Heat breeze past Pistons without Dwyane Wade
DETROIT — The Detroit Pistons had the Miami Heat's full attention Sunday afternoon.
That's what happens when you roll into South Beach and hand the two-defending world champions a home loss like the Pistons did earlier this week. And it's fair to say the Pistons couldn't handle the Heat's glare.
The Heat dusted off the Pistons (10-11) with a strong third quarter, and the Pistons saw their four-game winning streak snapped with a 110-95 loss.
The Heat didn't need Dwyane Wade, getting a maintenance night because of his balky left knee. He missed Tuesday's night's game as well.
But when the Heat (16-5) are interested defensively, they are able to handle the Pistons with relative ease — especially when they are missing three primary ball-handlers (Rodney Stuckey, Will Bynum and Chauncey Billups).
LeBron James scored 24 points, Ray Allen had 18 and Chris Bosh added 16 points and nine rebounds. The Heat hit 11 triples.
Andre Drummond had 19 points and 14 rebounds and Brandon Jennings had 19 points, but also had six turnovers.
The Pistons trailed by six at halftime, but could only muster 29.4% shooting in the third quarter.
Meanwhile the Heat shot 55% and extended its lead to 91-70 at the end of the third quarter.
The Heat tried to bury the Pistons in the opening minutes. Bosh, who was pretty quiet in the Heat loss earlier this week, took the opening defensive rebound for a coast-to-coast dunk.
His steal led to another lay-up and the Heat lead grew to 11 after another Bosh dunk.
But the Pistons fought back when Jennings got going. He scored eight points in the first quarter and his driving lay-up narrowed the deficit to three at 24-21 with 1:40 left in the first.
With all the missing pieces in the backcourt, Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks was forced to use some unorthodox lineups. He deployed a lineup of Jennings, Charlie Villanueva, Jonas Jerebko, Josh Smith and Josh Harrellson late in the first quarter.
The Pistons actually got production from Jerebko and Villanueva, who combined for 12 points in the first half.
They also got good production from rookie point guard Peyton Siva.
But the Pistons couldn't stop the Heat, allowing it to shoot 64.7% in the first half. They were fortunate to trail by only six at 59-53.
Vince Ellis covers the NBA for the Detroit Free Press, a Gannett affiliate.