After the Miami Heat’s latest loss Monday night, a 138-117 defeat to the Lakers in Los Angeles that dropped them to 2-5 on the season, one thing is for certain: The defense isn’t good enough.
Erik Spoelstra echoed that exact sentiment after the game.
“Nobody’s happy about it. That’s obvious; you’ll have to ask them specifically. I need to do a better job of getting this group to defend to our potential. We’re all accountable to this. Everybody in that locker room, the players and the staff alike, we have to figure it out, and we’re fully capable of doing it,” Spoelstra said postgame, via Naveen Ganglani, who covers the Heat for Sports Illustrated.
“Everybody’s saying the right things. And I put myself in there as well. I need to do a better job of getting this group to defend to our potential. We’re all accountable to this. Everybody in that locker room, the players and the staff alike, we have
The Issues with Miami’s Defense
The Heat’s defense has been atrocious to begin the season. Typically a calling card of Spoelstra-coached Miami teams, the defense has been anything but reliable this year. The Heat have the NBA’s fourth-worst defensive rating in the NBA at 119.8. One would have thought that adding Giannis, a former Defensive Player of the Year, to the mix would only make the defense stronger. That certainly hasn’t been the case so far.
One of the biggest issues with Miami’s defense in the young season has been its inability to defend the 3-point line.
“Yeah, we’ve been working on it, we’ve been talking about it. All of the losses that we’ve had, we’ve been giving up massive numbers at the three-point line, and this one was that,” Spoelstra said after Monday night’s game. “I mean, there was many different scenarios of us giving up threes tonight. Some of them were trapping and not rotating. Some of them were just air space. Some of them were in transition, offensive rebounds. Yeah, that’s been an Achilles heel for us in this young season.”
“Yeah, we’ve been working on it. We’ve been talking about it, all of the losses that we’ve had. We’ve been giving up massive numbers at the three-point line, and this one was that.
I mean, there was many different scenarios of
Through seven games, the Heat are allowing the third-most 3-pointers in the NBA at 42 per game. Additionally, Miami is allowing opponents to shoot the second-highest 3-point percentage in the league at 40.5%. In other words, not only are the Heat giving up a high volume of threes, but opponents are also converting on those opportunities at an alarming rate.
The other bottom-five teams in the league in opponent 3-point percentage are the 1-3 Phoenix Suns (43.9%), the 3-5 Charlotte Hornets (39.1%), the 1-6 Chicago Bulls (38.9%) and the 1-5 Los Angeles Clippers (38.3%). It’s not the company you want to keep if you’re Miami, a team with championship aspirations.
Could some of that be explained by 3-point variance and shooting luck? Possibly. But the Heat are also tied for most 3-point attempts allowed with the closest defender between 4- 6 feet away, a category the NBA defines as “open” shots. Miami is allowing 18.2 such attempts per game, according to NBA.com’s advanced statistics.
More of the Same Monday Night
On Monday night, the Heat allowed the Lakers to shoot 19 of 43 from 3-point range, good for 44.2%. They also had no answer for Luka Dončić, who finished with 42 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Dončić shot 58.3% from the field on 24 attempts and connected on six of his 15 3-point attempts.
The Heat will look to bounce back Wednesday night in the second game of their five-game West Coast trip when they face the Clippers in Los Angeles.
Erik Spoelstra on the Heat’s Defensive Struggles: “We Have to Figure It Out”