The Miami Heat have been trying to perfect their craft on both sides of the ball coming out of their recent seven-game losing streak. On the defensive side of the ball, the Heat have been running a ton of zone against teams this year, way more than last season as it has been put on display in the past two games and wins against the Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards.
The zone defense worked especially against the Wizards where “the Heat held the Wizards to just 0.68 points per possession while in its zone defense, compared to 1.02 points per possession while using its man scheme during the win” according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
However, with Miami's upcoming matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday that features high-powered weapons like Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook, the zone defense will be tested. For Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, he said that the plan on defense “will differ game to game” as Los Angeles is fourth in offensive rating and has won 25 of their last 29 games.
“It will differ game to game where we need to adjust our schemes,” Spoelstra said via The Miami Herald. “It’s really about the activity level, making it tough on other teams, getting them out of their comfort zone.”
Bam Adebayo says Heat will “keep running” zone defense
How it will differ remains to be seen, but Heat star big-man Bam Adebayo says that the team will “keep running it” as it has been successful for them. The center who was just recently selected to his third All-Star game scored 20 points and collected 14 rebounds against the Wizards.
“The goal is just to get people out of their ordinary NBA offense,” Adebayo said of the zone. “You got to run something else for the zone. It bothered [the Wizards] today, it worked for us and we’re going to keep running it.”
It wasn't just against the Wizards where it was successful as it bothered the Kings last Wednesday which that victory snapped the seven-game losing skid they were in. Per The Miami Herald, “the Heat allowed just 0.73 points per possession on 37 zone half-court defensive possessions in Wednesday’s home win over the Sacramento Kings to snap its seven-game skid, compared to 1.04 points per possession on 48 man-to-man half-court defensive possessions.”
Tyler Herro talks about both halves of the win to the Wizards
Rather than a typical man-to-man defense, the zone defense provides a different look that can make an opposing offense off-kilter, but a disciplined unit needs to run it which the Heat fit perfect. Star Tyler Herro said that against the Wizards, they were in rhythm in the first half as they were up three at halftime, but “they really started to struggle” in the last 24 minutes of the contest.
“It takes them out of their normal offensive sets,” Herro said. “They were getting in a little bit of a rhythm during the first half. I think the zone forces them to take shots that we want them to take, which is those non-paint twos and long twos. I think once we started to funnel them into our zone, they really started to struggle on the offensive end and our lead started to increase.”
Jimmy Butler admits he is not the best in zone
However, some players are better at the zone defense than others. Main Heat star Jimmy Butler admitted to the media after the win to the Kings that he is not “particulary best in a zone.” He would continue and said that it works great for them so he will do it to “the best to my ability.”
“I’m not particularly best in a zone, but whatever this squad needs me to do, I will do the best to my ability,” Butler said. “I think I need more work in the zone than anybody honestly. [But] the zone was great for us.”
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