The evening was rich in improbable scenarios and this Detroit-Miami contributed to this “Crazy Sunday” with a fierce fight until the last second and an… improbable outcome!
The Floridians got off to the dream start, quickly leading by 9 points on a successful counter-attack by Terry Rozier (4-13). The rest was much more complicated, between the 10-0 response from the Pistons concluded by Simone Fontecchio's 3-pointer, then those of Evan Fournier and Stanley Umude (23-21).
Miami regained momentum with a 14-2 marked by two arrows from Duncan Robinson and a new basket in transition from Terry Rozier to reverse the trend (38-44). Between the repeated exploits of the Rozier-Robinson pair and the baskets of Bam Adebayo and Delon Wright just before the break, the Heat seemed to have done the hardest part (50-60).
But these Pistons were responsive and showed their strength of character in this second half. After being up to 17 points behind (56-73), Monty Williams' men gradually caught up. The 3-pointers from Evan Fournier and Stanley Umude, the 2+1 from Simone Fontecchio and the floater from Marcus Sasser allowed the locals to go 13-0 to complete the third quarter and completely restart the match (76- 79).
When Miami took the lead again, notably after a dunk from Bam Adebayo (78-87), it was Evan Fournier who pulled out all the stops with two 3-point baskets and a floater which brought the Pistons to -2 at the entry into “money-time” (88-90). The Heat thought they were getting out of it as best they could when Duncan Robinson responded from distance twice, including a 3+1 putting his team at +5 two minutes from the end (96-101). Except that the Floridians conceded a 3-pointer from Isaiah Stewart from the corner then a drive from Cade Cunningham to equalize at 101-101.
Eight seconds before the buzzer, Cade Cunningham had a first shot of the match but his 3-point attempt was far too short. In the transition, Miami did not take a timeout and Terry Rozier finally passed the ball to Bam Adebayo at the head of the racket at the last second: bingo!
The pivot who had just submitted the idea of taking more 3-point shots found himself propelled into the hero of the evening… on a 3-point buzzer beater!
WHAT YOU MUST REMEMBER
– The Bam Adebayo series. And three! Bam Adebayo was coming off two games in a row at 1/1 from afar. He finally waited until the last second of the match to extend his great series, and in what way! The pivot had confided in recent days that he wanted to take more 3-point shots at the head of the racket. The chance of this last possession meant that it was exactly in this position that he found himself with the victory of the match on the table. On his momentum, the pivot did not tremble, therefore extending his good series of 100% 3-pointers to three games in a row…
– Duncan Robinson to the power of a thousand. The Heat sniper did not wait long to score his thousandth 3-point basket in his career since it was he who scored the first points of the evening, in his favorite exercise. The guard/winger thus became the player to have reached a thousand 3-point baskets in his career the fastest since it only took him 350 career games to achieve this accomplishment. On his momentum, he finished with 30 points at 7/12 from a distance. This is only the second time in his career that he has reached 30 points in the NBA. It was necessary to mark the occasion, it was done with the victory as a bonus…
– The 2004 champions celebrated. At halftime, Detroit honored the 2004 champions, with Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Darvin Ham, Mehmet Okur, Elden Campbell, Mike James, Lindsey Hunter and Tremaine Fowlkes on hand to commune with the fans of the franchise.
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How to read the stats? Min = Minutes; Shots = Successful shots / Attempted shots; 3pts = 3-points / 3-points attempted; LF = free throws made / free throws attempted; O = offensive rebound; D=defensive rebound; T = Total rebounds; Pd = assists; Fte: Personal fouls; Int = Intercepts; Bp = Lost balls; Ct: Against; +/- = Point differential when the player is on the field; Pts = Points; Eval: player evaluation calculated from positive actions – negative actions.
