Three quick observations from Tuesday night’s 116-96 win over the Miami Heat at FTX Arena
LATE CHARGE – Nobody would want to go into free agency coming off a season where you had to play 82 games against the Miami Heat. The Heat love to play grinding, physical defense that makes their opponent wind up attempting to create something in the final seconds of the shot clock on a preponderance of possessions. They play the same way at the other end. They’re 26th in the NBA in pace and that’s by design. It’s the opposite of they heyday of Lakers Showtime basketball. But it can be brutally effective. When Miami is on its home court and manages to dictate pace as it often does – as it did against the Pistons on Tuesday for more than 24 minutes – it usually bodes well for the Heat. So credit the Pistons for recovering after Miami took an early 17-6 lead in a game where 11 points feels like 25. Miami led by seven with eight minutes to go in the third quarter when the Pistons made their move, outscoring the Heat 24-12 to finish the quarter. Bogan Bogdanovic scored 28 of his 31 in the second half and hit a pair of dagger triples in the fourth quarter, one with six minutes left to put the Pistons up 10 and another less than two minutes later to stretch the lead to 15. Bogdanovic hit 7 of 9 from the 3-point line. The Pistons are now 3-1 in their last four games with wins at Denver, Utah and Miami.
MISSING LIVERS – Isaiah Livers came to the Pistons valued as an NBA prospect mostly for his projection as a 40 percent 3-point shooter with ideal wing size at 6-foot-7. And Livers flashed that as a rookie limited to 19 games by a March 2021 foot injury that ended his Michigan career. But Livers, who suffered a right shoulder sprain in last week’s overtime win over Dallas, has emerged as Dwane Casey’s most trusted perimeter defender. In fact, Livers was injured when he got plastered against a Dallas screen while guarding MVP frontrunner Luka Doncic. Casey indicated over the weekend that initial fears that Livers would miss significant time had dissipated, so it’s possible he’ll play on the current three-game road trip that continues in New Orleans on Wednesday and wraps in Memphis on Friday. Livers undoubtedly would have been the guy guarding Tyler Herro, who scored 21 points while making all seven of his shots, two of them 3-pointers, and all five of his free throws in the first half and hit his first shot of the second. He finished with 34 points, ceding the marquee to Bojan Bogdanovic in the second half.
BENCH BUNCH – Saddiq Bey’s 3-point shooting was at 26.8 percent coming into the Miami game, which is well off his rookie mark of .380 and also trailing last season’s .346. But the Pistons fully expect Bey, who’s been a consistently good shooter dating to his days at Villanova, to revert to the norm. And when that happens, Bey will be a tougher cover for opponents because he’s become a much more dangerous scorer off the dribble and that, in turn, is also leading to him getting to the foul line at far greater rates than in his first two seasons. Bey shot 12 free throws on Sunday against Memphis, like Miami one of the NBA’s most physical teams, and he’s averaging 4.4 attempts per game, up from 2.1 as a rookie and 3.1 a year ago. Bey finished with 14 points, three rebounds and four assists in 31 minutes and hit 5 of 5 at the foul line. He’s moved to the bench, where he and Alec Burks give the Pistons the scoring punch that unit lacked to start the season. Burks had scored a combined 17 points in his last three games after scoring at least 16 in his previous six games, but he bounced back at Miami to score 18 in 22 minutes and hit 4 of 10 triples. The bench outscored Miami 54-19.