Key to Heat’s survival
Spoelstra’s defensive evolution on display in Finals
It didn’t used to be this way for the MiamiHeat during the Pat Riley regime.
At the start, and for the years that followed, it was relatively simple on the defensive end: You guard your man. And if your man gets the best of your defense, then you do it better.
Yes, there would be the occasional 1-3-1 halfcourt trap, to help facilitate pace. And, yes, some blitzing of the ballhandler on the pick-and-roll, zoning off the rest of the court. But mostly it was about taking the individual challenge.
Then flash forward to these NBA playoffs and even these NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex. Some zone defense in Game 1, plenty more in Game 2, then a sprinkling in Game 3.
Constantly adjusting defensively to who’s available for the Heat, as well as who’s presenting challenges from the opposition.
“The most important thing is there is a foundation and an accountability to a system,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said to the Sun Sentinel, stressing Riley’s core tenets remain respected and applied.
“Are the nuts and bolts of the system a little bit different than howthey used to be in the 90s? Yes, the game is different, and it evolved. It’s a markedly different game, from shooting and skill level and even personnel level than itwas 20 years ago.”
There nowis a 3-point line that has to be respected, as well as teams that will work through a seemingly endless series of pickand-rolls during a single possession.
“Sowe’ve been forced to adaptandmake some adjustments,” said Spoelstra, whose teammoved on toTuesday’sGame 4 of the league’s championship series in Disney’s quarantine setting amid the coronavirus pandemic. “But how Pat developed a system, where there’s consistency in structure and accountability, we still, hopefully, really, adhere to that.
“And I think that’s the most important thing and I learned that from Pat. Every reallygooddefensiveteammusthave those kind of qualities.”
As much as it is the evolution of the game, it also is the evolution of Spoelstra, who has been open to masking defensive deficiencies as a means of better exploring his offensive components, as the league has taken on more and more of a scoring bent.
For years, 3-point specialists who were defensive liabilities often sat, from Jason Kapono to James Jones. But then Wayne Ellington was given a primary role in the rotation, oneeventually takenoverbyDuncan Robinson.
Now such players are exhorted to let it fly, and then let Spoelstra figured out how to handle it on the other end.
“But again, I think that system consistency is very much similar to how we’ve always done it,” Spoelstra said.“Now, schematics? Yes, we’ve had to adjust and adapt. Butwe’re not making things up on the fly. “I think that’s the difference.”
His defenders now work differently, at times claiming a piece of defensive real estate, asopposedto a single offensive player. That’s an adjustment. But, Spoelstra said, there is no compromise when it comes to the core component of getting stops by outworking the opposition.
“In terms of more of a methodology,” he said, “it’s still very much how Pat did it, even aswe’re making adaptations based on howthe league has changed.”