Giannis Scores 36 but Pistons Beat Heat 128-111 for Miami's 0-2 Start

By Taki Panos

Two games into the Miami chapter, Giannis Antetokounmpo is doing just about everything you could ask, and the Heat are still waiting for their first win. He scored 36 points with 12 rebounds on Friday night at Kaseya Center, but the Detroit Pistons led from start to finish and won 128-111, per the AP recap carried by ESPN and NBA.com. The game tipped at 8:00 PM in Miami, which was 3:00 AM on Saturday in Athens, so plenty of Greek fans woke up to a big stat line attached to a very lopsided score.

For anyone catching up, Giannis moved to Miami this summer after his long run with the Milwaukee Bucks, a story we covered when the blockbuster trade sent him to the Heat. His regular-season debut on Wednesday followed a familiar script, with 35 points in a 131-106 loss to Minnesota. Friday closed out a season-opening two-game homestand, and the hope was that a second night in front of the home crowd would look a lot sharper. It did not work out that way.

Detroit hit Miami right away. The Pistons opened on a 17-2 run, the AP reported, and led 41-26 after the first quarter, per ESPN's box score. The Miami Herald noted that the Heat shot just 8 of 25 from the field and 4 of 15 from three in that opening period. Miami trimmed the gap to 65-53 by halftime, which honestly felt generous, given that the Heat made only 17 of 52 shots in the first half, according to the Herald.

Foul trouble did not help. Giannis and Bam Adebayo each picked up three fouls in the first two quarters, the Herald wrote, and Giannis played only 14 minutes and 41 seconds before the break. Adebayo was limited to about seven and a half minutes and did not score in the half, per the AP, which added that he had doubts about two of those calls. Giannis also started cold, missing six of his first eight shots. That is not the start you want against a confident team that had already won its opener.

Then he found his rhythm, and the numbers got loud. Giannis finished with 36 points on 15-of-26 shooting, 1-of-3 from three and 5-of-8 at the free throw line, plus 12 rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block in 33 minutes, per ESPN and the Herald. Through two games he is averaging 35.5 points on 62.2 percent shooting, the Herald noted. That is 71 points in his first two regular-season games for Miami, and this time he filled the rest of the stat sheet too.

The problem is everyone else. The rest of the Heat combined for 75 points on 24-of-76 shooting, the Herald pointed out, and the box score backs it up. Klay Thompson went 2-of-11, all of his attempts from three, and Adebayo finished with four points and six fouls. Davion Mitchell scored 18 and Bobby Portis added 11 off the bench, per the AP, but as a team Miami shot 38 percent from the field and 15-of-51 from deep, according to ESPN. When one player carries the whole offense, defenses simply lean on him.

Detroit, meanwhile, looked like a team that knows exactly who it is. John Collins led the way with 23 points and went 5-of-6 from three, Paul Reed added 19 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, and former Heat guard Duncan Robinson scored 17, per the AP and ESPN. Cade Cunningham chipped in 16 points and eight assists. The Pistons shot 53 percent from the field and 47 percent from three, and they are 2-0 for the first time since the 2018-19 season, the AP noted.

The history is not kind to Miami either. The Heat are 0-2 for only the eighth time in their 39-year history, according to the AP, and they have allowed a franchise-worst 259 points through two games while being outscored by a combined 42. It is also the first time Giannis has played in his team's first two games and started 0-2. Milwaukee began 0-2 in 2015-16, but he was suspended for that opener. Defense was supposed to be the calling card of this new pairing, and so far it has been the weak spot.

There is also the matter of his body. Giannis, 31, played a career-low 36 games with the Bucks last season, largely because of calf strains, and a hyperextended left knee with a bone bruise on March 15 ended his season early, the Herald reported. Now comes the first back-to-back of the year. According to the Herald, his last back-to-back came nearly a year ago, on November 28 and 29. How Miami manages his minutes this early will be worth watching.

There is no time to dwell on it. The Heat flew to Charlotte right after the game to face the Hornets on Saturday at 6:00 PM Eastern, which is 1:00 AM Sunday in Athens, leaving just 22 hours between tipoffs, per the Herald. Erik Spoelstra sounded almost relieved. "Probably the best thing for us to do is go on the road with a tough turnaround, with less than 24 hours to play our next game," he said, as the Herald reported. "I think that's what our team needs." Charlotte is on the second night of a back-to-back too, after a 128-81 home loss to Atlanta on Friday.

My take: Giannis is holding up his end, and then some. Seventy-one points in two games at that kind of efficiency is exactly what Miami traded for. What the Heat have not shown yet is a reliable second scorer or a defense that can get stops, and those two problems feed each other. I am not worried about Giannis. I am a little worried about the spacing around him, and about asking a player with his recent injury history to drag a team through October. A road win in Charlotte would calm a lot of nerves.

Win or lose on Saturday, we will be following every Giannis box score this season, and if you are new to his story, our Giannis Antetokounmpo profile is a good place to start. For more on the Greek athletes making noise around the world, from Piraeus to Miami, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Two games, two big nights, zero wins. That last number has to change soon.

Sources: The Associated Press, ESPN, NBA.com, Miami Herald.

Image: Giannis Antetokounmpo at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game, photo by Erik Drost via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).