Miami Heat: The Defensive Effort Was Inexcusable In Loss To Nuggets

Miami Heat: They’ve Been Fortunate, Thus Far, But The Tide Can Change Quickly

Ranking first in Opponent Threes Attempted, the Heat have a tendency to decrease their opponent’s effectiveness by sending help on drives, which opens the kick out gates wide open. Albeit the increase of perimeter shot attempts, Miami has been sensational at rotating and getting those strong contests, in which their opponents have shot just 31 percent (fourth worst) from three as a result.

However, this becomes more difficult to perform against wiser opponents, such as Utah and Denver, who have the lineups and personnel to penetrate and locate off-ball shooters. Against the Nuggets, the Heat were a step slow and often noncommittal in closing out open shooters.

To add to it all, there were several possessions where they showed terrible ball watching habits.

This gets picked apart easily if you have to defend an elite offense that values ball movement and less isolation, as having a certain amount of trust for your teammate’s ability to defend one-on-one becomes that much more vital and essential.

Throughout the evening, frustration grew apparent for Miami. There was one specific example at the seven minute mark of the third quarter, where Nikola Jokic would perform a fake handoff and set a ball screen on Lowry.

Bam Adebayo decided to go under. With both Heat players refusing to switch, it allowed an open drive and layup score for the reigning Most Valuable Player.