Miami Heat Fall to Pacers: Breaking Down the Final Play

The Miami Heat fell to the Indiana Pacers in a game that came down to the final play Friday night. Throughout the game, Erik Spoelstra drew up a number of great plays out of timeouts, including a wall of for a Chris Bosh jumper and a crunch-time alley-oop to Tyler Johnson.

However, the final play of the game was a dud. Down 90-87 with just over four seconds remaining, Justise Winslow inbounded the ball to Dwyane Wade, who put up a falling shot from the corner to try to tie it. It didn’t go in. Game over.

You may question why Spoelstra went to Wade for a game-tying 3-pointer. But watch the play more closely and you’ll see that that wasn’t what he drew up.

Watch Bosh at the top of the arc. The screens by Tyler Johnson and then Goran Dragic are set for him. The play was meant for Bosh to shoot a 3 from the top of the arc that could possibly tie the game.

Here is the beginning of the set, with Dwyane Wade and Tyler Johnson on the elbows and Bosh and Dragic sharing the nearside corner. Winlsow, the rookie (and least threatening scorer of the five), is inbounding.

The motion starts. Dragic is to set a screen that Wade will go over, making him open for a pass from Winslow. He’s not the first option though. He’s the second option, or even possibly a decoy here. The real stuff is going on at the top, where Johnson is screening Bosh’s initial defender as Bosh runs away from the ball with his back turned to Winslow.

Upon coming across Johnson, Bosh turns and curls back toward Winslow. Johnson also turns to rescreen Bosh’s defender. However, look at Winslow’s head. He’s clearly locked in on where Wade is going and not looking at Bosh.

Here we see Johnson as the first screener and Dragic as the second. Here’s how we know the play was drawn up for Bosh to be the first option to shoot. All of the players on the court besides Wade were moving to set up screens to free up Bosh for the final shot. But, alas, the ball is already out of Winslow’s hands and into Wade’s.

Dragic sets the final screen that would have given Bosh enough room to get a shot off. If Winslow had remained patient and passed the ball as Bosh was curling back toward him, just as a quarterback would time a throw to a curling receiver, Bosh would have had an open jumper to tie the game. Instead, Wade found the ball in his hands and tried to flop to draw the foul and tie the game at the free throw line. He didn’t get the call, and the Heat lost.

It’s a valuable learning lesson for the rookie Winslow. Trust the system, trust your teammates, don’t panic and deliver the ball on time.