Detroit Pistons fall to Heat at home, will play Cavs in first round
By Ricky LaBlue
With the loss and a Pacers win, the Pistons have clinched the eighth seed for the playoffs.
64. 99. 110. Final. 93
This game was close all the way. Neither team pulled away from one another until the midway through the fourth, as Miami made enough buckets down the stretch. Dragic in particular made some big shots in the fourth, and Joe Johnson drained consecutive threes to pull away.
Reggie Jackson didn’t play tonight, so the Pistons didn’t have their best squad on the floor. Detroit did well on the offensive glass but struggled defensively, as Miami shot 48 percent from the field.
B. Blake played well in Reggie’s absence. Blake went 4-7 from the field and registered 10 assists. I thought he played well in the second quarter when Detroit had most of their bench on the floor. Blake is an extremely poor defender, and that show tonight, but he played better than I expected.. PG. Pistons. STEVE BLAKE
Caldwell-Pope was alright. He and Wade seemed to cancel each other out tonight. 7-17 from the field isn’t as efficient as you would like, and with Reggie out of the lineup, he didn’t take advantage of the extra shots to go around. . SG. Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE. C+
PF. Pistons. MARCUS MORRIS. C. Morris played better in the second half, but still seems to be fighting his perimeter shot. He missed a wide open three in the third with plenty of time left on the shot clock, and I would’ve preferred to see him try to get to the rim. Either way, Morris did have the highest plus/minus of the starters tonight at +4.
C-. An average performance from Harris tonight. He made some really tough shots on broken possessions tonight, and that’s what he brings to the team. Harris probably would play better as well with Jackson at the point. It can’t go unnoticed that Joe Johnson went off for 25 points on just 15 shots though.. SF. Pistons. HARRIS
C. Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND. B-. Drummond played Whiteside pretty well down low and stood his ground. With Blake running pick and roll, instead of Jackson, Drummond does present less of a threat offensively. Drummond was active on the glass though, and grabbed nine offensive rebounds. He finished with 18 rebounds overall, compared to Whiteside’s nine.
Stanley just looks out of rhythm. Ever since the injury, he just doesn’t score as well, and his defense isn’t as good as it was. He looked pretty off tonight. It would be nice to get him going heading into the playoffs, but that isn’t the case. . SF. Pistons. STANLEY JOHNSON. D
Dinwiddie was pretty average in his first significant minutes in a long time. Any thoughts of Dinwiddie replacing Blake as the primary backup to Jackson are gone after tonight. He doesn’t bring enough defensively to warrant being on the floor over Blake, especially when him and Blake are even on the offensive end.. PG. Pistons. SPENCER DINWIDDIE. C-
ARON BAYNES. C-. Even Baynes was disappointing tonight. The Heat aren’t all that great down low when Whiteside gets rest, yet Baynes did very little offensively or on the glass. Baynes is extremely important heading into the playoffs, with Drummond being as bad as he is from the free throw line. . C. Pistons
ANTHONY TOLLIVER. B-. Of all the bench players, Tolliver was the best. He made 2-3 from the field, including a three and wasn’t bad defensively against Udonis Haslem and Amar’e Stoudemire. If Tolliver can keep stretching the floor, that gives the Pistons a huge boost. . PF. Pistons
C. Bullock has impressed me lately, but he was ineffective tonight. He needs to look for his shot when he’s on the floor and find ways to get looks from the perimeter. With Johnson struggling, Bullock’s veteran presence off the bench is sorely needed.. SG. Pistons. REGGIE BULLOCK
C. With Bullock and Johnson not doing much, it would’ve been nice to see Hilliard get a chance tonight. I thought SVG’s decision to go with the bench to start the fourth quarter actually worked, as Miami didn’t really pull away until the starters came back in. . Head Coach. Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY