The Heat in its comfort zone

Zone defense has its strengths and can derail an attack if applied correctly. It allows you to lock access to the circle, limit drives, cut passing lines… It is also less demanding physically than in individual defence.

With his cascading injuries, the Heat opted for a 2-3 zone defense on 18.4% of his defensive sequences. The figure may seem trivial, but it is a record. No team has used zone defense this much in nearly 15 years, according to SynergySports stats, reported by the Miami Herald.

Unheard of in the NBA

The league record, held by Miami, was 1,053 defensive possessions in zone defense in the 2018/19 season. If he maintains this rhythm, the Heat version 2022/23 could have 1,366 at the end of the campaign! For Max Strus, the method has worked pretty well so far.

” That works. We were able to get stops through that, being active, forcing the opponent to take hard shots. It was a good thing. We have guys who take pride in defending well, whether it’s man-to-man or in the zone. We will try to get stops, whatever the way. It worked well for us, we will continue to do so”.

In the figures, Max Strus is not necessarily wrong. During the meeting in Toronto on Wednesday night, the Heat limited Toronto to 0.73 points on average on their 11 possessions in zone defense. On the season, Miami only concedes 0.81 points per possession in zone defense.

Even on the 3-point shot, supposed to be the weakness of the zone defense, the opponents do not succeed against the 2-3 of the Heat: 24.5% success against the zone, 40.6% against a defense individual.

“It works well because it’s unconventional in this league”, adds Gabe Vincent. “Not many are going to do it, just for what it means. Everyone has this pride in defending their player. Not that it’s frowned upon, but it doesn’t really happen. It’s different. Our opponents find it difficult to navigate because our zone is not a conventional zone. It’s changed a bit, slightly different, and it’s evolved since I’ve been here. It poses a different challenge, which you don’t see every night.

Generally insufficient defense

The problem is that this relative trademark on zone defense is not enough. The overall record of Floridians is not good, and Miami has also lost its match in Toronto despite its good streaks on the area, and is currently in 18th place in the ranking of the best defenses in the league.

For Erik Spoelstra, the start of the Heat will indeed pass through the defense, but more through the attitudes than the possible game systems used, whether it is the zone or the individual.

“The talent is so high, the quality of the pass, the diversity of the attacks… Regardless of the system, you have to commit to multiple efforts, to do the difficult things, the essentials, all the little things that make it possible to build a stable and reliable defense of high level. We are not there yet, but we are making progress. We have to keep working and improving, whether it’s man-to-man or in the zone.”concluded the technician.