Miami Heat point guard Goran Dragic voiced his concerns over the team’s fourth quarter offense… and he’s right.
The Miami Heat have blown fourth quarter leads in back-t0-back games against the Brooklyn Nets and Memphis Grizzlies, and much of it could be attributed to bad offense. After the ball moved around and the Heat were getting open shots, the ball stuck in the fourth quarter. Dwyane Wade bringing the ball up and isolating was a common sight.
It’s understandable that Miami’s definitive initiator of offense, Goran Dragic, spoke up. The Heat point guard said that he sees Miami’s ball movement come to a halt in the final period.
Dragic (2 of 2): "Then I feel sometimes in the fourth quarter, it’s like 1 on 5, 2 on 5, just pick-and-roll in the middle and that’s it."
— Ethan J. Skolnick, 5 Reasons Sports (@EthanJSkolnick) December 30, 2015
This isn’t new for Miami. In fact, the Heat rank 18th in the NBA with an average of 1.023 points per possession in the fourth quarter this season. That’s a bit of a drop from the 1.027 average per game, and their lowest such average of all quarter but the first (Miami’s slow starts in another post entirely).
Most frustratingly, it’s a huge drop from Miami’s best quarter–the third–in which they average 1.044 points per possession. The team’s field goal percentage has also dropped from 46.3 to 45.5 in the final period.
Those 1 or 2 on 5 possessions Dragic is talking about? That’s the Wade-to-Hassan Whiteside pick-and-roll that has becomes Miami’s bread and butter. Whether it’s Erik Spoelstra playing it safe, or Wade hi-jacking the offense, or a little bit of both, the Heat need to keep the ball moving when closing out the game.
We just see way too much of this:
Here’s the problem. All Stars do things like this. They take control in the final minutes, and often teams ride and die with these guys. Because they are better than most players, that often works–that’s why they’re All Stars.
However, Wade’s controlling the ball too early in the shot clock. He only needs about four-to-six seconds to complete this pick-and-roll with Whiteside. That gives the Heat at least 18 seconds to do some other stuff before resorting to the way of Wade.
The Heat need to try some motions and stuff to get open looks. If that doesn’t work, that’s when you hand the ball off the Wade and let him create.
Dragic is right, the Heat need to move the ball, or these fourth quarter collapses won’t stop any time soon.