The Detroit Pistons announced that guard Cade Cunningham (quad contusion) is available to play in Sunday’s game against the Miami Heat after being listed as probable and missing their last game.<\/p>\n
ANALYSIS<\/p>\n
Without Wiggins again, expect the Heat to continue to trot out Myron Gardner as a rotation forward, who likely starts in his place again, along with minutes for Dru Smith and larger guaranteed roles for Pelle Larsson and Jaime Jaquez Jr.<\/p>\n
For the Pistons, with Cunningham in and Thompson and LeVert out, don’t be surprised if Daniss Jenkins, Marcus Sasser and Kevin Huerter take on bigger roles than they typically do when everyone’s healthy and available.<\/p>\n
With Thompson, a world-class defender, out of the mix, the Heat will be able to score a little bit easier but will miss the pros of being able to play help defense by leaving Thompson, who isn’t a good shooter, open when he’s off the ball.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Sasser, Jenkins and Huerter’s expected larger roles would give the Pistons more shooting as well as ball-handling surrounding Cunningham’s All-Star attack.<\/p>\n
Here’s the rest of the injury report and game preview:<\/p>\n
INJURY REPORTHEAT<\/p>\n
Andrew Wiggins: Out – Knee<\/p>\n
Simone Fontecchio: Out – Groin<\/p>\n
Norman Powell: Out – Groin<\/p>\n
Nikola Jovic: Out – Back<\/p>\n
Keshad Johnson: Out – G League Assignment<\/p>\n
Trevor Keels: Available – G League (Two-Way)<\/p>\n
Jahmir Young: Out – G League (Two-Way)<\/p>\n
Vlad Goldin: Available – G League (Two-Way)<\/p>\n
Terry Rozier: Out – Not with team<\/p>\n
PISTONS<\/p>\n
Cade Cunningham: Available – Quadriceps<\/p>\n
Ausar Thompson: Out – Ankle<\/p>\n
Caris LeVert: Out – Wrist<\/p>\n
Wendell Moore Jr.: Available – G League (Two-Way)<\/p>\n
Tolu Smith III: Available – G League (Two-Way)<\/p>\n
Isaac Jones: Available – G League (Two-Way)<\/p>\n
Game date, time and location:\u00a0Sunday, Mar. 8, 6:00 p.m. EST, Kaseya Center, Miami, Florida<\/p>\n
TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Sun, FanDuel Sports Network Detroit<\/p>\n
Radio:\u00a0104.3 FM (Miami\/Ft. Lauderdale), ESPN 106.3 FM, (West Palm Beach), FOX Sports Radio 105.9 FM (Ft. Myers\/Naples), 1450 AM (Suart), 97.7 FM (Florida Keys), WAQI 710 AM (Spanish-language broadcast, South Florida), 950 AM (Detroit)<\/p>\n
VITALS: The\u00a0Miami Heat<\/a>\u00a0(35-29) and\u00a0Detroit Pistons<\/a>\u00a0(45-17) meet for the third and final regular season matchup. So far this season, the teams have split the series, 1-1, with each squad winning on the road. The HEAT are 73-61 all-time versus Detroit during the regular season, including 40-26 in home games and 33-35 in road games.<\/p>\n PROJECTED STARTERSHEAT<\/p>\n G Davion Mitchell<\/p>\n G Tyler Herro<\/p>\n C Bam Adebayo<\/p>\n F Pelle Larsson<\/p>\n F Myron Gardner<\/p>\n PISTONS<\/p>\n G Cade Cunningham<\/p>\n G Marcus Sasser<\/p>\n C Jalen Duren<\/p>\n F Duncan Robinson<\/p>\n F Tobias Harris<\/p>\n Spread: Heat +1.5 (-110), Pistons -1.5 (-110)<\/p>\n Moneyline: Heat +102, Pistons -120<\/p>\n Total points scored: 231.5 (over -110, under -110)<\/p>\n Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call\u00a0.<\/p>\n QUOTABLE<\/p>\n Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra after the win over the Charlotte Hornets:\u00a0“I really want our guys to have these kind of moments, that’s what I’ve been saying for the last month. This is the best time of year, we feel like our game has been trending in such a great way, both ends of the court. Our defense is just getting more consistent, you see the efforts and you see more guys making an impact and then offensively, we’ve felt that way since the turn of the new year, that our offense has been going in a good way, but now it becomes about these competitive games.”<\/p>\n For more Miami Heat information and conversation, check out\u00a0Off The Floor.<\/a>Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer\/co-host of the\u00a0Five on the Floor podcast<\/a>, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at\u00a0Twitter: @tropicalblanket<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Pistons announced that guard Cade Cunningham (quad contusion) is available to play in Sunday’s game against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-183529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}