Heat on pace to set record for most zone defense played. The good and bad that comes with that
Not only is the Miami Heat using zone defense more than any other team in the NBA this season, it’s using more zone defense than any other team in recent history.
As the Heat works through some early season defensive struggles, the 2-3 zone look that Miami has used more than most since the 2018-19 season has served as a stabilizing force. The Heat has turned to its zone on a league-high 18.4 percent of its defensive possessions and is on pace to set a new modern-day NBA record for most zone possessions played in a season.
Since Synergy Sports began tracking the stat in 2008-09, the current league record was set by the Heat with 1,053 zone possessions during the 2018-19 season. While still early in the schedule, the Heat is on track to play 1,366 zone possessions this season to shatter that mark.
“It’s working,” forward Max Strus said when asked why the Heat has relied so heavily on its 2-3 look. “We’ve been able to get stops out of it, and we’re active and we’re making them take tough shots. It’s been good. We got guys that take pride on the defensive end. Whether it’s man or zone, we’re going to try to get stops any way possible. If it’s been working for us, we’re going to keep doing it.”
The Heat (7-8), which continues its four-game road trip Friday against the Washington Wizards (7 p.m., Bally Sports Sun), held the Raptors to just 0.73 points per possession on 11 zone possessions during Wednesday’s 112-104 loss in Toronto. For perspective on how elite that number is, the Milwaukee Bucks entered Thursday with the NBA’s best overall defense this season at 0.94 points allowed per possession based on Synergy Sports tracking data.
For the season, the Heat is allowing just 0.81 points per possession while playing zone.
“I think it’s working well because it’s unconventional in this league,” Heat guard Gabe Vincent said. “I don’t think a lot of people go to it simply because of the nature of it. Everybody has that pride that they want to guard their man. I just think — not that it’s frowned upon — but it’s not really done. It’s different.
“So I think other teams are struggling with it because of that fact and I think our zone isn’t a conventional zone. It’s kind of tweaked, it’s slightly different and it kind of has evolved during my time here. It poses a different challenge, something that you don’t prepare for every night because most of the league runs the same actions offensively.”
The problem is the Heat’s overall defense is ranked 18th in the NBA, and that’s because its man-to-man defense has been among the league’s worst.
The Heat’s man scheme is allowing 1.04 points per possession, according to Synergy Sports, which is the second-highest mark in the NBA ahead of only the Sacramento Kings. Those struggles have forced Miami to rely on zone more than it has in the past as it continues to work on other aspects of its defensive package.
“I don’t really care what our scheme is,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I just want us to commit defensively to do tough things that are required in this league. The skill level is so high and the shooting and the passing and the spread offenses that it doesn’t matter what our scheme is. You have to commit to making multiple efforts, doing tough things, the intangibles, all the little things that build a stable reliable top-flight defense. We’re not there yet, but we’re making progress and we just have to keep plugging away and improving in both man and zone.”
Opponent three-point shooting has a lot to do with the discrepancy between the Heat’s man and zone defenses. Teams are shooting an ultra-efficient 40.6 percent from three-point range against Miami’s man defense and an inefficient 24.5 percent from beyond the arc against Miami’s zone defense this season.
Neither of those numbers are especially sustainable, so the gap between the Heat’s man and zone defense will close a bit as the two three-point percentages move closer to each other.
But the Heat believes its zone has played a part in opponents’ poor three-point shooting.
“More so than anything, the goal is to just get them out of their normal stuff and make them do something different,” Vincent said. “They start to just run out of time and I think sometimes when that happens, you’re rushing your shot or just taking the first one that’s available.”
The 2-3 scheme has also worked to keep teams from the rim and been effective against pick-and-rolls.
Opponents are taking just 22.7 percent of their shots at the rim against the Heat’s zone compared to 39.5 percent of its shots at the rim against the Heat’s man defense. Miami has also allowed only 0.8 points per pick-and-roll possession (including passes) in zone compared to 1.07 points per pick-and-roll possession in man, according to Synergy Sports.
“The part that I think makes it interesting is we evolve as the teams we’re playing evolve with it,” Vincent said of the Heat’s zone. “So it’s never your traditional pick-and-roll defense that this is what we do every time. That’s not really the case for our zone.”
Ideally, the Heat won’t need to set a modern-day record for zone possessions played in a season. Miami’s base defense remains its man-to-man look and that’s the defense that it will have to use for long-term success.
But at this point, as the Heat’s battles through early-season injury issues and growing pains, it’s whatever it takes to get wins.
“In a perfect world, no team scores over 100 on us,” Vincent said when asked if the Heat would prefer to not be relaying so heavily on its zone defense. “So I think we’re going to do whatever we can to try to keep teams under 100.”
The Heat has finished with a top-10 defensive rating in six of the past seven seasons. To do it again, Miami will need its man-to-man defense to be much better than it was in the first month of the season.
Or the Heat will just need to set an NBA record for the most zone defense played in a season.
“That’s what we pride ourselves on. We’re slowly getting there,” Spoelstra said of Miami’s defense. “We’re not where we want to be defensively. But we understand at least what our identity has to be.”
