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

On a late night matchup in Denver, the Miami Heat were handed their third loss of the season and moving forward from the extremities of Monday’s aftermath, you saw a Heat team that was outplayed and physically overwhelmed in a, 113-96, blowout.

Through their first ten games, the Heat have outperformed most early-season expectations and have done so with their transition play, offensive collectivity, and a resounding defense.

However, those qualities were absent during Monday’s loss, as the Nuggets ran complete circles around the NBA’s second best defense in an ugly and forgettable performance for Miami.

HEAT SEASON-LOWS (THROUGH FIRST TEN GAMES)

• Rebounding (37-49)
• Assists (28)
• Points In The Paint (50)
• Second-Worst Defensive Rating (120.2)

In their last two games, the Heat have given up an average of 114 points on 48 percent shooting, which came against two very formidable Western Conference opponents. An uncharacteristically low level of effort was shown and that’s for a Miami defense that’s consistently held their opponents to under 100 points per game.

So, what happened? Let’s take a dive in what exactly went wrong.

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

Tying into Saturday’s game versus Utah, the Heat have stubbornly relied on a switching style of defense.

It’s been a success due to having talented defenders who can disrupt passes, force double-teams, and ignite transition plays off of steals and long rebounds.

However, we’ve seen more of the negative effects in their last two games.

The Jazz had erased a 19 point Heat lead with five minutes remaining, which featured a personal 8-0 run from Donovan Mitchell and a wide open left corner three from Mike Conley to cut the deficit to two.

Thankfully, the Heat were able to hold off the Jazz by three, but only before the Nuggets could exploit those errors even further on Monday.

Denver ran the Heat’s top defenders into complete exhaustion and one reason for all of this is because the Miami Heat allow an overwhelming amount of wide open threes.

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.

Miami Heat: There Was This One P.J. Tucker Wrinkle That Should Remain

You can blame it on the players, you can blame it on coaching, or you can blame it on both. The fact is that the Heat were simply whomped on Monday night and as great as they have been defensively, Monday’s loss proved that they’re not invincible.

Nonetheless, the Heat did provide a valiant effort about halfway through the third quarter. There was an adjustment that head coach Erik Spoelstra made and one that he had yet to do for a single minute this season.

He implemented a 2-3 zone that featured Bam Adebayo and Kyle Lowry defending above the break, with Jimmy Butler and Duncan Robinson near the corners, and P.J. Tucker in the middle. This was to, potentially, neutralize Denver’s interior penetration while also sending multiple bodies to crash the boards.

It gave Miami life between the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth but it was ,perhaps, too late. Even with that new thing to deploy and though effective, Denver was still able to close the game.

Spoelstra allowing Tucker to defend larger front court players is something that he should  consider more often. While P.J. is greatly undersized, he still uses his strong lower base to contest shots and box out, which made him valuable during his previous Houston and Milwaukee stints.

• In a combined 9:34 minutes, Jokic was 7-8  from the floor when guarded by Butler and Adebayo, but went 0-2 in 1:28 minutes with Tucker as the primary defender.

Throughout this season, the Heat will be capable of winning games off of their defense, alone, as there are enough High IQ defenders on this roster for them to do so. The effort is already there, while this is an opportunity for Miami to instill more trust and communication going forward.

If not, they’ll see their opponents score 15-20 points above their season average for points allowed more often and in the new NBA, it could all happen rather quickly.