A closer look at another dominant effort from the Heat’s defense and Jimmy Butler’s impact
The Miami Heat set the defensive tone from the first possession of Sunday night’s game.
Heat center Bam Adebayo switched onto Portland Trail Blazers star guard Damian Lillard and deflected a pass intended for center Jusuf Nurkic rolling to the rim. The deflected pass fell into Heat forward Trevor Ariza’s hands and it turned into a transition alley-oop dunk from Kendrick Nunn to Adebayo for the first basket of the game.
That was just the start of another elite defensive performance for the Heat, which held a potent Blazers offense under 100 points in a 107-98 win on Sunday to kick off a four-game trip. It marked just the fifth game this season that Portland, which owns the NBA’s sixth-best offensive rating this season, has been held to under 100 points.
“Just trying to really hone in on defense,” Adebayo said, with the Heat continuing its trip Tuesday against another quality opponent in the Phoenix Suns (10 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “I feel like we’re one of those teams, that’s how we win on the defensive end. When we’re able to get stops and run in transition and get free layups, I feel like we win a lot.”
The Heat generated a lot of points off the Trail Blazers’ mistakes Sunday, turning 17 turnovers into 28 points. Miami outscored Portland 20-0 in points off turnovers in the first half and ended the game with a 28-7 advantage in that category.
The main reason why the Trail Blazers’ sloppy play turned into Heat points is because 12 of Portland’s 17 turnovers were of the live-ball variety.
“You got to get in the passing lanes, make their passes difficult, contest every shot,” Heat wing Jimmy Butler said. “I think we did a good job of getting our hands in the way, getting some deflections, getting some steals and getting out into the open court.”
Sunday is not an outlier for Miami, though. The Heat has been one of the NBA’s top defensive teams this season, entering Monday with the league’s sixth-best defensive rating (allowing 109.3 points per 100 possessions).
That’s the exact same defensive rating Miami finished last season with to rank 12th in that category, but a league-wide scoring surge this season has the Heat up to sixth despite the identical number.
And Sunday’s formula has been a winning one for the Heat his season. Miami is 15-4 this season when holding its opponent under 100 points and 20-9 when finishing with fewer turnovers than its opponent.
“For the better part of three months, we’ve defended at a very high level,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s a matter of being able to build these habits night in and night out against these incredible challenges that you have in this league.”
The Heat has also been one of the NBA’s best at speeding opposing offenses up with its aggressive style and creating mistakes, as it has forced opponents into the second-most turnovers per 100 possessions (15.5) in the league this season.
Butler, who has made the NBA’s All-Defensive second team four times in his career, has led the Heat’s defensive push this season. He recorded four steals and two blocks in Sunday’s win, and is averaging a career-high and league-leading 2.1 steals per game.
With Butler’s incredible knack for disrupting the passing lanes and ability to effectively switch onto different positions, the Heat has been a significantly better defensive team this season when he’s playing. Miami has allowed 105.4 points per 100 possessions with Butler on the court (would rank first in the NBA among teams for the season) and 111.6 points per 100 possessions with Butler off the court (would rank 15th in the NBA among teams for the season).
“It’s his competitive fire. Things matter to him on that side of the floor,” Spoelstra said of Butler’s defensive impact. “It puts him in a natural position to lead defensively when you have your leading scorer that’s willing to take on big challenges every single night. But he’s also very disciplined. He’s active, he makes multiple efforts, he knows scouting reports. All of these things allow you to build a great defense around his skill set.”
With Adebayo also able to effectively guard every position on the court, the Heat has an All-Defensive caliber duo anchoring the unit.
“It definitely makes it easier because all me and Jimmy do is switch the whole game,” Adebayo said. “So it definitely makes the scheme easy. We’ve developed this connection where sometimes it’s just reaction. Like I know what he’s going to do on certain schemes when the opponent is running it. We built that connection, so it’s definitely easier for both of us.”
While the Heat’s switch-heavy and aggressive style leaves it at a size disadvantage at times in the paint when a smaller player finds himself rotating onto a center, Miami had had success against some of the NBA’s top guards this season.
The Heat often sends constant traps at the opponent’s best guard to get the ball out of his hands and force others to make the right pass and score. There have been a few games this season that opponents have taken advantage of this strategy to find open three-point shooters on the weak side or beaten the Heat’s rotations with sharp passing, but there have also been many games that this scheme has worked to disrupt the rhythm of opposing offenses.
The Trail Blazers’ elite backcourt duo of Lillard and CJ McCollum combined for just 29 points on 28 shots and committed nine turnovers in Sunday’s loss to the Heat. The Heat sent traps at Lillard throughout the night to limit him to just 10 shot attempts and Butler was used to defend McCollum for most of the game.
“We always try to keep aggressive guards, explosive guards like Dame and CJ off balance,” Nunn said. “Whether that’s blitzing or switching and things like that. Just to give them some different looks and keep them off balance.”
It doesn’t get any easier for Miami on Tuesday against Phoenix. Next up for the Heat is another one of the NBA’s best backcourts, with the Suns led by All-Star guards Devin Booker and Chris Paul.
The Suns entered Monday with the league’s seventh-best offensive rating this season.
“This is the league,” Spoelstra said. “If you have real competitors in your locker room, you want these kind of challenges. You want to compete against the best teams and see how you line up.”
INJURY REPORT
The Heat listed Victor Oladipo (right knee soreness) and KZ Okpala (health and safety protocols) as out for Tuesday’s game against the Suns. Oladipo did not travel with the team on the trip and will miss his second straight game because of the knee issue.
The only other Heat player on the injury report is two-way contract guard Gabe Vincent, who is probable with right knee soreness.
This story was originally published April 12, 2021 at 1:54 PM.
