Heat finds clarity as playoffs near: ‘There’s a better understanding of what wins for us’
The Miami Heat’s identity crisis is over — just in time for the final weeks of the regular season as it works to make a push up the Eastern Conference standings.
After dropping seven consecutive games in January for its longest losing streak since the 2007-08 season, the Heat (34-26) has bounced back to win 10 of its past 13 games behind a defensive resurgence to go from one game above .500 to eight games above .500 at the 60-game mark.
“I think there’s a better understanding of what wins for us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said with just 22 games left in the regular season. “We compete and defend, we create the karma we need. If we don’t, we pay the price.”
Just weeks after recording the NBA’s fourth-worst defensive rating (124.2 points allowed per 100 possessions ) during its seven-game losing streak, the Heat has turned things around to post the league’s second-best defensive rating (106.7 points allowed per 100 possessions) during this current 10-3 stretch. Only the Minnesota Timberwolves have a better defensive rating than the Heat during this 13-game run.
This revival has the Heat entering Monday with the NBA’s eighth-best defensive rating this season. That’s been enough to negate some of its ongoing offensive issues, as the Heat holds the NBA’s 21st-ranked offensive rating this season and 18th-ranked offensive rating during this current 13-game span of encouraging play.
“When we really lock down and defend with physicality and force and discipline and with a mind, we can accomplish some things,” Spoelstra continued, with the Heat closing its quick two-game homestand on Tuesday against the struggling Detroit Pistons (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun).
“I think there’s a collective understanding of that and more importantly a commitment to that. It’s not easy. This league is hard. The offenses now are super dynamic. Speed, space and pace makes it challenging for every single team. So the biggest thing you have to wrap your mind around is doing tough things and that doesn’t even guarantee anything. It just gives you a better chance at it.”
What has led to the Heat’s improved results on the defensive end?
Some of it is schematic, with the Heat relying on its press zone more often during this 10-3 stretch.
The Heat has allowed just 0.97 points per possession on 16.2 zone defensive possessions per game over the last 13 games, compared to 1.21 points per possession on just 8.7 zone defensive possessions in the first 47 games of the season.
But some of it comes down to simply doing things better, as the Heat’s defense that is built to cut off driving lanes and limit opportunities at the rim has done exactly that. After allowing 23.3 shots from within the restricted area during its seven-game losing streak, the Heat has cut that number down to 18.8 shots from that area of the court during this latest 13-game span.
The Heat has also limited second-chance opportunities and forced more turnovers lately.
“Our identity on defense,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said of what has stood out from the last 13 games. “Really getting stops, really getting teams in the mud and we’re letting that be our offense. We feel like it’s easier when you play in transition than taking the ball out of the net.”
It’s also easier for the Heat when Jimmy Butler is at the center of the offense and producing at an All-NBA level.
After averaging 21.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 49.1 percent from the field over the Heat’s first 47 games of the season, Butler has turned his game up a notch to average 24.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 2.1 steals per game while shooting 55.6 percent from the field during this 13-game stretch as he gears up for the postseason.
The Heat is a dominant 12-4 this season when Butler finishes a game with a usage rate (an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while on the court) of 25 percent or higher. Five of those 16 games from Butler have come during this 10-3 surge.
“I love this game, I love this city, this organization, these guys that I get to hoop with,” Butler said. “This is the fun part. This is what you do the entire summer for and the preseason and before All-Star break. Now you get to show out, you get to show everybody who you are as an individual and as a player and who your team is. So right now is when we all want to be playing and we want to keep winning.”
The Heat needs to keep winning if it wants to avoid the play-in tournament, as it enters Monday in seventh place in the East. Only 2.5 games separates the fourth and eighth-place teams in the tight East playoff race.
The play-in tournament, which is done during the week between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs, features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference. Since this version of the NBA’s play-in tourney began in the 2020-21 season, the Heat is the only play-in tournament team to advance to the NBA Finals after making it to the championship series as the East’s No. 8 seed last season.
The Heat would rather not face that same uphill road to the NBA Finals again this season, hoping to create an easier playoff path for itself behind its identity built around elite defense and the All-NBA version of Butler.
“We’ve been telling you all all along that we’re going to be just fine,” Butler said. “We see who we are and we have to continue to pour into that. So when we’re guarding, when we’re not even worried about offense and we’re worried about the defensive end, the game is easy.”
