Head coach Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat watches during the third quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena on March 27, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio.
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The Miami Heat’s defense has been one of its biggest strengths for most of the season. But as the postseason nears, the Heat’s defense has suddenly turned into one of its biggest weaknesses.
Less than three weeks ago, the Heat was on a season-long seven-game winning streak and had the NBA’s fourth-ranked defensive rating (allowing 111.3 points per 100 possessions) for the season. The Heat was also out of play-in tournament territory, occupying the Eastern Conference’s final automatic playoff berth at sixth place in the East.
But things have since taken a turn for the worse, as the Heat has lost six of its last seven games. The latest defeat was a 149-128 blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night at Rocket Arena, as it marked the most points that the Heat has allowed in a game in franchise history.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” a frustrated Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said minutes after Firday’s 21-point defeat in Cleveland. “We’ve put in the time. The guys have put in blood, sweat and tears to develop a top-four defense two weeks ago. And when we need it the most is when we’ve let it disappear. And that’s just unacceptable at this time.
“That’s what’s disappointing. We have it in us and when there’s the most pressure is when we need it the most right now. And I hope we’re taking it to heart.”
Over this 1-6 stretch, the Heat has posted the NBA’s 27th-ranked defensive rating (allowing 124.9 points per 100 possessions). Five of Miami’s seven worst single-game defensive ratings of the season have come during this rough seven-game stretch that has the Heat entering Saturday at the bottom of the NBA’s play-in tournament at 10th place in the East.
“It’s not like we’re trying to fabricate something out of nothing,” Spoelstra continued, with the Heat moving on to face the struggling Indiana Pacers on Sunday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse (5 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). “We have five months of great defensive habits and we’ve put in a lot of work to develop those habits and you develop pride in your defense.
“It would be one thing if we had the 20th-ranked defense for months and I’m saying, ‘Hey, we have to defend.’ Literally two weeks ago, or less than, we had the fourth-ranked defense.”
Friday’s ugly defensive effort came just two days after the Heat limited a potent Cavaliers offense to 103 points on 43.2 percent shooting from the field and 12 of 37 (32.4 percent) shooting on threes to earn a win in Cleveland on Wednesday. Miami actually held Cleveland to its worst offensive rating in more than two weeks on Wednesday before allowing the Cavaliers to record their fourth-best offensive rating of the season on Friday.
“We’ve got to come out ready,” Heat guard Norman Powell said. “They made adjustments. They were ready for this game. And we came out flat.”
Some of the Heat’s recent defensive issues are due to the fact that teams are shooting 39.3 percent from three-point range against Miami over the last seven games. Prior to this seven-game stretch, opponents were shooting just 34.8 percent on threes against the Heat through its first 67 games of the season.
The Cavaliers shot 19 of 41 (46.3 percent) from behind the arc led by eight three-point makes from ex-Heat forward Max Strus to help spark Friday’s explosive performance. Miami is now just 5-18 this season when its opponent shoots 40 percent or better on threes.
“Defensively, we gave up airspace and that for two months has been something that’s brought us a good deal amount of pain,” Spoelstra said. “There’s probably seven or eight losses where it was 20 or so threes, where we’re not making that extra effort. That’s usually the indicator for us, whether we’re making efforts, getting guys off the line.”
But the other part of the Heat’s recent defensive slippage is due to simply playing elite competition. Five of the seven games during this 1-6 stretch have come against top-10 offenses.
“We’ve got to come out with better energy, better focus, a better disposition on the defensive end,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “Not too sure how [Friday’s loss] happened, but it happened.”
With just two weeks left in the regular season and the Heat pushing to avoid the play-in tournament for the first time in four years, how could Miami come out “flat” on Friday?
“I don’t know,” Powell said.
With the Heat entering Saturday in 10th place in the East, it needs to finish among the East’s top six teams to clinch a playoff spot and avoid the play-in tournament that features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference.
“I mean, you always want to be optimistic,” Heat captain Bam Adebayo said when asked if he believes the Heat can turn its defensive struggles around. “Next game we want to feel like we want to go out there and we want to win. I mean, in our losses we’ve given up 120. So the recipe for that is obviously hold teams under 120, 115. And it’s going to take difficult times to do it. But at this point, our backs are against the wall.”
The Heat is 30-9 this season when allowing fewer than 120 points.
Is effort a recent problem for the Heat on the defense?
“I mean, that’s a big part of it,” Spoelstra said, with only eight games left in the Heat’s regular season. “Disposition, collectively being ready for the moment and imposing our will on the game. Again, it’s not like we’re fabricating this. We’ve been able to do it. We didn’t have the 15th-ranked defense, we didn’t have the 20th-ranked defense. We had the fourth-ranked defense, and we’ve put in the sweat, equity to build that. We need it the most right now, and we need to rally around those habits that are there.”
Next up for the Heat is a game that should be a get-right game for Miami. Sunday’s contest comes against a Pacers team that has the NBA’s worst record this season at 16-58 and has dropped 18 of its last 19 games.
“Every game counts right now,” Herro said. “It doesn’t matter who we play. We’ve got to win.”
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.