The Heat has become the magic potion, the perfect panacea, for ailing opponents.

The Detroit Pistons, mired in a seven-game losing streak, got healthy Sunday against a Heat team whose futility has become amazingly consistent.

This 86-80 loss -- the Heat's sixth straight -- featured the usual ingredients: sporadic offense, defensive breakdowns, poor rebounding and too many turnovers (18).

``We don't have bad players, but right now, we have a team that's playing bad,'' coach Pat Riley said. ``We don't execute. We start games doing everything we know we should, and then we revert to non-execution, sort of selfish play, poor spacing, offensive fouls. It just keeps adding up. As the game progresses, we lose a focus. . . . That's why we are where we are.''

Miami (5-23) couldn't capitalize on a season-high 22 points from Brian Grant, who shot 10 for 11. Alonzo Mourning added 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting. But the rest of the Heat shot 15 for 53.

The Pistons kept Mourning and Grant from getting off shots in the second half. Neither missed a shot from the field after halftime, Grant going 3 for 3 and Mourning 2 for 2. But they combined for just 11 points in the second half, after totaling 29 in the first.

``We had a hard time in the second half getting good shots,'' Riley said. ``They took away Brian's jumper. . . . When a defense begins to pressure and front you, you have to execute harder, be tougher, drive the ball harder.''

The Pistons, the NBA's worst rebounding team, beat the Heat 41-30 on the glass, Miami's 30 boards equaling a season low.

``The Pistons can be beat,'' Mourning said. ``We shot ourselves in the foot. It's the same story every time. We get into close games and start doing things that . . . cater to the opposition.''

Down by as many as 12, the Heat pulled to within 83-80 on LaPhonso Ellis' three-pointer with 5.4 seconds left. But Michael Curry hit a free throw, and Ellis threw a bad pass.

As usual, the Heat got unproductive point-guard play and little from the bench. Rod Strickland (eight points) missed six of nine shots and committed four turnovers. He left briefly late in the game after banging knees with Chucky Atkins.

Eddie House had a miserable night, shooting 1 for 11. Riley said he will ``eventually'' use rookie Mike James, who hasn't played in three straight games.

Reserves House, Ellis, Chris Gatling and Kendall Gill combined to shoot 3 for 22. Ellis went 2 for 7, making him 6 for his last 31.

And so it was no surprise the Heat, which ranks last in the league in scoring, failed to reach 100 points for the 28th straight game, one short of the NBA record shared by Orlando and Chicago.

``They've always been a team that has struggled to score,'' said Pistons guard Jerry Stackhouse, who scored a game-high 24. ``I don't understand that because they've got talented scorers. It baffles me how that team is 5-23 because they're much better than that.''

Stackhouse and Curry said former Heat forward Jamal Mashburn -- sent to Charlotte in the Eddie Jones trade -- was ``underestimated'' and is badly missed.

The season has deteriorated so badly, the Heat can't even avoid doing damage to each other. Mourning inadvertently knocked the ball out of Grant's hands when Grant had a layup attempt in the first quarter.

In the third quarter, Jones bruised his left shoulder when he ran into Mourning's elbow. ``It was scary,'' said Jones, who had surgery on the same shoulder in May. ``It stung, but I'm fine.''

Jones had 15 points and six steals but three turnovers.

One encouraging sign was the play of Grant, who entered shooting 40.5 percent.

Grant consistently hit his jumper for one of the few times this season.

``Wide-open shots,'' Grant said. ``Unlike past games, I took them.''

The Pistons hit 16 of their first 22 shots to go up by 12, then cooled off, finishing at 46.2 percent. But the Heat was held below 82 points for the sixth time in its past nine games.

``We have a lot of breakdowns at both ends, and then we tend to get discouraged and have another breakdown,'' Jones said.