The Heat’s defense needs to adjust to this faster style. Here’s how Miami plans to do it
The NBA game is changing. And the Heat is trying to keep up, literally and figuratively.
With teams playing faster than ever to start the season, the Heat’s defense is working to adjust to a new style that’s been growing in popularity over the past few years.
Miami’s first test against one of the fastest teams in the NBA didn’t go well in Monday’s loss to the Kings. Sacramento (ranked second in pace) scored 123 on 49.5 percent shooting and finished with an 18-8 edge in fast-break points.
The Heat will have another chance, though, this time against an even quicker team when it faces the Hawks in Atlanta on Saturday. The Hawks entered Thursday as the league’s fastest team when it comes to pace, averaging 108.6 possessions per 48 minutes.
To put that number into perspective, the Pelicans finished as the NBA’s fastest-paced team last season with 101.6 possessions per 48 minutes.
“It’s tough,” Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. “We’re a great half-court defensive team, for the most part. But these teams aren’t letting you set up too much. The biggest thing is once you score, they’re getting the ball out and going and shooting the first available shot. It’s taking everyone around the league time to adjust to this new style everyone is playing. But if you want to win, you got to do it and it’s going to be hard.”
The question is, how can the Heat make the adjustment?
One suggestion Wade brought up was having less players stay for the offensive rebound and having more run back to play defense.
The Heat has started the season as one of the league’s top rebounding teams, averaging the third-most offensive rebounds with 13 per game. But that effort didn’t help Miami against Sacramento, as Kings center Willie Cauley-Stein beat Heat big men down the court multiple times to finish with 26 points.
Another key to defending against fast teams has to do with matching up. With defenses not getting a chance to set up, preventing a transition basket is sometimes as simple as each defender picking up the closest player to them regardless of position.
“That’s something we talked about a lot in the Sacramento game, especially after the start of the game,” Wade said. “We can’t all run back to our man. It’s not like there are post-ups in this league like that no more anyway. At least for a little while, you can guard fours and fives. You just got to get back and match up and let them see bodies. It’s a communication thing, something we worked on today in practice.”
The Heat would also benefit from fewer turnovers, which create additional fast-break scoring opportunities for opponents. Miami entered Thursday averaging the eighth-most turnovers in the league at 15.9 per game.
The Kings scored 25 on a season-high 18 turnovers from the Heat.
“Regardless, it’s vital,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of limiting turnovers. “If you play a slower pace, then there’s less possessions, turnovers mean sometimes even more. But if you play at a faster pace, you’re giving opportunities potentially for the other team scoring on pick-6s. That’s never good. It doesn’t even matter. For us, we’ve been turning the ball over too much. We’ve got to get that number down. It’ll help a lot of aspects of our game.”
The Heat has been working since the start of training camp to adjust to this up-tempo style. The results just didn’t show it in Monday’s loss to the Kings.
“We’ve been preparing for that. We just didn’t handle it well,” Spoelstra said. “Playing the games we played in preseason, you can already see that everybody was playing much quicker. You have to be able to have next-play speed right away, regardless of what happens, and be able to get a couple of guys back and then that’s only part of it. You now make quick decisions, communicating who’s got who and covering. We’re capable of doing that better than we did against Sacramento.”
Saturday’s game against the Hawks will give the Heat another opportunity to prove it.
Dragic, Whiteside miss practice
Heat point guard Goran Dragic missed Thursday’s practice with a lingering pain in his right foot. He received a cortisone shot to help ease the pain, and he’s hopeful he’ll be able to play in Saturday’s road game against the Hawks.
Center Hassan Whiteside also missed Thursday’s practice. He was out with a migraine, but is expected back for Friday’s practice.
This story was originally published November 1, 2018 at 4:26 PM.