What’s behind the Heat’s defensive improvement? And the challenge it faces vs. Celtics
After finishing the regular season with somewhat mediocre defensive numbers, the Miami Heat knew it needed to take a step forward on that end of the court to have success in the playoffs.
The Heat’s defense took that important step forward in the first two rounds of the postseason on its way to the Eastern Conference finals. Miami has recorded the NBA’s fourth-best defensive rating in the playoffs (allowing 105.4 points per 100 possessions) after finishing the regular season with the 12th-best defensive rating (allowing 109.3 points per 100 possessions).
The Heat, which featured the seventh-most efficient offense in the regular season, will need to take another step forward on the defensive end when it opens the East finals Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. (ESPN) against the Boston Celtics.
“I still feel like we have another level,” All-Star Bam Adebayo said of the Heat’s defense. “But that’s me being picky. I don’t feel like we’ve played 48 minutes of successful defense. And shooting slumps, I think it affects us defensively a little bit sometimes. But I feel like we have another level. So this series, hopefully we can get to that next level and play 48 minutes of Miami Heat defense.”
Adebayo isn’t wrong, with the Heat posting subpar defensive ratings in the first and third quarters this postseason — 10th-best defensive rating among the 16 playoff teams in the first quarter (allowing 112.8 points per 100 possessions) and 11th-best defensive rating in the third quarter (allowing 113.4 points per 100 possessions).
But the Heat’s defense has been dominant in the fourth quarter during the playoffs. Miami owns the third-best fourth-quarter defensive rating this postseason, allowing just 97.1 points per 100 possessions.
“I just think they defend to win,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “They’re just smart, they’re tough, they’re in the right spots, they know where the threats are, they don’t take a possession off.”
How can the Heat’s defensive turnaround be explained?
For one, it’s the playoffs and coach Erik Spoelstra has had time to build opponent-specific defensive game plans to put his players in favorable positions to excel. There has been very little zone defense used in the postseason because the Heat’s man-to-man scheme has been effective up to this point.
But then it also comes down to personnel, as a starting lineup change made the Heat a more versatile team. Forward and plus-defender Jae Crowder moved into the starting lineup for 7-footer Meyers Leonard, and Miami’s defense immediately became a more switchable unit that can flatten offenses.
One result has been fewer three-point shot attempts allowed. Miami gave up the third-most three-point attempts in the league in the regular season at 37.7 per game, and it has allowed the fewest three-point attempts in the playoffs at 32.6 per game.
“It just makes us more dynamic,” Adebayo said of the Heat’s switchy defense. “And it makes you harder to prepare for, because you know we’re switching everything and we’re helping one another, we’re flying around, we’re being active, deflections. You can’t really scout for a defense like that, because it’s so unpredictable. We’re doing it with energy and effort and we’re communicating, so you can’t really scout that type of defense.”
This will be important against the Celtics, which closed the regular season with the NBA’s fourth-best offensive rating.
Boston’s offense features a variety of weapons on the perimeter, as five players averaged double-digit points in the regular season — Jayson Tatum (23.4 points per game), Kemba Walker (20.4), Jaylen Brown (20.3), Gordon Hayward (17.5) and Marcus Smart (12.9).
“We have a lot of guys that can guard multiple positions,” Heat guard Goran Dragic said. “I think we have the right guys who can defend their guys. It’s going to be of course a team effort. We need to help each other on defense. Definitely that’s going to be a big key of this series. Who’s going to defend better? We feel like we can still improve with our defense. We made some mistakes, but we’re learning too and getting better each day.”
With the Indiana Pacers hunting Heat defensive switches they considered mismatches, the Celtics are expected to do the same with their array of offensive weapons in Tatum, Walker, Brown and Smart, who can all attack defenses off the dribble. The Pacers specifically worked to isolate Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson on the defensive end, and Herro and Robinson struggled at times.
“I feel like this game is going to be a lot of guard-your-yard time,” Adebayo said. “You got help defense, but you, yourself, have to get that stop. And I feel this is what this series is going to be like, just one-on-one basketball, you’ve got to win your matchup. You’ve got to make shots tough. You’ve got to contest shots. You’ve got to make it hard for them. We know if any of those guys gets in a flow, they can go off for 30-plus.
“So just lock in, and the communication, just weak-side, everybody’s got to pull over, everybody’s got to have a foot in the paint because they are scorers. They want to drive, they want to make plays.”
One thing is for sure, the Heat’s defensive game plan in the East finals will be different than the one it used in the second round against reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.
“I still think Giannis doesn’t have as much help as Tatum,” Dragic said. “If you look, [Tatum] has got Kemba and Brown. He’s the leader of that team, no doubt. We need to prepare for him. But we cannot just throw out the whole defense at him and forget about other guys. I think Brown was huge for them. Kemba, too. So they have a lot of guys who feed off of him and he demonstrated that he’s an all-around player. He can make plays for himself, he can make plays for others. So it’s going to have to be team defense.”
THIS AND THAT
▪ Stevens said following Sunday afternoon’s practice of the Heat: “Super well-coached, organized on both ends. Their offensive cutting and playing off catch-and-shoots and dribble handoffs is elite. They’ve got good pick-and-roll players. They can play through their five as the hub of the offense, whether it’s Adebayo or [Kelly] Olynyk. Or they can play through their multiple ball-handlers, Dragic and Butler. Their shooters space the floor out for all those guys. ... I think they’ve played as well as anybody in the last two months. It’s not a surprise that they’ve played as well as they have in the playoffs because they’ve looked great the entire time and got a great way about them.”
▪ Stevens said he expects Hayward, who has missed most of the playoffs after spraining his right ankle in the Celtics’ postseason opener, to “play at some point in this series.”
▪ Robinson, who grew up near Boston in New Castle, N.H., said Sunday that in his hometown “there are maybe some people who are still rooting for the Celtics” to beat the Heat.
“All the people that are close to me, I wouldn’t say are torn, because they’re definitely rooting for me,” Robinson said. “But there is an interesting dynamic in play there with that. But I felt a ton of support and I know everyone back home is also excited.”
▪ Herro told the Associated Press that he learned he had COVID-19 after testing positive for the antibodies during the NBA shutdown.
“I was sick for a week or two,” Herro said to the AP. “My chest was hurting really bad. I had it right when the season shut down.”
This story was originally published September 13, 2020 at 3:51 PM.
