East Notes: Heat, Bam Adebayo, Pistons, Hawks

Heat

Forward/center Bam Adebayo came through when his team needed him most, burying a 3-pointer at the buzzer to top the Pistons for a 104-101 road win on Sunday.

“Sometimes there’s karma in this game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Bam was just outstanding for us, especially defensively, with all the things he was doing and everything he got on the glass. Sometimes the ball just happens to find that guy.”

Adebayo isn’t much of a 3-pointer shooter, but he’s 3-of-3 in his last three games, including Sunday’s 30-footer to beat the buzzer.

The win, by the way, came without injured wing Jimmy Butler and guard Tyler Herro. Along with Adebayo, Duncan Robinson had his bet game of the year, scoring a season-high 30 points.

“When you don’t have Jimmy and you don’t have Tyler, you have to maximize your next best actions,” Spoelstra said. “Bam is always going to be involved, but Duncan hit on every aspect of the game offensively.”

• In case you missed it, Robinson became the first player in NBA history to reach 1,000 threes. Our Brandon Santomauro has the full story here.

Pistons

Despite the gut-wrenching loss to the Heat on Sunday, the Pistons have shown signs of life lately.

In fact, even that defeat could be considered a bit of a positive. It came on a day when Detroit honored its 2004 championship team, featuring the likes of Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace and current Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups.

“They’re going to be fine,” Billups, the 2004 NBA Finals MVP, told reporters. “It just takes time.”

• For the record, the Pistons haven’t won a playoff series since 2008. They haven’t hit 30 wins since 2018.

Hawks

If you’re wondering about the Hawks’ best win of the season … well, that would be Sunday’s stunner of the Clippers in Los Angeles. And it of course came without injured All-Star guard Trae Young, who remains sidelined with a hand/finger injury.

Forward Saddiq Bey (knee) is also out, yet the Hawks managed to build a 61-44 lead before racing to a 110-93 victory.

And they received an incredibly balanced effort along the way. Dejounte Murray scored 21, De’Andre Hunter added 20, Jalen Johnson had 18 and 12 rebounds and Clint Capela 15 and 13, respectively.

But coach Quin Snyder will tell you it mostly came down to defense.

“Our players said some things to each other that we need to do on defense and trying to be really focused on doing those things,” he said. “And then, offensively really attacking this group. They’re a very good team, so I was happy with how we played.”

• Added Murray: “We were all on the same page. Everybody was hungry to do better, and I think we did that from the first guy all the way down, was talking to each other, was helping each other. We were active the whole game, and I think that was important for this great team win.”
• The Hawks (30-37) snapped a three-game skid and remained in 10th place in the Eastern Conference entering Monday’s road game vs. the Lakers.