Nearly three weeks ago, the Miami Heat were riding high. They were winners of seven-straight, 10 of their last 12 and 11 of their last 14, putting themselves in serious contention for a top-5 seed in the East. Despite being shorthanded, there was more rotational clarity, more two-way versatility and they looked like a team believing they could make a run in the East once the calendar turned April.
We still haven’t reached April, but the Miami Heat have suddenly crashed back to earth — hard. They have lost six of their last seven and own the league’s sixth-worst NET Rating over that span. That’s better than only the Kings, Wizards, Nets, Bucks and Grizzlies. The majority of those teams are tanking. The Heat are not — at least not intentionally.
The root of the cause has been its play on the defensive end, where the Heat have seemingly lost their identity. And there’s no better proof than the Heat’s latest 149-128 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve put in the time. The guys have put in blood, sweat, and tears to develop a top-4 defense two weeks ago. And we need it the most is when we’ve let it disappear. It’s unacceptable.”
The Miami Heat defense has fallen off a cliff:
The Heat defense has dropped to No. 9 after being a top-5 unit earlier this month. Over the aforementioned seven-game sample — a small, but noteworthy one — they are No. 28, surrendering 124.9 points per 100 possessions.
The Heat defense — its physicality, discipline and relentlessness — has long been the identity of this team under Erik Spoelstra. But it’s crumbled at the worst time. According to Cleaning The Glass, five of the Heat’s worst six games defensively this year have all been within the last two weeks, allowing at least 130.9 points per 100 in those contests.
“At this time, it’s not like we’re trying to fabricate something out of nothing,” Spoelstra said. “We have five months of great defensive habits and we’ve put in a lot of work to develop those habits and develop pride in (our) defense. It would be one thing if we had the 20th-ranked defense for months and I’m saying, ‘Hey we have to defend.’ Literally two weeks ago — or less than — we had the fourth-ranked defense.
“We have it in us and when there’s the most pressure is when we need it the most right now. I hope we’re taking it to heart. We’re much better than (that).”
The worst part of this recent trend is that it’s correlated with the Heat’s health; they’re now fully healthy, yet the results yield as if they’re limping to the finish line. Their preferred starting lineup — Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins and Bam Adebayo — is merely mediocre (115.4 DRTG; 45th percentile) defensively, despite possessing three above-average defenders at their position, including one of the league’s best in Adebayo.
Their healthy group has continuously dug itself deep holes that have become too insurmountable to overcome. With less than 10 games left, that’s an issue — a big issue. Miami is just two games out from the No. 6 seed in the East with little margin-for-error, suggesting it will almost be a sure-fire play-in team — again.
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How about those Wildcats. Quite a few draft prospects in first and second round.
The Wizards scored 129 points on them ffs
So much for front court help. Dude is a SG who is a worse defender than Herro or Powell.
BREAKING: Lonnie Walker IV signs a 1-year, $2.8M deal with the Miami Heat, adding needed scoring and depth on the wing.
Walker IV is coming off a strong run with Maccabi Tel Aviv, posting 20.1 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 2.5 APG, earning another shot to prove himself back in the league.
I’ve looked at different sources and the only place I’ve seen this is on Facebook. Checked SS, HoopsHype, and Miami Herald and no mention of it. Hopefully fake news. Why would they sign someone for that money when other players are available. Also, they’d have to release Rozier or another player to sign anybody.
Because they have no clue what they are doing. I think Riley wants a quiet “soft tank” because his ego can’t accept the fact that he has f’d s**t up.
That’s what I get for believing Facebook. What are they going to say next…tariffs are good for American consumers?
nope.. tariffs are great for American consumers… duh.
Almost as good as the trickle down effect.
There is an interesting artcle in allucanheat, Here’s a few excerpts.
Heat’s mishandling of Nikola Jovic will cost them for years to comeThe Heat completely whiffed on Nikola Jovic.
The Miami Heat prematurely giving of Nikola Jovic a significant contract extension (four years, $62 million) could be one big mistake that costs this franchise for years to come. Even though many do not admit it just yet, Jovic does have a feeling of a bust. And it may not be entirely his fault.
Locking him into a big contract could end up being a misstep this team may already be beginning to regret.
Not only did it force him into a role as a key foundational piece that he may not have been ready for, but it also added immense pressure on him as a player.
It’s unfortunate because this entire situation was completely avoided. The Heat, for one reason or another, thought it was a necessity to get from out in front of a Jovic leap that many expected. That leap never came, and, in fact, there’s a strong argument to be made that he took a step back in his development this season…
Jovic is young enough that he can still turn things around, but this season has been extremely discouraging. And if Jovic isn’t able to turn things around quickly, this is the type of mistake that could set a franchise back.
The argument could be made that it already has.
Riley and Spo have lost sight of what made Miami relevant…DEFENSE!!! Spo initiated an offensive emphasis at the expense of defensive effectiveness. He was under the mistaken belief the run & gun offense would allow the Heat to compete with the NBA’s elite scoring teams.
The team needs to get back to its former identity. The Heat should jetison all one way players and only scout, draft, trade for and sign legitimate two way players.The only exception woulds be players who have demonstrated exceptionally high offensive histories or offensive players with defensive potential.
I’ve felt for some time that Riley and Spo have each lost their touch. The responsibily rests mostly on Riley’s shoulders. Spo has simply been continuously rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic attempting to make lemonade out of the lemons Riley has given him.
tyler is unplayable sun.u cant be that bad defensively
Powell and Herro cannot play together if Spo expects to have a top 5 defensive team. It aint gonna happen.
Oh man, if only someone who owns cruise ships would listen to you. Riley has had a particularly rough season on his percentage of good moves to moves or non-moves that didn’t work out too well.
Yes, but they were safe.
I think its fair to say, that Spo has something to do with it too, at least in the last game. It was a game of matchups, and it was painfully visible, that Wiggins cant defend Allen, and Herro and Powell cant defend anybody.
I tend to blame the roster more than Spo. I have trouble understanding how we even got such high defensive ratings before as the personnel issues that lead to this late season breakdown existed all year. It’s been a necessary trade off, because tall front lines will always dominate us. Wiggins is the best we have and even though he makes a great effort, he’s too small. And the offense will suffer if we put in the better defenders at guard. Pelle and Davion help more on the d, but Ty and Norm put up the numbers.
def spos use of personnel major issue all year have wigg on allen just dum.bc dav ty norm really spobot.no kj ever ever.