Spoelstra: Heat won’t set its defensive standards low ‘based on what others are doing’

Defense has been and always will be the identity of the Miami Heat as long as Erik Spoelstra is coach.

So, just because scoring is up across the league a few games in and it feels like defense is becoming a lost art, Spoelstra said Friday he isn’t going to allow his team to do the same.

In Wednesday night’s loss in Orlando, the Heat gave up 56 points in the paint and had the kind of night that made Miami’s coach pretty mad during the team’s film sessions Thursday and Friday.

So, even with center Hassan Whiteside out for Saturday’s home opener against the Pacers with a bone bruise in his left knee, expect the Heat to put more focus on defense – or prepare to see them get chewed out by their coach.

“Too many to even list off right now,” Spoelstra answered when asked Friday about where the breakdowns occured in Wednesday’s loss.

“We went through all of them on the practice court and in the film [session]. We just have to understand how tough it is in this league not only to defend, but to do it on a high level, to get everybody on the same page playing with liable intensity and focus of mind. We certainly didn’t bring our best disposition or defensive mentality to that type of game... 116 points is not the type of game we want to give up.

“Was it a perfect offensive game? No. But it was good enough to win on the road. A lot of our strengths were hit during that game. Both teams scored 56 in the paint. Both teams were able to get to their strength zones. We got to our strength zones, 37 layup attempts was one of our franchise records. We just weren’t able to defend and stop the bleeding.”

The bleeding, Spoelstra later said, was mostly in pick-and-roll defense. He also said the Heat was too eager to get out and run after missed shots.

“We don’t push without governing. We’re not one of those teams and we never have been,” he said. “We push pace on our terms and reading the flow of the game. I just think that game was played too much on their terms. On their court, it was their pace. They had us on our heels. 56 points on the paint, that’s just not a winning formula for us, especially how we’re built.

“It was one of our poorer defensive games overall, particularly on pick and rolls. We’re much, much better than that. We’ve shown that already in the preseason. We’ll just have to make sure we improve on it [Saturday]. [Indiana is] another team that scored a bunch of points in their opener. Maybe we don’t hold them to 90, but certainly hold them to under 100.”

In the end, Spoelstra doesn’t want to hear that because scoring across the league is up, the Heat can use that as a crutch.

He says the Miami’s defensive standards will remain the same.

“There’s two sides to this game and that’s where people get so confused, often times players get confused,” he said. “They think this game is only played on one side of the floor. Now, more than ever, you have to be able to really commit defensively, really get back in transition and limit teams.

“Now will you have as many of the games where you hold teams under 90 points and under 40 percent [shooting]? We still believe that we can. There may be some variation that’s a little bit higher league-wide. We’ll just have to see.

“But we don’t want to set our standards low just based on what other people are doing. We can still impose and dictate what we want to or we believe is right and continue on the other side of the ball to make our offense more impressive.”

This story was originally published October 20, 2017 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Spoelstra: Heat won’t set its defensive standards low ‘based on what others are doing’."