Game preview for the Miami Heat vs the Detroit Pistons.
Heat (16-10) vs Detroit Pistons (16-12)
Where: American Airlines Arena, Miami, Florida
When: Tuesday, December 22, 7:30 PM ET
Watch: FS-SUN, NBA League Pass
The last time these two teams met, the Detroit Pistons annihilated the Miami Heat 104-81. Andre Drummond, Detroit’s monster center, scored 18 points and pulled down 20 rebounds to embarrass the Heat’s paint players.
It’ll be up to Hassan Whiteside and the lot to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
In their last win against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Miami Heat may have cracked the code of using Whiteside in the fourth quarter. Head coach Erik Spoelstra asked Whiteside to come out another five feet from the basket and defend the perimeter. In the small ball NBA, it allows Whiteside to play heavy minutes to close out the game assuming he’s effective.
But the Detroit Pistons are not a small ball team. We know that because of Drummond’s dominance. It’ll present a new challenge for Whiteside. He can still come out to the perimeter to limit Drummond in the high pick-and-roll that Stan Van Gundy likes to employ. He’ll have to in order to prevent Drummond from repeating his high double-double performance.
Matchup to Watch: Whiteside vs Drummond
No surprise here. Whoever wins this matchup will hold a significant advantage in the game. Both of these centers are cut from the same mold: stat stuffing, board grabbing, shot blocking bigs who are freakishly large and athletic.
Both teams revolve a lot of what they do around their pivot position, be it high pick-and-rolls in crunch time or funneling players to the rim on defense. Both Drummond and Whiteside have the opportunity to make the other’s life difficult, and severely limit what their opponent can do.
X-Factor: Small ball
The Heat, however, could always decide to go in another direction. If Miami is on the losing end of the Whiteside-Drummond matchup, Spoelstra could opt to go small with Chris Bosh at the 5, Luol Deng at the 4 and Justise Winslow/Gerald Green at the 3. That could space out the Pistons, force Drummond away from the rim and create room for Miami’s patented inverted offense.
This game will either be a grinder, or one where the Heat try to run the Pistons out of AmericanAirlines Arena.
Key Stats:
Miami Heat offensive efficiency: 12th, 102.5 points per 100 possessions
Miami Heat defensive efficiency: 5th, 98.2 points per 100 possessions
Detroit Pistons offensive efficiency: 23rd, 100.6 points allowed per 100 possessions
Detroit Pistons defensive efficiency: 11th, 99.8 points allowed per 100 possessions