Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Just a comfort zone
Spoelstra likes apsects of old-school alignment, but knows its limitations
MIAMI — The move to zone defense was a product of desperation, injuries and foul trouble, leaving the Miami Heat with little alternative during what turned into a victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
But it is the byproducts of the experimentation, more than zone itself, that has heartened coach Erik Spoelstra, who remains noncommittal about the approach going forward.
With a soft-spoken roster that had gotten away from many of the team’s defensive precepts, Spoelstra found his team much more responsive verbally and aggressively with the intermittent utilization of the modified 2-3 alignment.
That fact that his players are again talking the talk has been most encouraging.
“That has been an ancillary benefit, because that’s another thing that we’ve really had to work on this year, is our communication — clear, connected, decisive communication,” Spoelstra said after Tuesday’s practice at AmericanAirlines Arena. “And if you don’t have that in the zone, you have no chance. You don’t see oftentimes what’s happening behind you, especially that front line. You have to have guys really committed to commanding each other.”
The zone often has been anchored by Bam Adebayo in the middle.
“I feel like as long as you talk and communicate, anybody can be in a zone,” Adebayo said. “We’ve been talking and communicating, and it’s working for us.”
Guard Dwyane Wade has noticed as much.
“I think it’s great from a communication standpoint,” he said. “It makes us communicate a lot, more than we’re in [man] defense. I think for a team like ours, we’re a quiet team, it definitely has helped us just communicate more and be louder so everyone knows where they need to be and what they need to do.”
The other element is greater activity on the defensive end.
“The most important thing about that is not about the scheme, it’s about our identity and still staying true to the physicality of protecting that paint, of making multiple efforts,” Spoelstra said. “So we’ve stayed with it.”
While the approach has been stifling at times, it also has left the Heat open to the make-or-miss reality of NBA life, with the New Orleans Pelicans missing several open attempts against the zone in Sunday’s Heat victory that closed out a 4-2 trip.
“I guess you can say their zone messed with us, but not really,” Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday said. “I think we had a lot of open shots that we missed.”
Similarly, the New York Knicks had success with a zone in a comeback victory Friday against the Charlotte Hornets only to see the approach shredded in a Sunday loss to the Indiana Pacers.
“I caved in a little bit and said, ‘Let’s try something that’s a little more in their comfort zone,’ ” Knicks coach David Fizdale said.
Fizdale was a Heat assistant when the team dabbled more often with zone defense early in Spoelstra’s tenure.
“I haven’t used it probably this much since my second year,” said Spoelstra, in his 11th season as Heat coach. “We used it quite a bit that year.”
The expectation going forward is the approach will be utilized more as a change of pace, with opponents now game-planning for the scheme. Last week, the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James had already decoded the strategy a game after the Heat’s success against the Clippers.
“It’s just not something you go against that often, it’s not something you see that often,” Wade said. “So it kind of goes back to high school a little bit, when you used to see zone and right away everybody just passed on the perimeter. You can’t give a team a full dosage of it all the time, like the Lakers with Bron. He kind of figured out, ‘OK, this is what I need to do.’ You can’t give them a full dose.
“But I think it’s cool for us to be able to throw it in there at times when teams are not expecting it, and just give them different looks and keep them off balance.”