Field Level Media
Jan 3, 2018
The Miami Heat had three 20-point scorers in a game for the second time this season and held off the Detroit Pistons, 111-104, Wednesday night in Miami as the Heat went three games over the .500 mark for the first time since April 2016.
Forward Kelly Olynyk scored a game-high 25 points, guard Goran Dragic added 24 and forward Josh Richardson posted the 10th 20-point game of his career and seventh of this season with 22 as the Heat (20-17) evened the season series with the Pistons at a win apiece.
Tobias Harris led the Pistons (20-16) with 19 points and guard Reggie Bullock hit a season-best 5 of 8 3-pointers on his way to 17 points.
Center Boban Marjanovic scored a surprising 15 points in getting his first start in nearly two years in replacing Andre Drummond. Ish Smith scored 6 points in his third start since taking over for Reggie Jackson.
The Heat went to the locker room up 56-52 at the half after outscoring the Pistons 32-23 in the second quarter.
They got to the free-throw line only twice in the first half, making one, while the Pistons were 9-for-11 from the stripe, but the Heat made up for that with blistering 3-point shooting. They were 11-of-20 from behind the arc in the first two quarters, with Richardson and Olynyk each hitting three of their four attempts.
The Pistons were only 3-of-9 on 3s in the first half, with guard Avery Bradley banging home a 35-footer at the buzzer for his second in four attempts.
The Heat finished the game 17-of-34 from outside, compared to 9-of-24 for the Pistons.
The back and forth swings that marked the first half continued in the third quarter with the Heat running off 10 consecutive points for a 76-67 lead and the Pistons responding with a 12-2 burst for a 79-78 lead. The quarter ended deadlocked 81-81.
--Field Level Media