The Miami Heat were rudely dominated in their first game of the season. It was an ugly showing by many of the players and despite Giannis Antetokounmpo’s excellent performance, the Timberwolves ran away in the second half. This was an embarrassing loss for a team with high expectations, but the first game of the season does not define how everything else will go. Miami will simply need more on both sides from others not named Antetokounmpo.
This Heat Player Could Be the Decider
The Heat will need most of their players to play better than they did in game one but one player that holds a lot of the burden against the Pistons will be Andrew Wiggins. Cade Cunningham is a big bodied guard that would resent a massive mismatch to Davion Mitchell. In my opinion Andrew Wiggins should be his primary defender. Wiggins is excellent defensively on the perimeter and could help make life difficult for Cunningham.
On the offensive end someone needs to help out Antetokounmpo and Wiggins can also shoulder some of this responsibility. The Pistons have Jalen Duren in the post to help stop drives, so there might be good kick out opportunities. Wiggins has displayed the ability to be an excellent secondary scorer and plays off stars well. I expect Wiggins to have a big game on both ends of the court and without it the Heat might start the season 0-2.
Others from Heat On SI:
Amir Motameni
“If the Heat want to bounce back and defeat the Detroit Pistons, the X factors will be the shooters. In their home opener against the Timberwolves the Heat shot a putrid 24% from three as a team. Giannis creating so much spacing and opportunities for his teammates, but the shots simply weren’t falling. I expect to see players like Tim Hardaway Jr and Andrew Wiggins to have better shooting nights vs the Pistons.”
Austin Dobbins
“It can’t be Giannis or nothing in Miami, otherwise there’s no difference between here and Milwaukee. Bam Adebayo has to be the X-Factor in the Miami Heat’s second game, and beyond. He is supposed to be the second best player behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and he should thrive with him in his corner. Game one Bam came out slow and although it sounds like a broken record, he needs to be more assertive on the offensive and defensive ends. Adebayo is plenty capable of being a 20/10 guy and Miami needs him to be.”
Ethan J. Skolnick
"The strategy that made little sense in the opener against Minnesota actually makes more here -- expect Erik Spoelstra to use plenty of drop on defense, with the Pistons (other than Duncan Robinson) a little more challenged from deep than the Timberwolves were. I'd actually expect the defense to hold up OK. Generating offense against a stingy Detroit defense is more of the issue. So what needs to change? Well, Giannis was elite on his own in the opener, but Miami will be better off if he's facilitating some too, and he needs to trust his shooters, and they need to earn that trust. So the X-Factor in this one may be Tim Hardaway Jr.; he had a terrific training camp but couldn't make anything at home. Call it jitters, playing in the building where his father once starred. But he needs to provide bench punch, especially since Pelle Larsson still looks a step slow after an illness."
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