Heat wilt the Wizards
Miami schools Washington 97-75.
WASHINGTON — It wasn’t necessarily defiance in the face of a league playing loose and fast at both ends of the court. But Erik Spoelstra stressed going into Sunday’s 97-75 victory over the Washington Wizards that defense would remain the Miami Heat’s signature.
“There’s a lot of different styles out there in the league,” the Heat’s coach said in the bowels of the Verizon Center when the topic turned to his team’s defense. “That one is us. We know who we are.”
The Heat then went out and suffocated the life out of the shorthanded Wizards in a second quarter of nearhistoric defensive, well, defiance.
“You look up, and all of a sudden you see it coming together,” forward Chris Bosh said.
And then you return to the locker room at halftime and see you’ve limited the Wizards to seven secondquarter points.
“It’s like, suh-weet!” said Bosh, who led the Heat with 23 points.
In limiting the Wizards to 9.1-percent shooting in the second quarter (or .091 if you want to put the futility of it all into percentage terms), the Heat outscored Washington 25-7 during the period. It matched the second-lowest quarter ever by a Heat opponent, second only to a six-point quarter for the Chicago Bulls against the Heat in 1993.
“When you see how good it can be,” guard Dwyane Wade said, “it becomes all the more frustrating when you don’t do it all the time.”
The Wizards shot 2 of 22 from the field in that second period, including 0 for 8 on 3-pointers. Wizards point guard John Wall shot 0 for 8 in the quarter, futility that eventually led to his thirdquarter technical foul.
“We wanted to give him different coverages,” Bosh said after Wall closed 6 of 21 from the field for 14 points.
With rotations that were a step ahead of the Wizards’ ball movement and closeouts that didn’t give the remaining Wizards 3-point shooters a chance, the Heat led 50-31 at halftime.
To put the defense-orbust commitment into perspective, consider that Heat center Hassan Whiteside had a scoreless first half and was dominant, with 10 rebounds and four blocked shots over those opening two periods. Whiteside’s first basket did not come until 6:09 remained in the third quarter. He closed with six points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots, afforded a fourth quarter off.
“I brought my defensive bag with me,” he said, with the Heat lately talking about going into their “bag of tricks” during special moments. “I left my offensive bag in Miami.”
Playing in attack mode against a team dares opponents to match their pace, guard Goran Dragic sparked the Heat with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting.
“We want him to play like that,” said Wade, who was limited to eight points and 25 minutes. “It was good to see that.”
The rout allowed for plenty of rest in advance of the back end of this back-toback set against the Indiana Pacers on Monday night at American-Airlines Arena, with Bosh the only starter to play into the fourth quarter. The Heat are 0-2 against Indiana.
The Heat have now won four of their last five road games, with a season-longest six-game western swing to open Friday against the Phoenix Suns.
The Heat lost the previous meeting with the Wizards 114-103 Dec. 7 at American-Airlines Arena, falling behind by double digits and victimized by 9-of-18 3-point shooting by the Wizards, a game Spoelstra benched Whiteside late against the Wizards’ small ball. The Heat lost that night despite shooting .594 from the field, their highest shooting percentage in a loss in franchise history.