Greg Monroe joins LeBron James and Dwayne Wade in playing like a superstar, Pistons routed by Heat

Maxiell was basically non-existent. Don’t get me wrong. Maxiell has plenty of quality performances. But he’s much more prone to these types of games than Andre Drummond is.

29 MIN | 3-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 8 PTS | -15

Prince handled the ball against Miami’s aggressive defense a bit more than he would if he were playing with a better point guard, but that doesn’t completely excuse his three turnovers. Prince was too sloppy with the ball and didn’t do enough to offset that.

21 MIN | 1-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 1 AST | 3 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 2 PTS | -15

Did not get buckets.

34 MIN | 12-17 FG | 7-8 FT | 12 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 31 PTS | -10

This was an offensive masterpiece for a big man. Post-up, hook, runner, transition, mid-range jumper – Monroe scored every way he’s capable. He had no assists for the first time in 13 games and just the third time this season, but that was A-OK tonight. The Heat’s defense is particularly strong on the wings and Monroe was the Pistons’ best option – by far. At one point, he grabbed a rebound and took the ball all the way in for a goaltended basket. It wasn’t really a transition opportunity, but Monroe keeping the ball himself was Detroit’s best option.

28 MIN | 4-7 FG | 1-3 FT | 0 REB | 5 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 9 PTS | -16

Three turnovers in 28 minutes are only slightly above his season average, but these three were as ugly as they get. Knight is 0-for-7 on 3-pointers in his last two games, but I’d chalk that up to a small sample more than anything else.

4 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -4

Jerebko played! He didn’t do anything, but at least he played, which even in blowouts, has rarely happened lately. If and when he returns to the rotation shouldn’t be determined by his performance in these garbage minutes, and I doubt it will be.

25 MIN | 3-6 FG | 0-2 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 3 STL | 2 BLK | 2 TO | 6 PTS | -13

Drummond stole the ball from Dwyane Wade on back-to-back possessions. He took the first, raced up court and dunked. He was on his way for another fastbreak basket on the second when he was fouled. Just two flat-out awesome plays.

25 MIN | 2-6 FG | 0-2 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 4 PTS | -2

In his last seven games, Stuckey is shooting 20-for-58. He’s in a rut.

The following two sentences are related. The Heat had 12 steals and an offensive rating of 141.7 on the ensuing possessions. The Heat have LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Miami has much better players than Detroit, and there’s nothing Frank can do about that. I won’t pretend this was a well-coached game, but Frank couldn’t have changed much. At least the ball kept going to Monroe.