Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo recently expressed his frustration about always being in the Play-In Tournament. It sounded like a wake-up call to his teammates, and possibly, also a well-intentioned plea to coach Erik Spoelstra.
While only time will tell if Adebayo's message worked, the Heat scored an impressive win against the Houston Rockets, 115-105, on Saturday. Spoelstra made the right call to employ zone defense, which made life difficult for the Rockets.
The Heat are 5-5 in their last assignments, improving to 32-29.
In a report from Miami Herald's Anthony Chiang, Spoelstra admitted that he has a love-hate relationship with zone defense. He, however, stressed that at the end of the day, it is all about effort, as worn-out as that sounds.
“Regardless of whatever the scheme is, I always go back to that. It’s just about committing to doing hard things,” said the three-time champion coach.
“We were really moving in the zone, taking away airspace, and scrambling to challenge shots at the rim. In a lot of these losses in the last three months, we’ve just been giving up shots at the rim and threes.”
The 55-year-old Spoelstra is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant tacticians in the NBA, and he knows that the willingness to do the less glamorous things on the floor will separate them from the competition.
The Heat held the Rockets to just 43% shooting from the field, including 9-of-36 from three-point territory. They also pummeled the Rockets inside, scoring 66 points in the paint.
Miami has been to the Play-In Tournament for the past three seasons, including advancing all the way to the NBA Finals in 2023.
