Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Limiting turnovers imperative to success
For the Miami Heat to turn around their season, the solution may be to cut down on their turnovers.
After entering Saturday’s matchup against Detroit averaging 17.8 turnovers, the Heat coughed the ball up 23 times — directly leading to 27 points for Detroit — in their 120-100 loss to the Pistons, who entered Saturday with a 2-9 record.
Those turnovers helped give the Pistons a 91-67 edge in field-goal attempts, with the Heat (4-7) attempting a league-low 83.7 shots per game.
“These turnovers really just have been crippling,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Sunday. “It’s tough to really get a read on how the game is going when you’re just gifting the other team some easy baskets.”
The Heat enter their rematch against the Pistons on Monday at AmericanAirlines Arena with a league-worst 17.7% turnover rate, which is the percentage of a team’s possessions that end in a turnover.
And the Heat’s opponents have feasted on their giveaways.
Teams start 17.2% of their possessions against the Heat in transition, which is the 28th-worst mark in the league, according to Cleaning the Glass data.
The opportunities for Heat opponents to run in the open floor have helped lead to Miami conceding the most “open” 3-pointers (17.6) per game — which Heat opponents are making at a 38.1% clip — along with seventh-most “wide open” 3-pointers (18.3).
“When we turn the ball over, it’s usually an easy basket for them,” Goran Dragic said. “It’s a layup or open three and they get their confidence and we’re not producing on the other end. If you have a bad offense, they’re going to feel more comfortable.”
Having better roster cohesion should help the Heat from a ball-protection standpoint going forward, with Miami set to have the same 13 players available against the Pistons on Monday that they did Saturday after having the NBA-minimum eight players available in matchups against the Philadelphia 76ers last week.
Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler, who’ll be out for the fourth consecutive game on Monday, has only suited up for six of the team’s 11 games. A sprained ankle kept him out two games — and limited to one half in another — while the NBA’s health and safety protocols related to COVID-19 had him absent in Miami’s past three contests.
“Continuity is important,” Duncan Robinson said.
“Being able to play with each and feeling that type of stuff out is definitely important.”
But Robinson added the lack of continuity isn’t the only factor playing into the Heat’s lack of ball security.
“Also just not being as mindless with the ball. Being deliberate and intentional with our reads,” Robinson said. “We have a handful of different things that are getting us into trouble. We know what they are and know what actions they come in. It’s about growth and learning and I think we will in time.”
Although this season will be shorter, the Heat showed during the 2019-20 season they could rein in their turnover issues after a rough start.
They had a league-worst 18.7% turnover rate through their first 17 games last season before finishing at 14.9% for the 22nd-worst rate in the league.
Not a great mark, but they’ve shown that they can overcome turnover concerns with efficient shooting. The Heat finished No. 1 in true shooting percentage (58.%) last season, and are No. 4 at 59.4% this season.
The turnovers have just been too much of a burden so far this year, with the Heat’s 106.7 offensive rating (No. 23 in the league entering Sunday) far below last season’s 111.9 rating (No. 7 in the NBA).
“We definitely need to make the initial improvement,” Spoelstra said about the team’s turnovers. “We’re giving up far too many pick-6s or just easy ones that are run down our gut during the course of the game. There are three or four specific areas that we can clean up that we’ve addressed.”
And the Heat maintain confidence that they’ll clean up those issues.
“Our guys came in with a great approach [Sunday], and that’s all that matter,” Spoelstra said. “You can be as frustrated, disappointed or angry about how the games have gone, but it’s your approach to find solutions the next day that matters. We know we have a lot to improve at in a lot of areas, but we’ll get there.”