Pistons vs Miami Heat

Game Breakdown

So sorry for the length of this one!!! There was A LOT from this game but APPRECIATE all of you so much for reading, subscribing and supporting!!!

*SPECIAL SITUATIONS*

• Jump out to 10 - 0 lead, Heat TO, can you keep from letting them immediately get back into the game out of this timeout?

  • Give up straight line drive layup to Jaquez, Harris answers with corner C&S 3PM off Cade drive and kick, Jovic straight line drive layup, Cade TO trying to hit Duren inside posting Jovic, Cade rotation block after DET gives up OREB, leads directly to secondary layup from Ivey

  • Wouldn’t say they kept the same level of control of the game BUT didn’t let Miami immediately make a run back

• Still leading 41 - 31 mid 2nd quarter, have been up to almost 20 at one point but Miami has fought back into it forcing a JB timeout…..how do they respond?

  • Heat press forces a Pistons TO on inbounds pass, followed by Robinson missed 3PA and 3 Heat OREBs, Beasley missed WIDE OPEN 3PA, get a missed layup, Duren dunk and then completely lose Robinson for a 3PM

  • Wasn’t exactly the way you would have liked to see them respond ATO

  • Offense was VERY stagnant during this stretch, Heat gets hot from 3 and ties the game up

• Absolutely careless TO to start the 3rd quarter, that’s the 2ND!!! TO on a length of the court inbounds pass

• Up 1 mid 3rd quarter and have lost some momentum with THJ injury and Heat run

  • Great ZONE SPECIFIC action ATO that gets Harris a bucket in the middle of the zone

  • A really nice SLOB action that gets Fontecchio a backdoor dunk

  • Cade makes a TOUGH 3P and they have pushed the lead back over 5

  • Herro 3PM and TO, not a great action ATO but Cade-Stew PnR chemistry connects for a catch and finish and one

  • Just kind of trade baskets for a few minutes

• AWESOME finish to the 3rd quarter from Ivey

  • Perfectly timed and on target (this has been an issue at times for him) pass to Beasley on designed action, drive and kick to Fontecchio, and then silly split of the defense and HIGH glass finish over Ware

  • Start of the 4th quarter has not been quite as good, responds with a couple mid range makes

• Mid 4th quarter they are missing an opportunity to EXTEND the lead and put the Heat away and instead have allowed them to stay around

  • Missed shots (mostly mid range pull ups) and letting Herro get loose

• 109 - 101 4th Quarter, 3 minutes left….can you close a game?

  • Cade spin move miss, Duren OREB, Harris mid post doubled and TO

  • Duren can’t recover to Bam on an off ball screen for Robinson, 1 FTM (109 - 102)

  • Beasley missed floater, Stew putback dunk (111 - 102)

  • Get a stop but offensive foul on Ivey

  • Herro with a RIDICULOUS off the dribble 3PM from distance (111 - 105)

  • Harris mid range jumper and Herro with ANOTHER off the dribble 3PM (111 - 108)

  • Beasley TO and Herro with a C&S 3PM (111 - 111)

    • I mean, he just went crazy with this stretch, in a zone that is difficult to defend

  • Cade TO in isolation

    • Yes, they gave up those 9 points to Herro but those shots were TOUGH, it was really their offense that let them down by not at least getting a single bucket to pushback

  • Ivey with an AWESOME defensive possession vs Herro (111 - 111)

    • He ALMOST knocked this shot down to win it

• OVERTIME (111 - 111)

  • Beasley begins where he ended regulation, TO

  • Cade with a bad luck TO as Ivey falls down, maybe the pass was way off target as Ivey tried to stop and change direction? (I honestly couldn’t tell)

  • Get a couple Heat misses

  • Cade bad TO dribbling into a crowd in the lane

  • Highsmith short roll finish (111 - 113)

  • Cade with a an and one mid range jumper (114 - 113)

  • Backdoor lob to Bam off a set action, fouled 1 FTm (114 - 116)

    • Use Herro gravity as the screener and Robinson threw the pass

  • Cade fouled, 2 FTM (116 - 116)

  • DUREN WITH ANOTHER ROTATION BLOCK!!!

    • It’s baby steps but he continues to flash these rim protection plays

  • Cade gets a pass deflected, does chase down block but OREB and finish (116 - 118)

    • HE HAS TO LEARN FROM THIS

    • At a certain point he can no longer be okay with continuing to make the same turnovers game after game after game

  • Ivey miss, Robinson miss, Cade to Duren and fouled but 0 FTM

    • Duren was SO GOOD from the FT line last season but just hasn’t been the case this year (Ivey fouls out)

  • Bam 1 FTM (116 - 119)

  • Beasley with ELITE off the ball relocation and 3PM (119 - 119)

    • REALLY nice live dribble bounce by Fontecchio

  • Stew comes over to help and FONTECCHIO!!! With a great rotation and contest of the lob pass to Bam, possession eventually ends in a TO

  • Cade stripped on the drive and Bam wins the jump ball

  • Herro with a tough mid range finish off good, not great, defense from Beasley (119 - 121)

    • Definitely made him work for it

  • WOW, how does Miami screw that up???? I want to give JB credit but it wasn’t THAT creative of an action (121 - 121)

    • Duren screen and then gets a back screen (from Beasley, making up for those TOs) and Miami just had no clue how exactly they wanted to defend it 

  • SPO CALLS A TIMEOUT WITHOUT ANY!!! BEASLEY (not Cade) gets the FTM + one more for good measure (123 - 121)

Pistons

• Cade, Ivey, THJ, Harris, Duren

  • They NEEDED this one (first NBA Cup win for the Pistons after 0-4 last season) because this could have been 3 heart breaking defeats in the final minutes/seconds in the last 5 games

    • They find a way, wasn’t pretty, was a little crazy but they have played 11 of 12 competitive games and find themselves at 5 - 7

    • They are 3 - 2 since that blowout loss to the Knicks with those 2 losses by a combined 3 points

    • I will be FASCINATED to see what they are able to bring on Wednesday night with it being a B2B and the emotional high AND physical toll of this win

  • Personally, I don’t understand the push for a veteran PG on this team….

    • Where do the minutes come for said player? Does that mean Ivey never gets to play with the ball in his hands and run the team? Would you really want the ball in that player's hands as opposed to Cade late in the game? Even if it isn’t always good, don’t you want him learning and growing through those experiences? What player that is available is signing up for that role? AND…..it’s interesting that the majority of the fanbase HATED CoJo but now is essentially asking for that player on the roster

  • Opening action of the game is cleared out side isolation for Harris (turns it over)

    • JB continues to consistently run actions for the veterans in these opening game actions

  • Pistons out to a 6 - 0 start and Miami immediately goes zone…this has caused problems for Detroit in the past

    • Only stay in it for that possession (Harris missed 3PA)

    • Looks like they are switching it up man to zone throughout the quarter

    • Detroit has done a nice job of getting a guy to the middle of the zone and attacking

  • 6:00 1st quarter is just beautiful early offense or secondary transition (your preference to what you call it)

    • Action on a cleared out side, on the wing (what we have seen since preseason), Ivey passes to Harris and looks like he will follow for a handoff but puts his foot in the ground and HARD backdoor cut to get a layup 

    • THJ in the weakside corner so help is super late and hesitant (spacing!!!)

  • They are contesting EVERYTHING right now

    • On the ball, rotations from the weakside and for now, have kept the Heat off the OREBs

    • Of course, they give up some good looks and OREB right after I type this…forces a JB timeout

    • And this isn’t the Rockets….they were tops in the NBA in OREB%, Heat are middle of the pack

  • The Cade-Duren lob chemistry is such a real thing

    • Not just PnR as we see an example in transition as well

  • Hate to immediately go this one but can’t help but wonder who steps into the rotation in the absence of THJ???

    • Nobody in this game

• IVEY on Herro will be a great matchup considering how good of a start to the season he has had

  • Didn’t get to see as many of these possessions as I thought we would

    • Can’t go for a passing lane steal and miss on Herro, he is going to make you pay every time

  • Offensive process has been PERFECT in the 1st quarter

    • Everything has been to the rim and even has a nice drive and finds Fontecchio on a weakside baseline hammer pass

  • 10:30 3rd quarter shows you how DANGEROUS he is going to be if the C&S is real

    • I actually thought he should have shot it but he is patient, let’s Bam closeout and then blows by him and nice scoop finish

  • First bad process attempt of the game for me was quick transition 3PA after Herro make mid 3rd quarter

    • Didn’t love the process of the pull up 3 late in the 4th quarter BUT he knocks it down and follows up with a steal and run out dunk

• DUREN shows some really nice patience and body control on the long kick ahead transition catch and finish

  • Really, REALLY nice defensive possession to start the 2nd quarter

    • Iso vs Bam and then switched onto Rozier and good contest on the 3PA (Cade also has a nice box out on Bam for the DREB)

  • Have mentioned before but LOVE that he has learned the little drop behind him on DHOs

  • Showing 0 signs of that ankle injury, he looks good

  • Another weakside rotation and block….he continues to flash these at least once a game….how consistent can it become?

• HARRIS has the mid range jumper going early

  • He should destroy this zone in the middle

  • He would get catch and mid range jumpers all night at the spot he loves

• CADE continues to provide some highlight level rim protection

  • Has more this season in 12 games than the first 3 years of his career combined

  • Mid post isolations look like they will draw a double team all game which with good ball movement should lead to really good looks on the weakside

  • Has a SICK baseline pass to THJ right before halftime

  • He has 2 points at half and hasn’t made a shot from the field, still rebounding and creating….what do we see in the 2nd half?

    • I LOVE that he is staying aggressive with the 3P jumper

      • The one off the shot fake in the 3rd quarter is a ridiculously difficult shot to get your balance and energy underneath you

    • Continues to miss shots at the rim that he simply HAS to make

      • There is one where he plays through the contact and finishes

    • He has responded in the 3rd quarter the EXACT way you would want to see from him

• STEW contest of that lob to Ware on the play that was successfully challenged by JB is really impressive 

  • They do get him on one end of the 3rd quarter after he had contested another one a few possessions before

  • I love it, you can see the OREB right before half him just keep swatting at it with 1 hand until he can get into position to grab it with 2

  • Duren has been fine BUT Stew is actually a better defensive option against this particular team because of his ability to step out (or switch, if necessary) when Herro and Robinson are coming off DHOs and screens

    • I know Stew is a better defender always but even more so in this particular matchup and what the big needs to be able to do

• THJ CONTINUES to sacrifice his body

  • I know he didn’t get either of them but trying to take two charges on one possession is ultimate commitment and unfortunately, it takes it’s toll

  • It looked like he hit his head very hard, very scary!….obviously, hope he is okay and thoughts up for a quick recovery!

• FONTECCHIO has made a few shots but man, he has been shaky with the ball

  • He does play extremely hard, just has to find his groove offensively

  • And how about him getting the pay off from that hard work by making his next 2 3PAs

Heat

• Rozier, Herro, Highsmith, Love, Bam

  • Their first 2 attempts of the game are contested C&S 3PAs from Love

  • We see the zone from them EARLY in the game

    • They will also press into the zone, slowing down opponent and limiting shot clock as they fall back into the zone

    • Consistently alternate between man and zone

  • Generating a ton of 2nd chance opportunities in the 2nd quarter

  • Herro and Robinson shooting gravity off movement puts a lot of pressure on your defense

• JOVIC coming off the bench for them after starting the season in the starting lineup

• HERRO is really, really good offensively

  • Shooting metrics are ridiculous right now and he is averaging 5.0 APG

  • He really can drive offense at times and shows off some nice passing reads

    • Ridiculous baseline hammer pass to Highsmith through traffic

  • Has made some insanely difficult ones off the bounce

  • HE HAS BEEN UNREAL OFFENSIVELY, ALMOST SINGLE HANDEDLY KEEPING THEM IN THE GAME

• WARE steps out and knocks down a C&S 3P

  • 2nd make of his young career, hasn’t been playing a whole lot after a nice preseason

  • He has real lob potential with how high you can throw it to him and let him go finish

• JAQUEZ is so crafty and is just really, really good playing the angles off the backboard

  • Love the offensive game, defensive end isn’t quite as impactful

• BAM hasn’t really gotten involved in the offense through the 1st quarter

  • They run an isolation for him to start the 2nd quarter but Duren defends it well

  • Seems like he missed quite a few shots in the lane he should make

    • Shooting awful from 3-10 feet on the season so far

• HIGHSMITH jumper does NOT look fluid or smooth at all

  • He does a lot of really nice things BUT if they end up in the playoffs he is going to be a guy that teams dare to shoot

    • Example, really nice block from behind on Harris mid range jumper vs the middle of the zone

• ROZIER has pretty much been a non factor in this game