Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has a pleasant dilemma — finding enough minutes for all of his productive players.
The Heat carry a six-game winning streak into their home game against the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night. They’re also in relatively good health with only guard Jaime Jaquez Jr., who missed Friday’s practice with a groin injury, questionable to play.
Spoelstra now has to figure out how many players he can keep in the rotation.
“I feel for guys that, one, either might not be playing or that have less minutes and a little bit of a changed role than what it’s been,” Spoelstra said. “But that’s what happens if you have depth. And then everybody will get their opportunities. It might not be every single night; it might not be exactly what they want. But I think we have a mature locker room. They understand that. And this will get a lot better quickly. We’ll just figure out what works the best, and we’ll get to those lineups more often.”
Miami hasn’t played since Wednesday, when it edged Milwaukee, 106-103. Tyler Herro, playing in his second game since undergoing ankle surgery, racked up 29 points, seven assists and five rebounds.
Key offseason acquisition Norman Powell, who is averaging 24.5 points, added 11 points. It was the first time that Powell, who is also battling a groin injury, and Herro played together this season.
“It’s going to be a work in progress,” Herro said. “I didn’t have a training camp or preseason games, I didn’t have anything with this team. I kind of just got thrown right into the fire.”
Spoelstra is looking forward to seeing Herro and Powell build chemistry.
“We’re excited about it,” he said. “I know they’re both excited about it. I think the two of them and their skill sets just make us a whole lot more dynamic offensively, and we welcome all of it.”
The Pistons have lost two straight following a franchise record-tying 13-game winning streak. A couple of nights after the Boston Celtics ended their run, the Pistons fell at home to the Orlando Magic, 112-109, on Friday.
Detroit was knocked out of NBA Cup contention with the loss. Cade Cunningham carried the Pistons with 39 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists but also committed eight of Detroit’s 24 turnovers.
“The Magic like to load up,” Cunningham said. “They like to shift and have everybody helping, so the best way to play against them is to move the ball. And that’s on us. Coach said it a thousand times, get the ball moving. I think there’s a lot of different reasons why maybe that happened, but we just didn’t execute the game plan.”
Detroit was down 10 midway through the fourth quarter, fought back to take a one-point lead but couldn’t finish off the comeback.
“I mean that’s who they are, and that’s why these games hurt is because they do have that resiliency,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “They do care, they are committed and they laid it all out there tonight and tried their best. But just again, few possessions here, a few plays there ended up costing us in the long run.”
This is the first of three meetings between the Pistons and Heat.
–Field Level Media
