At the Kaseya Center on Wednesday night, the Miami Heat opened their 2018-19 campaign with a victory over the Detroit Pistons by a score of 103-102. Here are five things we learned from the game.

The next thing up for the Heat is a trip that consists of three games, starting off with a repeat of the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics on Friday: During the first half of the game, the more experienced Heat team took advantage of the younger Pistons team. However, the game was decided in the nick of time, similar to how many of the Heat’s games from the previous season were decided.

The Heat brought back a significant portion of their team from the previous season, which advanced all the way to the NBA Finals. On the other hand, the Pistons started one 19-year-old, one 20-year-old, and three 22-year-olds, despite having finished the previous regular season with the poorest record in the NBA at 17-65.

In the first half, both the experience of the Heat and the inexperience of the Pistons were on full show. At times, Detroit played at an excessively rapid pace; at other times, they fell for multiple Heat pump fakes; and ultimately, they finished with an excessive number of empty possessions. With the help of 17 mistakes committed by the Pistons, Miami was able to outscore Detroit 25-9 in points off turnovers, which ultimately proved to be the deciding factor in the game that was decided by a single point.

The first half was particularly difficult for the Pistons, as the Heat took advantage of the Pistons’ mistakes to score 21 points off of 15 turnovers in the first two quarters and take a 58-47 lead into the halftime break. In the first half, the Heat had ten steals to their credit. The Pistons were able to get within six points at the end of the third quarter despite without committing a single turnover in that span.

The final score was 28-25 for Detroit, who won the third quarter, but they still entered the fourth quarter losing by eight points. After that, to start the fourth session, the Heat went on a run of 11-0 to extend their lead to 19 points. However, the young and tenacious Pistons rallied and responded with a 14-0 run to cut the lead to five with 6:24 left to play in the game. The Pistons were eventually able to trim the gap to one with 1:44 left in the fourth quarter, turning what had been a 19-point lead for the Heat into a clutch game.

A clutch game is defined as one in which the margin of victory is five points or fewer with less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. During the previous regular season in the NBA, Miami played a total of 54 games that were considered to be “clutch.

” The Pistons were unable to take the lead in the game because they missed their last four shots from the field. The night’s final shot, a three-pointer with 0.6 seconds left to play that would have given the Pistons the lead, was missed by the guard Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons, who had scored a game-high 30 points earlier in the contest. The Heat finished the game with a 26-15 advantage in free throw attempts, which led to a 21-9 advantage in scoring from the free throw line.

Even though they only shot 40.2 percent from the field during the game, the Heat were able to pull out the victory thanks to a 16-point lead in points off turnovers and a 12-point advantage at the foul line. Bam Adebayo, who plays center for the Heat, ended the game with a team-high 22 points. In addition, Miami’s Jimmy Butler contributed 19 points, 13 rebounds, and four assists.

The Heat guard Tyler Herro had a difficult time making shots and finished the game with 16 points on an awful 7-of-24 shooting performance. During the course of training camp, Kyle Lowry expressed his expectation that he would be the starting point guard for the Heat. On Wednesday, Lowry’s anticipation was rewarded with a pleasant surprise. Lowry began the current season in the starting lineup for the Heat, playing with Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love, and Bam Adebayo.

He spent the final month of the previous season coming off the bench. This five-man combination did not participate in any games together at all during the previous season. The Heat outscored the Pistons 19-14 in the first 5:37 of the game when they had this lineup on the court, and they outscored the Pistons 12-10 in the first 5:53 of the second half when they had this lineup on the field.

In his first start of the season, Lowry only attempted one shot. This is in contrast to the previous season, in which he played off the bench for the first time since the 2012-13 season with the Toronto Raptors, which took place a decade ago. After 32 minutes of play, he ended with a scoreless performance, tallying only two rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

There were some veterans on the bench for the Heat’s season opening, but there were also some fresh faces in there. In the first game of the regular season, the Heat were forced to rely on their bench players when starters Josh Richardson (left foot soreness) and Haywood Highsmith (left knee strain) were both unable to play.

On Wednesday, the Heat rotated five players off the bench, including returning players Caleb Martin and Duncan Robinson as well as newcomers Thomas Bryant, Jaime Jaquez Jr., and Dru Smith.

These five reserves scored a combined total of 33 points for the team. The bench unit for the Heat had one of its greatest moments of the game early in the second quarter, when a lineup consisting of Jaquez, Smith, Bryant, and Robinson and Herro extended the Heat’s lead from two to nine points during a two-minute window early in the second quarter.

This was one of the strongest stretches for the bench unit. Robinson came off the bench and helped himself to 15 points by shooting three three-pointers out of five attempts. In his first game in the NBA, Jaquez scored six points, grabbed two rebounds, dished out two assists, and stole two balls.

Bryant contributed eight points, six rebounds, and three assists in addition to his scoring. Jamal Cain, RJ Hampton, Nikola Jovic, and Orlando Robinson were among the Heat players who were available and active on Wednesday but did not see game action. There were three Heat players that were ruled inactive for the first game of the season.

Because of their injuries, Richardson and Highsmith have been placed on the inactive list. Cole Swider, who is under a contract that allows him to play for either the Heat or the Bucks, was the other player not used by Miami.

The Heat needed to manage the game clock on Swider’s two-way contract, so they placed him on the inactive list despite the fact that he was healthy and available.

Two-way contracts allow players to remain on their NBA team’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games, but they do not confer eligibility for postseason play and pay players just half of the rookie minimum wage required by the NBA. Additionally, two-way contracts do not count toward the salary cap or the luxury tax.

However, the Heat’s current roster situation, which includes only 14 players on normal contracts, shortens the amount of time that is available for this two-way clock. The Heat would be permitted to have two-way contract players on the active roster for a total of 150 games during the regular season (with a restriction of 50 games per player), provided that they have the maximum number of players on conventional agreements (15).

However, due to the fact that the Heat has fewer than 15 players under standard contracts, the team is now only permitted to have players under two-way contracts on the active roster for a total of 90 games during the regular season. Cain and Hampton, the Heat’s other two players under two-way contracts, were both on the active roster for the season opening despite Swider’s absence from the lineup.

That brings the total number of games left to 88. In the event that the Heat signs a 15th player to a normal deal during the current season, the total number of games on the schedule will increase to 150 (there will have been 148 games played after the season opening). The next thing up for the Heat is going to be spending a lot of time away from home.

After opening their season on Wednesday, the Heat will play their next 12 of their next 16 games away from home. If that wasn’t difficult enough, eight of those 12 games will be played away from home against teams that competed in the postseason the previous year.

This stretch starts off with a challenging road trip that includes a rematch of the East finals against the Celtics on Friday, a matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves on the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday, and then a showdown against the Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard on Monday.

The Heat started the regular season of the previous year with a record of 7-11. The Miami Dolphins are hopeful that this season won’t get off to another sluggish beginning, but their schedule won’t make that possible.

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