Spoelstra trying to make a case for defense
Faster pace, higher scoring making it difficult, but Heat aiming to rank among NBA’s elite
MIAMI — The goal remains to be defensively elite.
“There will be a top five, one way or another,” Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Monday after practice at AmericanAirlines Arena. “It doesn’t matter what the pace is. It doesn’t matter how the league is playing. It doesn’t matter how the officials are officiating. There will be five of the best defensive teams out there. So we hope to be one of those. We have some work to do.”
Yes, they do.
The Heat stand with a 108.0 defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) through the season’s first three games. As a matter of perspective, the Heat have not finished a season with as high a defensive rating since they stood at 110.0 at the end of 2007-08, a season they went 15-67.
The Heat, of course, also are stressing fast pace that has increased the number of possessions in their games. Their current pace of 101.6 (possessions per 48 minutes) would rank highest in the franchise’s 31 seasons. The only time the Heat finished at a pace above 100 was in their second season, at 101.0.
Factoring in the pace factor of the league this season and the significant uptick in scoring, the Heat went into the week ranked 11th defensively in the league.
Coach Erik
To guard Dwyane Wade, it is a whole new world — not Spoelstra insisting on defense setting the Heat tone, but of how an elite defensive team is now quantified.
“The best team in our game is Golden State and you’re not going to be able to win a championship without being able to defend,” Wade said. “It’s just a different level now. Back when I came in, it was you tried to hold teams to 20 points a quarter or under. That’s gone. That can happen every now and again, but for the most part, that’s not realistic. So you try to get another goal. And you understand that.
“But we definitely want to be a good defensive team. And to be a good team, we’re going to have to be. We’re not offensive juggernauts like the team I just mentioned. We don’t have four All-Stars on our roster, so we can’t win by that. So we have to rely on that. It’s not going to be all game. In this league, guys can score and a lot of teams can score, the way the rules are is different. But you’ve got to have moments.”
Among the changing elements for the Heat is that Josh Richardson, identified by Spoelstra as the team’s top defensive wing, also is being asked to carry a significantly heavier load on the offensive end.
In Saturday’s loss to the Charlotte Hornets, Richardson’s edge on both ends was compromised by foul trouble. That, Spoelstra said, is something he is going to have to better manage amid a tighter NBA whistle this season.
“I just think, right now, you’re probably going to see some extreme situations around the league in terms of guys getting in foul trouble very quickly,” Spoelstra said. “I didn’t adapt quick enough. In a normal season, I’d say you can play with three, can play with four. Right now, there’s some very quick whistles and they’re calling a lot of things that they didn’t necessarily call before. Everybody’s still learning. I probably need to be a little bit more mindful of that, even though I hate that.”
What won’t change the core commitment defense.
That, Spoelstra non-negotiable.
“We know what our identity is,” he said. “We have to get more and more consistent and we have to be able to do that without fouling. We’ll learn our system better as the season goes on.
“For us, it means something. We’re going to work on our defense where we need to, adapt where we need to, based on the league — and we will adapt.”
“I just think, right now, you’re probably going to see some extreme situations around the league in terms of guys getting in foul trouble very quickly.” —Heat coach Erik Spoelstra
said, is to
is