3 Observations from the Heat's skid-snapping win over the Pistons

After a week of losing basketball, the Miami Heat finally found themselves back on the winning side, defeating the Detroit Pistons 108-95 Friday night at Little Caesars Arena. Here are three takeaways from Miami's victory.

Suffocating defense leads to a high stock count

The Heat's defense set the tone out of the gate, forcing three turnovers early in the first. Miami had to lean on the defensive end as the offense for a large portion of the game was dry, especially from three-point range, making seven total with a few makes coming off of turnovers.

With great on-ball defense and constantly having active hands, Miami racked up a total of 20 stocks. If you're not familiar with that saying, stocks is steals and blocks combined, and is a word that became popular a few seasons ago and is now used often with rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama stuffing the stat sheet.

Overall, Miami finished with 14 steals and six blocks, and drastically had more stocks than Detroit, who had seven total with five steals and two blocks.

Besides letting Simone Fontecchio (who is making a case to join the 2023-2024 Heat killer roster) hurt them by scoring 24 points, Miami played a great defensive game and contained Detroit's guards in Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey, with both players combining to shoot 8-for-29 with seven turnovers.

There are certain games where Miami's defense is unable to make up for their lack of scoring, but continuing to limit possessions and shot attempts by forcing a high amount of turnovers can work in certain instances as it did on Friday night.

Thomas Bryant gives the Heat another strong outing

This season has been a roller coaster for Thomas Bryant, who once found himself in the rotation to start the season to suddenly racking up multiple DNPs. But over the last two games, Bryant has played well in his short stints. And on Friday night, Bryant arguably had his best performance in a Heat uniform.

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra decided to play Bryant the entire fourth quarter, and his strong outing showed Spoelstra's call to be correct. Bryant's activity was high as he set good screens to free up teammates and ran the floor off of misses, with one possession ending in an and-one off a fast break feed from Jaime Jaquez Jr.

"Everybody on this team is wanting to win, and willing to win," Bryant said. "It doesn't matter whoever's out there, we all try to be together and go out there as one and just try and get a win."

Bryant has a good understanding that there can be weeks where he won't play, but Spoesltra has been depending on him to provide quality minutes with Kevin Love out. And so far, Bryant has responded and deserves credit.

Bam Adebayo continues his three-point streak

Before the Heat pulled away in the second half, Miami was in a back-and-forth contest in the second quarter with the Pistons having success playing at a quick tempo. A large reason as to how Miami kept the Pistons at bay was Bam Adebayo's fantastic 16-point quarter.

Adebayo finished with 22 points and scored in a variety of ways as he finished an and-1 in transition and had a put back slam off a Patty Mills missed three. But the score that shocked Heat Nation was hitting a three pointer, making that two consecutive games with a three-pointer.

Similar to the Nuggets game, Adebayo's make from downtown came from the same spot -- the top of the key. Adebayo will continue to get those looks until he can make them at a consistent clip, but Adebayo has looked comfortable shooting from that area, and adding that shot to his arsenal will give defenses even more of a headache when it comes to dealing with Adebayo.