record, kept it close throughout the first half and even led by five points late in the first quarter. But the Heat managed to enter halftime with a narrow 56-54 lead despite shooting just 3 of 16 (18.8 percent) from three-point range in the first half.

The Heat finally took control of the game with a big third quarter, which included a 13-0 run to push its lead up to 18 points. Duncan Robinson hit three straight threes for the Heat during that spurt.

The Heat ended up outscoring the Pistons 28-18 in the third quarter to enter the final period with a 12-point lead.

The Heat continued to add to its lead in the fourth quarter, pulling ahead by as many as 21 points in the period on its way to the double-digit win.

Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo led the way on both ends of the court, closing the win with 22 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and three blocks.

Adebayo’s Heat co-star Jimmy Butler was relatively quiet, finishing with 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field, four rebounds, three assists and two steals.

The Heat won despite shooting just 7 of 34 (20.6 percent) from three-point range in part because it outscored the Pistons 64-38 from inside the paint. It marked the Heat’s first win when shooting worse than 21 percent from three-point range on 30-plus attempts since Butler joined the team in the 2019 offseason, as it previously was 0-9 in such games during that span (including the playoffs) before Friday’s victory.

Simone Fontecchio scored a game-high 24 points on 5-of-8 shooting from behind the arc for the Pistons.

With Friday’s win, the Heat moved up one spot in the Eastern Conference standings to jump from eighth to seventh place. The idle Philadelphia 76ers now sit behind the Heat despite holding the same 36-30 record because the Heat currently holds the head-to-head tiebreaker after winning the first two games of the regular-season series.

“We had a conversation earlier,” Robinson said. “Every game is like a playoff game. The sense of urgency has got to be at an all-time high coming down the stretch here just finding a way to win games.”

The Heat now remains in Detroit for another game against the Pistons on Sunday afternoon before traveling to face the 76ers in Philadelphia on Monday.

“I thought there was a professionalism to the approach tonight,” Spoelstra said. “Now we have to gear up and rest up, heal up and get ready for the matinee game.”

Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Pistons on Friday:

The Heat’s defense is at its best when it’s forcing turnovers, and it forced the Pistons into a lot of them.

The Heat was able to overcome an inefficient three-point shooting performance by scoring 33 points on 18 Pistons turnovers on Friday.

The 33 points totaled off of the Pistons’ mistakes tie for the second-most points the Heat has scored off of turnovers in a game this season.

As a team, the Heat recorded 14 steals in Friday’s win. That tied a season-high.

Robinson, who scored 16 points, recorded a team-high three steals for the Heat. And Butler, Adebayo, Caleb Martin and Patty Mills each finished with two steals.

“Even though it was back and forth for most of the first half, the activity level was set from the beginning,” Spoelstra said. “Terry [Rozier] was terrific with his activity, Caleb was outstanding, Bam was really good defensively and then everybody just joined the party from there. The deflections, steals, disruption, the activity plays, that looked a lot more like us.”

The Heat improved to 11-2 this season when scoring more than 20 points off its opponent’s turnovers.

“We’re at our best when we’re active, we’re disruptive, we’re making our presence felt, we’re up and into offensive teams, we’re making them feel us,” Spoelstra said.

Adebayo hasn’t made many threes during his NBA career, but the Heat’s All-Star center has made one in each of the last two games.

Before this two-game stretch, Adebayo was just 1 of 14 (7.1 percent) from three-point range this season.

But Adebayo sank one from the top of the arc when Nuggets center Nikola Jokic sagged off of him on Wednesday.

And Adebayo hit another one on Friday. Jaime Jaquez Jr. flipped the ball to Adebayo and Adebayo quickly put up another above-the-break three-pointer as part of his 16-point second quarter, which tied for the fourth-highest scoring quarter of Adebayo’s NBA career.

“At this point, it’s about just shooting it, letting it ride,” Adebayo said after making a three-pointer for the second straight game on Friday.

With those two makes in the last two games, Adebayo is now 3 of 16 (13.3 percent) on threes this season.

The three three-point makes match Adebayo’s career-high for a season, as he also hit three threes during the 2018-19 season.

The 16 three-point attempts are a new career-high for Adebayo, surpassing his previous career-high of 15 set during the 2018-19 season.

During Adebayo’s seven NBA seasons, he has shot 11 of 78 (14.1 percent) from three-point range.

The Heat’s most used starting lineup this season opened another game together.

With usual starter Tyler Herro missing his 10th straight game because of a foot injury, the Heat used the same starting lineup for the ninth consecutive game on Friday.

The Heat opened the game with a starting lineup of Rozier, Robinson, Butler, Nikola Jovic and Adebayo.

This is the only Heat lineup that has logged more than 100 minutes together this season and they’ve also opened more games together than any other Heat starting group this season.

But just because this lineup has been used the most doesn’t mean it has produced positive minutes. In fact, the Rozier-Robinson-Butler-Jovic-Adebayo combination entered Friday as a negative, with opponents outscoring this group by 6.7 points per 100 possessions in 102 minutes together this season.

The results were positive on Friday, though, as this lineup began the game by building a 16-13 lead before the Heat turned to its bench.

The Heat’s starting lineup then outscored the Pistons 12-11 to begin the third quarter before the first substitution was made.

This unit ended up outscoring the Pistons by four points in 13 minutes together on Friday.

Jovic, who started his 12th straight appearance, finished Friday’s win with seven points and five rebounds. Foul trouble helped to limit him to just 15 minutes.

Rozier contributed 18 points on 5-of-15 shooting from the field and 8-of-11 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block.

Along with missing Herro, the Heat was also without Kevin Love (bruised right heel), Josh Richardson (right shoulder surgery) and Alondes Williams (G League) against the Pistons.

With Love missing his eighth straight game because of the heel injury, Thomas Bryant turned in quality minutes as the backup center on Friday.

The Heat has rotated through different backup center options in Love’s absence, playing Orlando Robinson, Jovic and Bryant at that spot.

Bryant got those minutes against the Pistons, contributing 11 points and five rebounds in 17 minutes. With the Heat ahead by double digits and Bryant scoring 11 points during the fourth quarter, Adebayo was able to sit out the entire final period.

“Well-needed rest,” Adebayo said of getting Friday’s fourth quarter off. “Just felt good to communicate, watching my guys hold the lead and I got to sit on the bench today.”

The Heat went with a primary bench rotation of Jaquez, Martin, Mills and Bryant.

Martin was a force off Miami’s bench on Friday, finishing with 18 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals.

Haywood Highsmith and Jamal Cain entered the game for the first time in the final minutes with the Heat already in control. The only available Heat players who did not play on Friday were Delon Wright, Cole Swider and Orlando Robinson.

Next up for the Heat: Another matchup against the Pistons in Detroit.

Following Friday’s win, the Heat remains in Detroit to take on the Pistons at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday afternoon. It marks the fifth of six times this season that the Heat will play the same opponent in consecutive games — three coming at home, two happening on the road and one split between home and away.

The Heat has only swept one of those series so far this season, winning back-to-back games against the Hornets in Charlotte on Dec. 11 and 13. The Heat can do it for the second time this season with another road victory over the Pistons on Sunday.

“We were clicking tonight,” Adebayo said. “Shots were falling, we were making plays on the defensive end. It’s one game. We have to play them again Sunday. So I feel like they’ll be more prepared then.”

The Heat’s final set of consecutive games against the same opponent this regular season comes when it faces the Toronto Raptors in Miami on April 12 and April 14. Those are also the Heat’s final two regular-season games.