Spoelstra: ‘We have to win games defensively’
The first two months of the Miami Heat’s season has been filled with ups and downs. But as the Heat looks to find some consistency after a disappointing start, it now has a better understanding of how it needs to win games.
“We understand what our road map is for success,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said ahead of Saturday’s matchup against the San Antonio Spurs in Mexico City to close a weeklong fourgame trip.
That road map begins with defense because the Heat’s offense isn’t yet good enough to be relied on from game to game. Miami entered Saturday’s game ranked No. 7 in the NBA in defensive rating and No. 27 in offensive rating.
After the Heat won Thursday’s game against the Rockets in Houston despite not scoring a point in the final five minutes of the contest, Spoelstra took a glass-half-full approach and complimented the defense for helping Miami hold on despite its lategame offensive struggles.
“What it signifies to me is hopefully we’re buying into this identity. We have to win games defensively,” Spoelstra said. “I feel like our offense is going to get a lot better, particularly in the second half of the season.
“But our foundation and our bread and butter has to be on the defensive side of the floor, committing to all the tough things. I just like seeing it again, us putting our body in front of drives, trying to take hits and then the ball hitting the floor and us being the first to the floor a lot more often than we were the first few weeks of the season.”
This isn’t a new formula for the Heat, considering it has finished with a top-10 defensive rating in six of the past seven seasons.
But the Heat’s offense is usually not this far behind the defense, finishing with a bottom-10 offense (ranked 20th or worse in offensive rating) in just three of the past 14 seasons. Miami missed the playoffs in two of those three seasons, and did not get past the first round of the playoffs in the one time it made the postseason with a bottom-10 offense during that span.
While the defense is again among the NBA’s best this season, the Heat will need its offense to improve to have an opportunity to make any type of playoff run.
For now, the injuryplagued Heat is fine winning behind its defense that is on pace to set a new modern-day NBA record for most zone possessions played in a season but has been relying on its man-toman scheme more often recently.
“We say we just got to let our defense dictate our offense,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said. “But if we’re guarding and we’re getting stops, I think we can win games that way. Sooner or later, we’re going to throw one up and it’s going to go in. So if we win 2-0, we’ll take it.”
POSITIVE REVIEWS
With starting center
Bam Adebayo and backup center Dewayne Dedmon
unavailable, the Heat relied on two-way contract center Orlando Robinson
to play a career-high 36 minutes in Thursday’s road win over the Rockets.
Robinson, who went undrafted this year out of Fresno State, did not waste the opportunity. He finished Thursday’s victory with nine points, six rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks to post a team-best plus/ minus of plus-11.
“Orlando really just coming in off the airplane and playing 36 minutes basically and gave us a great presence under the rim on both sides,” Spoelstra said of Robinson, who was just signed by the Heat to his latest two-way contract on Sunday. “He was guarding the basket and going vertical and making them take some tough shots. I thought he rebounded well in traffic and he gave us a presence offensively with his screening.”
Robinson has spent most of this season with the Heat’s G League affiliate and has dominated. He has averaged 22.4 points, 12.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 10 games with the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
“I was just trying to go out there and just do anything to make an impact on the game so we could win the game,” Robinson said. “I tried to finish possessions by rebounding, tried to guard, tried to figure out how to protect the paint and I did it to the best of my ability.”
A TRIP TO MEXICO
The Heat played in Mexico City on Saturday for the second time in franchise history, as Miami also played in the capital city of Mexico when it defeated the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 9, 2017.
Saturday also marked the 31st NBA game in Mexico, which is the most in any country outside of the United States and Canada.
“I think it’s really important for fans all around the world to get the opportunity to meet NBA players, to see NBA players play in person and not just in America,” Butler said. “It gives us an opportunity as an athlete to go and experience so many different cultures. … Basketball is global and it has continued growing.”
The NBA hosted four basketball clinics throughout the weekend in conjunction with the game in Mexico City. Among those representing the Heat at one of the clinics was assistant coach Octavio De La Grana and former forward Glen Rice.
INJURY REPORT
Each of the Heat’s 16 players was on the initial injury report for Saturday’s game.
But Adebayo (left ankle sprain), Butler (right knee injury management), Dedmon (left foot plantar fasciitis), Tyler Herro (left ankle sprain), Nikola Jovic (back spasms), Victor
Oladipo (left knee injury management), Duncan Robinson (left ankle sprain), Orlando Robinson (lower back discomfort) and Max Strus (right shoulder impingement) were upgraded to available for the Heat’s matchup against the Spurs in Mexico City.
However, the Heat ruled out Jamal Cain (G League), Udonis Haslem
(right Achilles tendinosis), Kyle Lowry (left knee soreness), Caleb Martin
(left ankle sprain), Gabe Vincent (left knee effusion) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery).
Anthony Chiang: 305-376-4991, @Anthony_Chiang