Winderman’s view: Heightened Heat home hope after pummeling Pistons
· Yahoo Sports
MIAMI – Observations and other notes of interest from Sunday night’s 121-110 victory over the Detroit Pistons:
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– Heading into the All-Star break, the concern was home for Heat didn’t mean heightened hope.
– That’s when the Heat not only lost three of their four home games before the break, but lost them to the likes of the Bulls, Hawks and Jazz.
– The concern was the current ongoing stretch of home games might not necessarily be optimized.
– Now?
– Concerns allayed.
– A five-game home winning streak,
– A 21-11 home record.
– Sunday’s game opened a four-game homestand, with matchups to follow every other day against the Wizards, Bucks and Magic.
– “We’ve known for all season long how important it is to establish a home spirit and a feeling,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You don’t want this to be a place where people want to arrive. And I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that.”
– He added, “But more importantly, it’s just the opportunities as competitors. These games have a little bit more context to them. And that’s what you have to love about this time of year.”
– Of the Heat’s remaining many of the toughest perceived challenges will come at home, including games against the Lakers, Spurs and Celtics.
– As well as key seeding games against the Magic, 76ers and Hawks.
– Nothing would mean more for the Heat than a constant chorus of Pepas
– With Norman Powell (groin) and Andrew Wiggins (toe) still out, the Heat for a second consecutive game opened with Bam Adebayo, Pelle Larsson, Myron Gardner, Davion Mitchell and Tyler Herro.
– It was Gardner’s sixth start, with the Heat entering 3-2 when he starts.
– The Pistons opened with a lineup of Tobias Harris, Duncan Robinson, Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Marcus Sasser.
– Gardner was called for two early fouls, with Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kel’el Ware then entering together first off the Heat bench.
– Kasparas Jakucionis then entered, as Adebayo returned to play alongside Ware.
– Dru Smith followed, for nine deep.
– It was the 100th regular-season appearance for Smith.
– With his first steal, Herro moved past Keith Askins for 19th place on the Heat all-time list.
– Mitchell’s third assist gave him a single-season high for his career.
– While Wiggins still is limited by knee tendinitis, the formal reason for his second consecutive absence was an inflamed left big toe.
– “We’ll just treat it,” Spoelstra said. “Every injury is different, so he’s dealing with both things right now that we think we can clear up in the short term. And we’ll just see. He’s getting a lot of treatment, so that’s definitely helping and he’s making some progress.”
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– As for Powell entering his second week of being out with a strained right groin, Spoelstra said, “I think he’s been able to do a little bit more. He’s definitely been able to do more, So, again, I think we shut him down at a responsible time to be able to try to fast track this. But I don’t have an update on his timeline. But he definitely is doing more.”
– Going in, there was ample credit to the Pistons from their rise from just two years ago being in the ashes.
– “It’s a credit to the coaching staff there,” Spoelstra said. “They built a culture very quickly. And the young players that they’ve had that were around two years ago have really used that as fuel and motivation.”
– Spoelstra added, “But it’s hard to win in this league in general. It’s even more of a challenge to win when you have a lot of young players. But I think Cunningham and Duren are wired a little bit differently than most young players. And they defend.They’re always going to have a chance in games the way they defend.”
– The Pistons entered on their first three-game losing streak of the season.
– “The best part of this group is we continue to grow, we continue to learn, and it’s all part of the process for us,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
– He added, “We still feel like we haven’t reached our ceiling yet.”