Miami @ Detroit preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 28, 2017 ) Miami 97, Detroit 96

The Detroit Pistons are winners of four straight and seven of their last eight and will try to cap off a perfect five-game homestand when they host the Miami Heat on Sunday. The Pistons will play nine of their next 11 games away from home after Sunday and are feasting on opponents with a 6-1 record in their new downtown arena.

Detroit is set up to play off the pick-and-roll run by point guard Reggie Jackson and center Andre Drummond with shooters spreading the floor, and the two are opening things up for the rest of the team. "Anything's possible for this team when those guys are playing well," Pistons shooting guard Avery Bradley told reporters after a 111-104 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday. "Reggie Jackson's a very good player. Andre's a very good player. When those guys are in pick and roll they open the game up for everybody." The Heat are playing the finale of a six-game road trip and have a chance to go home with a winning record after taking three of the first five, including an 84-74 win at Utah on Friday. "We talked about this road trip, like all other long ones, is an opportunity for you to develop your competitive character," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters. "We got knocked in the jaw that first night in Denver, but we continued to plug away, stay connected. You can turn those painful times into something you can grow from. But the road trip's not over."

TV: 4 p.m. ET, FS Sun (Miami), FS Detroit

ABOUT THE HEAT (6-6): Shooting guard Dion Waiters sat out two games following the birth of his daughter but was strong in two games since his return, averaging 18.5 points while going 5-of-10 from 3-point range. Waiters scored 12 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter on Friday after struggling in the first three periods. "I don't think he even notices if he's missing or not, once you get to the last three or four minutes," Spoelstra told reporters of Waiters. "He lives for those times and he stepped up and made some big plays, obviously."

ABOUT THE PISTONS (9-3): Drummond, a career 38.8 percent free-throw shooter, worked hard to improve his accuracy from the stripe and was noticeably upset when he slumped on Wednesday and went 0-of-7 in a win over the Indiana Pacers. Drummond bounced back by going 4-of-6 from the line in Friday's win and continues to put in the work. "I was going to have a game where I missed a bunch of free throws," Drummond told reporters. "The next day I went into the gym, figured out what I was doing wrong. I watched film on how I was shooting, and I was doing certain things wrong that I wasn't doing before, and I went back to my routine and I knocked 'em down."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Pistons SF Stanley Johnson (hip) missed the last two games and is day-to-day.

2. Heat SF Justise Winslow is averaging 5.8 points on 35.5 percent shooting during the road trip.

3. The teams split four meetings last season, with Miami earning a 97-96 win in its last trip to Detroit on March 28.

PREDICTION: Pistons 103, Heat 98