Miami Heat hangs on, beats Detroit 103-102 in season opener

This was as low-watt as a season opener can be at the start. Especially for a first home game by a team that reached the NBA Finals just four months earlier. The downtown arena had little energy early on. The “Let’s go Heat” chants that started mostly fizzled fast.

The vibe picked up a bit later on for Miami on Wednesday night in what was a perfunctory, better-not-lose game against a rebuilding Detroit Pistons team but ended up a desperate finish to hang on. That’s when the crowd got loud, because the lift was needed to help rescue the home team.

Miami would win, 103-102, only when a last-second Piston shot missed.

“To get a win, I’ll take that 10 times out of 10,” coach Erik Spoelstra said.

“We’re undefeated,” Jimmy Butler said.

This was not an impressive season opener for Miami, though, but the narrowest of escapes.

The Baby Pistons are so young they’d all get carded on South Beach. Their starters had nine combined seasons of NBA experience to the Heat five’s 54.

One Detroit starter was 19 years old and another 20. The three old guys all were 22, including Cade Cunningham, who popped for 30 points.

Miami starters included Kyle Lowry, 37, Kevin Love, 35, and Butler, 34.

The bigger tests that will tell more about Miami’s risky offseason strategy of stay-put are up next

The Pistons have hit reset and are starting over from the hardwood up.

The Heat is … what, exactly? Standing pat and hoping? A year older, a year wiser … but any better?

We’ll find out across the next five days.

This uncorked the 36th Heat season, the 16th with Spoelstra at the helm, and the first in what seems forever with now-retired Udonis Haslem not in a uniform.

Bam Adebayo’s 22 points led five in double figures for Miami, which squandered a 19-point lead before hanging on. Butler added 19 points though he and Tyler Herro combined shot only 13-for-42.

There were a few nice opening-night touches. They had a tribute to Jimmy Buffett, singing legend and Heat fan who died recently. His daughter was courtside beside a seat with her father’s guitar on it. Also courtside: Sylvester Stallone (a University of Miami graduate, by the way).

But the excitement usually associated with opening night may have been missing at first due to the club’s Lost Offseason, one of great disappointment when major star Damian Lillard, who lobbied and begged publicly to be traded to Miami, ended up with Eastern rival Milwaukee instead — a double defeat for the Heat in not finding a way to close the deal on a trade. Miami also saw the departure of key contributors Max Strus and Gabe Vincent, with no additions to move the excitement needle.

Pretty much the same old team, at best, returns. But is that good enough when East rivals all around have improved?

Based on Wednesday’s crowd the Heat must prove to fans it can compete for a championship again because all outward signs are that the team has regressed to mid-pack in its conference, at least by consensus estimation and expectation. Miami begins with the fourth-best betting odds in the conference to win the title. ESPN rankings have the Heat only sixth-best in the East.

Those are numbers that tell you you’re a playoff team (probably), but likely not top-tier.

We’ll know a lot more soon enough, like, right now.

A harrowing escape against a young, learning Pistons team that kept committing turnovers didn’t prove much.

The next three games will, all on the road:

The nemesis Boston Celtics, a powerhouse and among championship favorites, on Friday night.

A decent Minnesota team the next night — the dreaded second game of a back-to-back.

Then the Milwaukee Bucks. With Giannis Antetokounmpo … and now Dame Lillard. Oh my.

“Yeah, let’s go!” Spoelstra said of the immediate challenge. “We’re competitors. We don’t hide from anybody. We don’t dodge anybody. It’s survival of the strongest. I’m sure they’ve circled us on their calendar.”

Said Butler: “It’ll be fun.”

Depending on your sportsbook the Celtics and Bucks are title favorites this season along with reigning champ Denver, which beat Miami 4-1 in the ‘23 Finals.

The Heat in largely bringing back the same team obviously thinks it is contender-quality again.

Seems hardly anybody else agrees.

Somebody is way wrong.

The next three games — especially those bookends in Boston and Milwaukee — will begin to tell us who that is.

This story was originally published October 25, 2023, 10:08 PM.