Even at 18-6, the Heat believes there is room for improvement on defense. This is why
The Miami Heat entered Thursday with the third-best record in the NBA at 18-6, and carries a perfect 11-0 home record into Friday’s showdown against the Lakers.
So, what was Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s message to the team the day before hosting LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the league-best 22-3 Lakers at 7 p.m. Friday? The importance of avoiding prolonged defensive lapses in the middle of games.
Miami entered Thursday with the NBA’s 10th-best defensive rating for the season, a few spots away from its goal of having a top-five defense.
“That was my message to the team,” Spoelstra said following Thursday’s practice at AmericanAirlines Arena. “It’s about consistency, about not getting fatigued mentally. Whatever the circumstance may be. We have certainly those moments where we can defend at a really high level, and then we have other moments where we let it go and we really get taken advantage of in those moments.”
The Heat has flashed its ability to play as an elite defensive team in spurts, especially late in games with the league’s sixth-best fourth-quarter defensive rating. Then there’s also Miami’s mediocre first-half defense, which ranks 16th in the NBA.
Albeit a small sample size, the Heat has also posted the league’s top overtime defensive rating (allowing 45.2 points per 100 possessions) in the four extra periods it has played in this season. Opponents have shot just 6 of 35 against Miami in overtime.
The trend is clear: The Heat’s defense has been better later in games.
“We have a super high conditioning level, we have a toughness level,” Spoelstra said of this trend. “We have Type A competitive guys. They’re going to really pay attention to those last three or four minutes. What about in the second quarter with 10 minutes to go? I want that same type of focus then as in those clutch situations at the end of the game. Is that too much to ask for as a head coach?”
But it isn’t just the Heat’s head coach requesting that level of in-game consistency on the defensive end. The Heat’s four-time All-Star, Jimmy Butler, is looking for the same thing.
“I don’t think we’re where we want to be,” Butler said. “So, I don’t think anybody around here right now is happy with how we’re playing. I don’t care what our record says, we’re much better than our record and how we’re playing. We’re just outscoring teams right now. When it’s time to really win, that’s not going to cut it. Everybody is happy that we’re winning. But with the way we’ve been winning, it’s not good enough.”
With a Heat roster that includes Butler, who has made the NBA’s All-Defensive second team four times in his eight seasons, and center Bam Adebayo, who is widely considered as one of the top defenders in the league at his position, the expectations are high on the defensive end.
The Heat has finished each of the previous four seasons with a top-eight defensive rating.
“He sounds like me or I sound like him,” Spoelstra said with a grin when told of Butler’s comments regarding the Heat’s defensive lapses. “Everybody is striving for that, so nobody has that perfected. But our best version, how consistently can we get to that defensively in a 48-minute game and do it with effort and with the focus and communication. It’s not just the effort. Our effort usually is there. It’s the attention to detail, the communication, the focus, the not getting fatigued mentally. Those things have to improve.
“But I’m right there with [Butler]. Whatever he said, I would just say, ditto from the head coach.”
