(Mandatory Credit: Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
As the Miami Heat have adjusted their offense, opponents have adjusted to theirs.
Through the first two weeks of the season, the Heat had one of the NBA’s most potent offenses, utilizing this new fast-paced, free-flowing offense. But they’re now seeing zone as much as any team in the NBA because of how much it disrupts dribble penetration and prevents half-court offenses from bending a defense in the halfcourt.
In 32 possessions against the zone in Monday’s 115-113 win over the New York Knicks, a strong fourth quarter buoyed the Heat to a 126 offensive rating, according to Heat.com’s Couper Moorhead.
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What’s seen on film will spread like wildfire throughout the league, and Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra is quite aware that this won’t be the last time his squad faces a zone. And he thinks it will be beneficial for them.
“I still think we’re going to get to our game regardless,” Spoelstra said after Monday’s win. “We’ll get a ton of experience at it. I’m sure teams will zone us, and I think that’s good.
“The more you can see things, the more you can work on it and get an attack (plan). We’ll find out what the numbers were, but the numbers in New York were very good. … I think it’ll be a good thing.”
Heat’s execution against the Knicks’ zone was superb:
The Knicks did a good job keeping Miami out of the paint through three quarters, limiting them to just 34 points in the paint on 45.9 percent shooting (17-37).
That completely flipped in the fourth quarter — piercing the Knicks’ back-line with crisp ball movement and leveraging their aggressiveness to attack open gaps.
(Video Courtesy of the NBA)
“I think we did well,” Mitchell said when asked about his assessment of the Heat versus the Knicks’ zone. “Obviously, I think it slows us down a little bit. That’s what the zone is for. We tried to get good shots and I think we did that tonight.
Just swinging the ball, still trusting each other and not trying to be a hero and score the ball. We trust each other, we swing the ball and we got good shots.“
Getting the ball into the middle of the floor and generating paint touches will always be key to better process offensively — especially against a zone.
First and foremost, Heat must generate stops and get out in transition. But if teams are intentionally trying to thwart Miami’s zone, ball movement and attacking gaps will be crucial — regardless of who’s on the floor.
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