Miami Heat: Why Perception Isn’t Always Reality But Improvement is still needed
The Miami Heat don’t appear to be that good defensively, but are they that bad?
The Miami Heat aren’t a great team right now. They aren’t an awful team right now either, but they could be a lot better.
Knowing what their core issues are, Jimmy Butler actually touched on them a bit after Saturday night’s victory over the Wizards. Here’s what he had to say after the game, per Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press.
"We're all comfortable. We're all confident. But, man, we've got to get some stops." -- Jimmy Butler.
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) January 10, 2021
At times, it seems as though the Miami Heat aren’t playing with that same intensity we have been accustomed to. They go to sleep too much for me.
That can lead to a flurry of three point makes, such as the case Saturday night against Washington, where they were almost able to shoot themselves back into the game. It can also lead to things like what happened in the Miami Heat’s previous game against the Celtics.
Hot. Grades from Saturday’s Win Over Washington Wizards. light
The Miami Heat look like a poor defensive team on the floor but the numbers say something much different.
Someone went to sleep on the final possession. After defending the initial shot well enough to force a miss, they allowed the smallest guy on the court, between both teams, to grab an offensive rebound and put it back for the win.
Everything we have seen, including situations like that, would lead you to believe that the Miami Heat aren’t very good on defense. Heck, it might even lead you to flat out call them an awful defensive team.
Here’s the thing though. The numbers don’t back that up.
Goes to show how messy early season numbers can be when all the Heat have been talking about this week is their defense, with some pretty pointed words from Butler, all while their DRtg sits at 10th and their ORtg ranks 24th.
— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) January 10, 2021
As NBA writer, Couper Moorhead, illustrates here, the Miami Heat’s defensive numbers are actually worthy of a top ten defensive rating. It’s just that at the most inopportune times during games, they give up a big play or series of plays that end up costing them too much.
So, I have said all this to say that perception isn’t always reality, but that doesn’t mean the Miami Heat don’t have to improve. It’s good that the numbers say that they aren’t as bad as we think they are, but imagine if they got better to the point where you could see a visual difference?
Can you imagine how good they could be on defense, from a statistical perspective, if they actually passed the eye-test defensively? That’s all we are saying.
dark. Next. 3 things you want to continue to see from Jimmy Butler
Things don’t get easier from here. Let’s hope they can make what we are seeing, eventually, match up to what the metrics are showing.