Despite Jimmy Butler’s electrifying triple-double, the Miami Heat suffered another overtime loss to the Detroit Pistons, 125-124, inside Little Caesars Arena Monday evening.
Jimmy Butler finished Monday with 35 points, 19 rebounds–a career-high–10 assists, four steals and one block on 12-of-21 shooting and 10-of-12 from the free-throw line. He was spectacular down the stretch, helping the Heat crawl back from multiple 19-point deficits–and leading an 18-2 run in the final 5:27 of regulation to force overtime.
Even when he struggled to overcome Ausar Thompson’s physicality for most of the night, Tyler Herro’s contested 3-pointer over two defenders gave the 17,810 in attendance free basketball. He canned the shot with 5.1 seconds left with Cade Cunningham’s potential game-winning triple clanking off the buzzer as time expired at the end of regulation.
Herro finished with 23 points and four rebounds on 9-of-25 shooting. It was his cleanest game, by any stretch. Bam Adebayo had 15 points and eight rebounds; Duncan Robinson had 13 points on 3-of-7 from 3-point range; Jaime Jaquez Jr. posted 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting while Terry Rozier had 11 points, five rebounds and six assists.
Herro’s game-tying 3-pointer fueled an 8-0 run to begin overtime, but three Tim Hardaway Jr. 3-points gave the Pistons a 123-122 lead with 1:10 left.
Miami had multiple chances to take the lead in the final 37 seconds, but came up short. Oddly enough, Jimmy Butler’s second of two layup attempts with less than 10 seconds left wasn’t a shooting foul. Tyler Herro couldn’t replicate what he did to force OT, missing a 29-footer to end it.
Detroit outscored the Heat by 24 from 3-point range with eight more rebounds and nine more fastbreak points–backbreakers throughout the evening.
Cunningham had a triple-double of his own, finishing with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 18 assists (!!!) on 7-of-17 shooting and 3-of-6 from deep. Hardaway and Malik Beasley combined to make 12 of the team’s 20 triples; Thompson was all over the floor on both ends, finishing with 19 points, nine rebounds, four steals and one block in 27 minutes.
Monday’s loss snaps a four-game win streak for the Heat, dropping to 13-11. Detroit, meanwhile, improves to 11-16–and 2-1 against the Heat this season.
