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Coaching | The Nuggets adjustment that sank the Heat zone

“Aside from their historic shooting success, the Heat’s greatest quality has been making their opponent look like a horrible team, strangled on half-court and forced to do uncomfortable things, and feeding on that energy. Denver’s life force, so to speak, is too strong. »

This is Couper Moorhead, who manages publications on the Miami Heat site, perhaps best summed up the superb playoff campaign of Erik Spoelstra’s team, qualified in the final to everyone’s surprise.

A lot of pressure on the ascent of the ball upstream of the zone

Kings of comeback, Jimmy Butler and company are also kings of the fourth quarter in these playoffs, as shown by their +/- general. In 22 games, they have scored 89 points more than their opponents in the last round of their meetings. Second, the Lakers are only at +31, the Nuggets being only at +20.

Besides, the Heat have the worst +/- of these playoffs over the first three quarters…

The zone has been one of Miami’s tools to strangle the half-court opponent and force them to do uncomfortable things. But we must remember that Erik Spoelstra uses it in a specific context and especially with a lot of defensive pressure upstream on the ascent of the ball, just to nibble the clock as much as possible.

Thus, the opponents of the Heat are forced to attack the Florida zone with fifteen seconds on the clock, enough to force errors and reverse the energy of a meeting.

Duncan Robinson’s major heatstroke and the Miami area had hurt the Nuggets in Game 2 of the Finals, allowing Jimmy Butler and company to regain home field advantage. Yet in Game 4, the Heat didn’t use their zone at all. For what ? Because Denver adjusted in Game 3 and it hurt Erik Spoelstra’s players a lot.

Eric Shapiro explained it very well in video. Miami’s 1-3-1 zone, with its three points which change on the outsides and its central player who prevents the position from being taken at the head of the racket, thus disrupted the usual patterns of the Nuggets enough in Game 2, Nikola Jokic having especially struggling to be served in a high position.

Nikola Jokic from the wing

By reducing the possession clock as much as possible, then with a defense that players are not used to facing, the Heat were able to surprise Mike Malone’s players.

Coaching | L'ajustement des Nuggets qui a coulé la zone du Heat (1)

“I have an interesting statistic” explained Mike Malone after Game 2. “In the first three quarters, after two games, about 19% of our possessions ended at the end of the clock, in the last seven seconds. But in the fourth quarter of Game 1 and 2, this percentage increased from 19% to 32%. That means we go up the ball, play against their area and get into situations with few seconds on the clock, which hurts our attack… Offensively, it’s about giving our players as many ways to attack that area as possible, to be effective and at least produce some good shots. Whether we score or not, it depends on our players. But we have to make sure we produce the right shots against this area, which gave us some problems in the fourth quarter. »

And the coach walked the talk in Game 3, with a positional adjustment. Facing the area, Nikola Jokic thus placed himself on the side of the racket, rather than a high post, and his teammates systematically cut, in particular Christian Braun, the rookie having punished Miami defenders on multiple occasions.

By placing himself in a “weak” zone of the opposing 1-3-1, the Serbian pivot attracts Bam Adebayo and forces a 2-vs-1 situation on the opposite side. With his quality of pass, it is then very easy for the Nuggets to use the surplus, and the Colorado franchise bludgeoned that of the Heat near the circle in this third meeting.

Coaching | L'ajustement des Nuggets qui a coulé la zone du Heat (2)

As a result, Miami was forced to put their zone away in Game 4 in an attempt to destabilize Denver otherwise, further “blitzing” Jamal Murray on the pick-and-roll. Except that the latter responded by delivering 12 assists without losing a single ball. The proof of the “vital force” of Denver, for the moment too strong for Miami.

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