Another statement win for Heat in dismantling Detroit 121-110 behind Herro, Adebayo

· Yahoo Sports

MIAMI – The sizzle also has substance.

Not only is it now eight wins in the last 10 games for the Heat, but with ample quality wins to add substance to the surge.

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Sunday night it was a rousing 121-110 decision over the East-leading Detroit Pistons to follow up Friday night’s victory in Charlotte over streaking Hornets and last weekend’s home victory over the West-contending Houston Rockets.

Shorthanded yet again, the Heat still remained in a comfort zone as they extended their winning streak to five, consistently a step ahead of the Pistons.

So even with Norman Powell and Andrew Wiggins among those out for Erik Spoelstra’s team, the push for something better than a fourth consecutive trip to the play-in round continued, moving to 36-29, the first time seven games above .500 since the 14-7 start to the season.

As has been the case amid the injury absences, it was the franchise mainstays leading the way, with Tyler Herro scoring 26 and Bam Adebayo 24. There also were 19 points from sixth man Jaime Jaquez Jr., who also had seven assists and five rebounds.

The Pistons, who were lacking sidelined former Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest standout Ausar Thompson, got 26 points from Cade Cunningham and 24 from fellow All-Star Jalen Duren, as their season-worst losing streak reached four.

Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:

1. Game flow: The Heat led 34-16 after the first quarter, ending the period on an 11-1 run ,with Detroit 1 of 9 on 3s over the 12 minutes..

The Heat then pushed their lead to 24 in the second period, which, to that stage, was Detroit’s largest first-half deficit of the season. The lead in the first half reached 25, before the Heat went into the intermission up 67-58.

The Heat extended their lead to 27 in the third period, before going into the fourth up 103-80.

Detroit then pulled its starters with 4:30 to play, down 119-97 at that stage.

2. Short but set: With Powell (groin)  and Wiggins (toe) out, and with the Heat also without Nikola Jovic (back) and Simone Fontecchio (groin), Spoelstra seemed to find a comfort zone by essentially only having nine players available for his rotation.

So that again had Myron Gardner as a placeholder in the starting lineup alongside Adebayo, Herro, Davion Mitchell and Pelle Larsson, with an ease of then rotating in Jaquez, Kel’el Ware, Kaspras Jakucionis and Dru Smith.

Ware and Jakucionis each added 12 points off the bench, with Larsson scoring 10.

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3. Adebayo again: It was yet another milestone night for Adebayo.

A week after moving past Udonis Haslem for the franchise all-time lead in defensive rebounds, this time with his 23rd point joined Dwyane Wade as the only players in the franchise’s 38 seasons with 10,000 career Heat points

Adebayo rounded out his stat line with nine rebounds and six assists.

4. Comeback story: Herro continues to inspire with his offense in his return from a month off due to a rib injury.

During the initial stages of what now is a nine-game return, the concern was a slow-arriving 3-point comfort zone.

This time, after shooting 8 of 10 on 3-pointers in Friday night’s victory in Charlotte, Herro closed 4 of 8 from beyond the arc, with a pair in the third period that effectively ended any Detroit comeback hopes.

5. Advantage Heat: The schedule hardly worked in the Pistons’ favor in this one, with Heat idle on Saturday and the Pistons not only coming off a Saturday night home game and making the overnight flight, but also losing an hour with clocks moving forward by an hour.

Then again, the Heat won Friday in Charlotte on the second night of a back-to-back set, while the Hornets were idle the night before that game.

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