Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) walks off the court after being scored on to lose the game 116-113 to the Detroit Pistons during the second half of an NBA game at Kaseya Center on March 19, 2025, in Miami. D.A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 116-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons (39-31) on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center to open a five-game homestand and drop its ninth straight game. The Heat (29-40) continues its stretch at home on Friday against the Houston Rockets:
The Heat’s misery continues, suffering a heart-breaking loss on a game-winning three-pointer from Pistons guard Cade Cunningham.
The Heat has now lost nine straight games for just the 10th time in the franchise’s 37 seasons. This nine-game skid is the Heat’s longest losing streak since dropping 11 consecutive games from Jan. 29, 2008 through Feb. 23, 2008.
“There’s not much to be said,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said after the crushing defeat. “Obviously, it’s a tough loss. We’ve lost the last nine. There have been different losses throughout the whole losing streak. Tonight felt like one of those games where we were competing our [butts] off, playing hard and just came up short.”
The Heat led by as many as 12 points in the first half, entered the fourth quarter ahead by five points and even led by eight points with 9:12 to play during a competitive game that included 18 lead changes.
But the Heat continued to give up leads, as the Pistons went on a 22-13 run to take their first lead of the fourth quarter at 110-109 with 2:24 to play.
The Heat regained a one-point advantage when Herro hit a 19-foot baseline jumper with 1:16 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Pistons continued to make their late-game push, though, as Jalen Duren grabbed an offensive rebound and found Cunningham for a clutch three-pointer. That put Detroit ahead by two points with 56.4 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
After Bam Adebayo missed a midrange jumper for the Heat, the Pistons had a chance to put the game away. But Detroit committed a 24-second shot-clock violation, giving the Heat possession of the ball in a two-point game with 18.1 seconds to play.
Herro took advantage. drawing a foul and making both free throws to tie the score at 113 with five seconds left.
But following a Pistons timeout, Cunningham caught the inbounds pass and quickly dribbled into a tough contested three-pointer from straight away. Cunningham took the tough shot over the outstretched arm of Adebayo, as the ball bounced off the backboard and rattling in for the game-winning three-pointer with 2.9 seconds to play to deliver another painful loss to the Heat.
“You tip your hat off to a play like that,” Adebayo said.
Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) shoots a game-winning three-pointer over Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) to defeat the Heat 116-113 during the second half of an NBA game at Kaseya Center on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Miami, Florida. D.A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com
With no timeouts left, the Heat’s final shot was a full-court heave from Davion Mitchell that missed the mark.
The Heat was outscored 28-20 in Wednesday’s game-deciding fourth quarter and has now been outscored by a total of 56 points in the fourth quarter during its nine-game skid.
After Wednesday’s defeat, the Heat has now blown a double-digit lead in an NBA-high 19 losses this season.
The Heat has also now blown 17 fourth-quarter leads in losses this season, which is tied for the most such collapses in the league.
Cunningham led the Pistons with a triple-double stat line that included 25 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and his dramatic game-winning three.
The Heat wasted standout performances from its leading duo of Adebayo and Herro in the loss.
Adebayo ended the night with 30 points on 12-of-24 shooting from the field, 2-of-5 shooting on threes and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line, nine rebounds, eight assists, one steal and one block in 37 minutes.
Herro closed the loss with 29 points on 10-of-20 shooting from the field, 3-of-9 shooting on threes and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line, four rebounds and three assists in 37 minutes.
“That’s what we need,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Adebayo and Herro’s performances on Wednesday. “He and Tyler just brought it from an urgency and a leadership standpoint.”
The Heat now stands 11 games below the .500 mark for the first time since Jan. 30, 2017 when it was 19-30 during the 2016-17 season.
The Heat is still almost a near-lock to make the NBA’s play-in tournament, which features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference. With just 13 games left to play this regular season, the Heat remains in 10th place in the Eastern Conference and five games ahead of the 11th-place Toronto Raptors.
“The only thing that we have to do now is you just stay the course. You stay with it,” Spoelstra said. “There’s no way to explain some of this, the bank shot at the end. There’s no way to explain that. You just have to find more resolve. We’re all getting tested in so many different ways that we do not want to get tested, but there can be a beauty in these challenges and these tests if we just continue to stay stubborn.”
The Heat lost the game on a game-winning three from Cunningham, but it also lost the game in the paint.
The Heat’s defense could not contain the Pistons’ dribble penetration, allowing 70 paint points on Wednesday.
For context, the Heat entered the loss allowing the 15th-most paint points in the NBA this season at 48.9 per game. The Pistons exceeded that number midway through Wednesday’s third quarter.
Along with making the game-winning three-pointer, Cunningham also scored 14 paint points. Also for Detroit, Ausar Thompson scored 14 paint points, Tobias Harris added 12 paint points and Duren contributed 12 paint points.
With Duren grabbing two offensive rebounds in the final minutes of the game that led to five critical second-chance points for the Pistons, Spoelstra blamed that on allowing Detroit to get into the paint and collapse Miami’s defense.
“It was coming a lot from dribble penetration,” Spoelstra said. “That creates a lot of these things.”
This comes after the Heat allowed a season-high 72 paint points in Saturday’s loss to the Grizzlies in Memphis.
“We’re a great defensive rebounding team regardless of who we have out there,” Spoelstra added. “And the last six, eight weeks, we’ve been really good. But in these inflection moments, these swing moments, these isolated moments, key winning moments, those have been really deflating plays.”
Unfortunately for the Heat, the centerpiece of the trade package that it accepted in the Jimmy Butler trade last month missed another game.
Heat starting forward Andrew Wiggins missed his second straight game because of a left lower leg contusion on Wednesday.
Wiggins has played in 11 games, but he has now missed eight games because of injury or illness since the Golden State Warriors dealt him to the Heat in the Butler trade on Feb. 6.
Wiggins, 30, has averaged 18.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists, one steal and one block per game while shooting 42.2 percent from the field and 30.9 percent on threes in his 11 appearances with the Heat. The Heat has posted a 2-9 record in those games.
“Good enough, for sure,” Spoelstra said before Wednesday’s game when asked if he’s been able to get a feel for what Wiggins can provide amid his limited availability. “He’s had some really good moments already. You can see the firepower he brings and the versatility that he brings to us defensively.”
The Heat also remained without Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League), Nikola Jovic (broken right hand), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) against the Pistons.
The only Pistons rotation player unavailable against the Heat was Jaden Ivey, who is out for the rest of the season after fracturing his fibula in January.
As the Heat continues to search for answers, it used yet another different starting lineup.
The Heat opened Wednesday’s game with a starting group of Herro, Duncan Robinson, Jaquez, Adebayo and Kel’el Ware. It’s the first time that this lineup has started a game, with the Heat now up to 22 different starting lineups this season.
But the Heat’s latest starting lineup was actually a positive in Wednesday’s loss, outscoring the Pistons by five points in 12 minutes together.
Ware was solid, recording the ninth double-double of his rookie season with 14 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks in 33 minutes. He was even on the court for seven fourth-quarter minutes.
The Heat continues to rotate through different starting groups because of injuries and poor play, using five different starting lineups in the last five games and 10 different starting lineups in the last 12 games.
The starting lineup of Herro, Robinson, Jaquez, Adebayo and Ware had also yet to play together at any point in any game this season before starting Wednesday’s contest against the Pistons.
The Heat did get a player back from injury on Wednesday, with guard Alec Burks returning from a back issue. That pushed guard Terry Rozier out of the rotation.
After missing seven straight games with a lower back strain, Burks returned to log 14 minutes off the Heat’s bench in Wednesday’s defeat. He totaled four points, three rebounds and two assists.
Burks was part of a four-man bench rotation that also included Davion Mitchell, Haywood Highsmith and Pelle Larsson.
Rozier was among those in uniform for the Heat who did not get into Wednesday’s game, as the struggling guard received his fourth DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season. All four of Rozier’s DNP-CDs have come in the last month.
Not only is Rozier shooting just 39.6 percent from the field and 30 percent on threes this season, but the Heat has also been outscored by 5.6 points per 100 possessions with him on the court.
Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson also didn’t play Wednesday despite being available for the Heat.
This story was originally published March 19, 2025 at 10:19 PM.
Miami Herald
305-376-4991
Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.