Five takeaways: The Heat knows it. To have chance to win most games, quality defense is needed
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 120-107 win over the Brooklyn Nets (6-9) on Wednesday at Barclays Center.
1. The good Heat (6-8) defense made another appearance. After slipping all the way down to 19th in the league’s defensive rating rankings, Miami put together a solid performance on that end of the court in Brooklyn following a team meeting stressing the importance of defense. The Heat limited the Nets to 107 points on 40.2 percent shooting. Miami needed this after allowing 116.7 points on 49.8 percent shooting over its previous three games, all losses.
“It has to be that way for this team, and it’s hard hat, lunch pail, every day,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And there’s no other way. I like our approach in actually the last few days, but yesterday was a great day after a disappointing loss and followed it up with a good prep this morning. Those things don’t guarantee anything, but you just constantly continue to try to build the right habits. And guys really committed with the efforts, with their voices, to make it tough.”
Yes, the Nets aren’t the best offensive team in the league. Yes, the Nets were without their best player Caris LeVert, who dislocated his right foot earlier this week. But all of that doesn’t really matter here because Miami has struggled against worse teams, like allowing the struggling Hawks (second-worst offensive rating in the NBA) to score 123 on 52.3 percent shooting on Nov. 3.
One of the most impressive aspects of the performance was Miami’s interior defense. The Heat finished with a season-high 70 paint points, and held the Nets to 58 points on an underwhelming 29 of 63 shooting in the paint.
The Heat strives to finish every season as a top-10 defensive team. Following Wednesday’s win, Miami ranks 13th with a defensive rating of 107.8 (points allowed per 100 possessions). The Heat is now 4-0 this season when keeping opponents at a shooting percentage of 41 percent or below.
Now, the question is: Can the Heat string together two quality defensive performances? Miami’s defense has already had good nights this season, but it’s had just as many bad nights. Next up for the Heat is a Friday road game against the Pacers, which own the 11th-best offensive rating in the league.
2. As a section of Nets fans chanted, “Offer sheet” at Tyler Johnson, he turned in his best performance of the season. The Heat guard finished with a season-high 24 points on an efficient 9 of 12 shooting off the bench against the organization that signed him to a four-year, $50 million offer sheet the Heat matched in restricted free agency in the summer of 2016. That Nets offer sheet didn’t end with Johnson joining Brooklyn, but it did result in the Heat having to pay him $19.2 million this season and next season.
“We need him to be aggressive off the bench,” Spoelstra said of Johnson. “We’ve been able to insert him a little bit earlier in the games since Dwyane [Wade] is away and it’s kind of activated him and got him engaged quicker. But he’s reading it, as well, because not every play is just to make to the rim. But the aggressiveness certainly is important for us. It’s good for him to see the ball go in, because he’s been putting a lot of time at it.”
After a slow start, Johnson has looked sharp recently. He’s averaged 15.8 points on 48.9 percent shooting to go with four rebounds and 2.5 assists in his past four games. That’s the player the Heat needs, not the one who averaged seven points on 36.7 percent shooting over the first week of the season.
“Really what it was, was just not getting discouraged because things were trending in the right way,” Johnson said of bouncing back from a rough start to the season. “Just, I think my whole life has always been things are really good or they’ve been really bad. So it’s just taking the time to just progressively build things the right way so you have a solid foundation to keep moving forward.”
3. This is a win, so it didn’t matter this time. But the Heat’s turnover struggles continued. Miami committed 18 turnovers the Nets turned into 21 points on Wednesday. The Heat is averaging the fourth-most turnovers per game this season at 16.8. Miami has now committed at least 18 turnovers in three of its past four games.
It’s still very early. But if this 16.8 turnover average holds, it would be the most the Heat has averaged in a season since it ended the 1995-96 season with 17 per game.
4. There was a Udonis Haslem sighting in Brooklyn. The 16-year-NBA veteran made his second appearance of the season Wednesday, with centers Hassan Whiteside, Bam Adebayo and Kelly Olynyk all battling foul trouble. Haslem played two minutes and finished with two points — his first points of the season — on 1 of 2 shooting.
“It was great to see OG come in there,” Johnson said. “And you see that even he’s ready. He hasn’t played in how long and he’s always ready.”
It’s no surprise that Haslem, 38, has been a limited on-court participant this year. He’s played just 202 minutes over the previous two seasons. The Heat’s all-time leading rebounder has now logged six minutes in two games played this season. While he plays a big role in the locker room as a team captain, foul trouble or a lopsided score are usually the only two situations that draw a Haslem appearance at this stage of his career.
As for Miami’s other bigs, Whiteside finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks despite playing just 22 minutes because of foul trouble.
5. Miami solved the Brooklyn conundrum. Defeating the Nets shouldn’t be a huge accomplishment, considering they finished last season with 28-54 record and are now 6-9 this season. But for this Heat team, it is. Miami entered Wednesday with a three-game losing skid to Brooklyn, dropping the final three games of last year’s season series with the Nets.
Despite its recent struggles against Brooklyn, the Heat has still won the battle over the long haul. Miami has now won 12 of its past 16 regular-season games against Brooklyn, dating back to the start of the 2014-15 season.
This story was originally published November 15, 2018 at 12:15 AM.