The first few weeks of the season has inverted expectations for the Miami HEAT. Not for whether they’ll be good or not, but for how they’ll go about being good.
With Josh McRoberts missing most of training camp and so many new faces, young and old, being incorporated into an offense which lost a centerpiece over the offseason, it was reasonable to expect the scoring efficiency to take a little time to get rolling. Defense would be the anchor, the thinking went. Defense would hold it down.
Instead, the HEAT have the third-best effective field-goal percentage in the league while the defense has hung around below-average levels. Good news on one hand, confusing news on the other.
In the last six minutes against the Charlotte Hornets, however, we caught a prolonged glimpse of the defense the team has been talking about getting to for weeks. It wasn’t quite the Omega Swarm, but it was a refreshing energy level which proved more encouraging than the fact that the team actually won the game.
“I would’ve been as pleased with the response even if we didn’t end up with that result,” Erik Spoelstra said.
The response Spoelstra mentions was to being down eight during a timeout with under seven minutes to play and a four-game home losing streak looming. From that point on the HEAT outscored their opponent 17-8 as the Hornets shot just 3-of-11.
And two of those makes came on two of Miami’s best defensive possessions…
There have been short bursts of similar defensive energy this season, but it’s rarely sustained for more than a couple of minutes. The team would come out of a timeout flying and swarming about, but if the opposition still managed to score then the intensity level would drop. Against Charlotte, the HEAT reacted to Lance Stephenson dropping in running Joe Johnson-esque floaters by playing just as hard.
They weren’t perfect. But the energy made up for the imperfections – as this defensive system is designed to do.
“Our guys did a really good job of putting things in the past and focusing on the possessions that we had,” Chris Bosh said. “Today we really took a step forward as far as having that mental stability that we always talk about having.
“That [energy] kind of made up for our coverages that we messed up,” he added. “That’s going to happen sometimes, but we made that up with effort. Getting to the ball, cutting guys off, getting our hands on loose balls, getting some blocked shots…”
Like so…
The caveat here is a bit of a chicken or the egg scenario. The Hornets stopped moving the ball down the stretch and eventually shifted to a rigid Kemba Walker dribble attack, but did they do that because the HEAT were defending so well or were the HEAT defending so well because their opponent stopped running deeper offense?
The answer is somewhere in the middle, but what’s important is Miami controlled what could be controlled. And when Walker started doing his thing, Shabazz Napier – who has proved to be an able defender, with quick hands, despite some issues with fouls – was there at the point of attack.
On possessions where he held the ball for five or more seconds, Walker shot 2-of-9 (SportVU).
It’s important to remember that the HEAT had moments like this last year – including a complete game defensive masterpiece against the Oklahoma City Thunder – but an occasional reminder sequence isn’t enough to make you a Top-10 defense. The trick now, as it is for any team, is capturing that energy and making it a night-to-night fixture.
A year ago, Miami could afford to turn up the defense later in the season with the playoffs all but a guarantee after back-to-back titles. There’s no such luxury these days.
Chalmers the Creator
We can’t overstate how important Mario Chalmers is to the HEAT right now. He was always going to be a crucial player this season, whether he was starting at point guard or playing shooting guard off the bench or both, but when Dwyane Wade sits Chalmers becomes Miami’s primary source of perimeter creation. And without Wade’s ability to create out of the post, that puts an even greater burden on the dribblers to find ways into the paint.
After being responsible for nearly half of Miami’s paint baskets against the Orlando Magic on Saturday, Chalmers turned in 10 assists last night against the Hornets as he navigated an underachieving (compared to last season) but tricky paint-packing defense.
While his play will eventually warrant a deeper inspection, Chalmers is posting career bests in Player Efficiency Rating and True-Shooting Percentage while more than doubling the rate at which he is drawing fouls. He’s worked for years with Miami’s coaching staff at keeping his dribble alive in the paint and managing the trees of the league, and despite a couple of bumps this season that work has translated into true lead-guard performances.
The dream of efficiency, so to speak, is alive with Chalmers.
“I like his pace of game right now; he’s playing at different tempos, he’s not getting out of control,” Spoelstra said. “That’s how he’s drawing a lot of those fouls, instead of one speed and taking off on a launching pad. Mario is not a scorer, not an assist guy, he’s a play maker, much like Dwyane. Whatever the best play for the team is, he is making.”
“That’s what I kept telling him,” Bosh said. “You can play under control. You’re good enough. He has great touch around the basket, and he can get there, but his floaters, his mid-range jumpers, you’re going to have to look for that. All those things are going to be there, and you’re going to have to read and react. I have confidence in him.”
The HEAT may have bigger names in All-Stars Bosh and Luol Deng, but both of those players are at their best functioning in a fluid offensive system. Chalmers is making life easier for his teammates right now, and proving that their confidence is warranted.