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Each week, HOOPSWORLD NBA analyst and coach Anthony Macri opens his notebook and offers an assortment of observations on games, players, and teams from throughout the league. Coach Macri serves as a player development consultant for the Pro Training Center and Coach David Thorpe, working with a variety of NBA players on their skills and game understanding. The Coach’s Notebook appears on HOOPSWORLD every Thursday.

Disciplined Anticipation the Key in Miami

Throughout the regular season, the Miami HEAT have proven to be a top defensive team.  Based on the athleticism and aggression of the big three coupled with a game plan taking advantage of their superior talents, the HEAT have used ball pressure and rebounding as the backbone for a defense that finished the year ranked fifth in the league in defensive rating.

However, Miami’s defensive system was noticably distinct from the Tom Thibodeau scheme employed by Eastern Conference counterparts Boston and Chicago.  For those teams, a strong defensive possession relied on pressuring passing lanes, choking off penetration, and fantastic rotations.  In Miami, however, the main goal was pressuring the basketball and inviting longer jump shots, which allowed them to get out on the break.  One thing that Miami did not do a particularly good job of during the year was the creation of turnovers.  In fact, only two teams in the entire NBA forced fewer turnovers than the HEAT.  [The difference in the defenses was highlighted in this article on HoopSpeak.com by Beckley Mason – a worthy read.]

In their playoff series against Boston, however, the HEAT is displaying a more mature and complete defensive mindset.  They have progressed to add better off-ball anticipation in passing lanes, coming up with crucial steals after forcing the Celtics into odd places with their ball pressure.  Boston, which has carved up teams with the ball screen all year, has struggled to find the open man out of traps and blitzes.  Miami seems much better prepared for Boston’s flashes and movement, and the Celtics failed to adjust to that reality in Game 2.

{AUTHOR_BOX}The quantity of turnovers forced in this series is not higher than what Miami accomplished during the regular season.  However, the quality of turnover forced is much higher, and the level of interruption to Boston’s normal offensive flow is markedly better.  Interestingly, it is actually through less gambling and more deliberate and measured disruption that Miami has turned up their ability to force turnovers.  In particular, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have taken a more conservative approach when off the ball, staying home and providing support when needed, and not overshooting lanes in the attempt for the big deflection and runout.  This gives Miami’s defense more structural stability, which means players are more confident when they do see the opportunity to go for steals (Joel Anthony has grown to be a great anchor in the backline, and his teammates’ trust in him seems to have grown over the course of the year).

More than anything else, Miami’s defense has really succeeded in pushing Boston’s offense out and away from direct operational areas.  Boston is a team whose offense depends on good spacing – and when their offense is distorted, it does not click and hum at a high level.  Instead, it grinds down and becomes more focused on one-on-one play, which is not a great way for them to succeed—especially when the best isolation player for the Celtics, Paul Pierce, is being guarded by LeBron James, with whom he has had some trouble.

Before heading into Game 3, the Celtics will need to find ways to punish Miami’s aggressive on-ball defense, both off the bounce (penetration vertically instead of horizontally) and through quick "ping" passes that reverse sides of the floor.  This essentially forces the HEAT into playing "tag," taking away the core strengths of their defense (and perhaps giving them a chance to fatigue over the course of a contest).  The biggest challenge for Miami, quite frankly, is to stay the course.  It is easy for athletes to experience some success and become undisciplined in their approach – whether Wade and James are able to stay the course will make a huge difference.

Have questions for Coach Macri? Be sure and drop by HOOPSWORLD on Mondays at 2PM Eastern for the Coach’s weekly basketball chat!  You can also follow Coach Macri on Twitter @CoachMacri.