Game preview for the Miami Heat vs the Detroit Pistons.
Heat (9-4) @ Pistons (7-7)
Where: The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, Michigan
When: Wednesday, Nov. 25, 7:30 PM ET
Watch: Fox Sports Sun/League Pass
Over the course of the Miami Heat 7-game home stand, the team has seen a lot of the 2015-2016 rookie class for the NBA. The Heat got to see D’Angelo Russell, Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Jahlil Okafor, and Kristaps Porzingis over the past two weeks.
The rookie tour does not stop for the Heat tonight, as they’ll get to see Stanley Johnson for the first time tonight, as they take on the Detroit Pistons.
The Heat are off to a 9-4 start, after finishing up a 6-1 home stand. The lone loss was a forgettable one for the Heat, as they should have beaten a Sacramento Kings team without DeMarcus Cousins. Between turnovers and missed free throws, the Heat gave away their only loss of the home stand. They return to the road, where they are just 3-3 this season.
The Pistons come into tonight’s game with an even .500 record, at 7-7. The team started the season 3-0 and then 5-1, but have lost 6 of their past 8 games to fall back to their mediocre mark.
While this game features two of the rookies selected in the top 10 of the 2015 NBA draft, the two big men are going to take center stage in this game.
Matchup to Watch: Andre Drummond vs Hassan Whiteside
Andrew Drummond is having a monster season rebound the ball, so far. Drummond is pulling down a ridiculous 17.6 rebounds per game so far this season, to go along with his 18.1 points and 1.4 blocks per game. This amounts to a ridiculous 24.49 PER for the 22-year old center.
Drummond’s best game of the season came on November 8th, when he shot 14-19 from the field, dropped 29 points, and pulled down 27 rebounds for the game.
While he’s shown flashes of being a dominant player in the past, Drummond has broken through this season and has a strong argument for the best center in the league.
Hassan Whiteside certainly stakes his claim for the best center in the league as well. Whiteside is now averaging a ridiculous 4.8 blocks per game. He’ll have a chance to add to that number, guarding Drummond in the paint all night.
As for the “hack-a-Whiteside” strategy, Whiteside welcomes it, as he does not believe it to be working out for opponents of late.
(Honorable Mention: Stanley Johnson vs Justise Winslow)
X-Factor: Goran Dragic
Over on Hot Hot Hoops, the SB Nation Heat blog, good friend Jay Ramos tried to dissect the struggles of Goran Dragic thus far the 2015-2016 season. Looking over his numbers, Jay found that Goran’s main issue this season has been his lack of outside shooting and his “struggles” of finishing near the rim.
He came away drawing two conclusions on how to fix Dragic’s issues, with one of them being allowing his shooting percentages regress to the mean. The other conclusion, take the ball out of Dwyane Wade‘s hands a bit more and allow Dragic more opportunities to run the offense.
This idea holds a lot of weight, as Wade has plenty of experience playing off the ball and allowing Dragic to find him on cuts would cut down on Wade’s usage, maybe allow him to get to the free throw line more, and hopefully end with the result of Wade being a more efficient player than he has so far this year.
Wade is posting a 30.1 USG rating thus far, but his true shooting percentage of 50.3 is his career low, by nearly 3 percent.
The Heat offense could return to top 10 form and even more, if the Heat allow Dragic to run the offense more and get Wade back to his ghost cutting days.
Injury Update: Luol Deng is doubtful for tonight’s game with a hamstring injury. Gerald Green is expected to start in his place.
Key Stats:
Miami Heat offensive efficiency: 11th, 102.0 points per 100 possessions
Miami Heat defensive efficiency: 1st, 94.0 points per 100 possessions
Detroit Pistons offensive efficiency: 28th, 97.6 points allowed per 100 possessions
Detroit Pistons defensive efficiency: 9th, 99.7 points allowed per 100 possessions