Heat Check podcast: Has the Miami Heat’s defense turned the corner?

Heat Check podcast: Has the Miami Heat’s defense turned the corner?

Hello and welcome to the heat check podcast Miami Harold’s Miami Heat podcast I’m David Wilson and I’m joined as always on the other line he’s second in line to get a statue outside the Cass it’s Anthony Chang our Heat beat writer here at the heral Anthony what’s going

On oh my statue be would I just be at the laptop just typing yeah it’s either like at the laptop or standing like with a recorder in like a scrum right it’s one of the oh yeah it’s good it’s a good one it’s a little bit more action I

Think then uh yeah either way over either way it’ll be a lot emptier than Dwayne wits um all right uh we’re going to be uh relatively uh quick this week Anthony just touched down in Toronto after a miserable travel day through the Northeast as I think I don’t know if we

Have any listeners Watchers in the Northeast but I think it’s terrible everywhere up there I say someone with family up in that area um obviously uh three– game winning streak going for the heat they play Toronto on Wednesday uh some historic stuff to get into I guess with with Dwayne Wade and Udonis

Haslam uh the Wade statue obviously uh coming later this year and the Haslam uh getting his jersey retired on Friday first uh let’s just talk the Wade get the Wade stuff out of the way quickly uh a real like a legitimate shocker um not surprising that it’s happening right

Like if you would asked me is Dwayne Wade gonna have a statue out on biscane Boulevard one day I would have said yes um but uh I mean he was shocked uh Eric spoler said he was shocked you were shocked you excited I was in the building that night

Uh for the first time year I think and you excitedly texted me um uh just what’s your what’s your kind of reaction like I said not not super surprising but um cool nonetheless yeah it was uh it was a really really cool moment to think and and I’m assuming

Dwayne was surprised you know he looked surprised I mean he surprised that was I think honestly the coolest part was was how like legitimately kind of shock he seemed yeah like you don’t really see that often like capture that type of moment with like the genuine reaction of

Somebody and Pat Riley delivering the news like in front of the crowd in front of everybody Eric spoler said he didn’t even know some guy some people knew obviously some people had to know right on the business side of of the team yeah they had a relase out right away video

Thing ready right but they kept it I mean for that not to leak out it’s pretty good and I mean it shouldn’t be surprising considering how the he do things they’re pretty tight lipped yeah but just the moment and capturing Wade’s genuine reaction I think was was the

Best part of it all like you said I think it was expected I just didn’t expect it at night like I was literally just like typing stuff from at half time you know writing my takeaways yeah and I heard that I like looked up and I was

Like uh okay this is actual news here yeah it’s a story so it was um um it’s going to be cool to see the statue it’s going to be cool that it’s there in front of the Arena on b g Boulevard I’m assuming it’s going to be him on the

Scorers table Yeah we we’ll get into like we we’ll do a full statue talk um once maybe we get like the specific date and all that kind of stuff I have heard they said the fall 2024 yep heard it will be during the season it’s they don’t we obviously we don’t have the

Schedule yet so that’s I assume why they can’t set a date because want to probably do it at a game yeah maybe opening night or even or even the day before a game the day before a game right yeah you know something like that but it’s gonna be

Built around some type you know whatever game early in the year right um yeah and I thought you know Dwayne Wade he he talked obviously right after it uh he you know it seemed really like meaningful to him he talked about um growing up in Chicago and like saying

The Michael Jordan statue when he was young like uh it’s and the stat stat is actually going to be designed by the same the same architects who designed the MJ statue so um yeah I mean like legitimately like you know getting your jersey up there is is like it’s cool I

Mean that was obviously a big story uh that was kind of like when he he did his interview at halftime what they talked about a little bit at the start like when he got to Miami there were no jerseys retired now now they got five up there and Six coming on Friday

But yeah Statue that is a rare rarified air obviously yeah hard to imagine another Heat player barring like bam winning a bunch of championships hard to imagine another Heat player will will we’ll have one I mean the only other one is Udonis udis we’ll number is getting retired and

There could be a Riley there could be a spell one day yeah yeah I don’t want to bring that I shouldn’t even bring we don’t need to talk about it yeah yeah but I wonder if there is any possibility I don’t want to be a spoiler I I don’t

Know anything this is just like me thinking after the Dwayne w stuff happen when they retire Donis Jersey If he if he’s going to get a statue and who knows if he will if that would be the time to tell him and they kind of unveil them together in the fall

That would be kind of cool but we’ll see I don’t know that’s was just a thought that now I’m like my my antennas are up right yeah yeah we’re we’re on the we’re on the lookout for anything um we’ll get into UD I think mostly next week after

The um Jersey retirement um but obviously that that’ll be another fun night on um Friday they he know how to how to pack in some uh events into this like doldrums of the schedule um but at the same time the Heat are playing good basketball uh they’ve now gone three

Straight games holding their opponent under 100 points you know not great opponents um obviously Charlotte’s one of the worst teams in the league they blow him out on Sunday on Dwayne Wade night uh beat Brooklyn in overtime on Monday holding a team under 100 and overtime is is pretty good of course the

Heat didn’t crack 100 themselves the issue you know the magic who were sliding held them under 100 on Friday night but still you know probably a playoff team Orlando um Heats defense as you pointed out into the back into the top five I think we expected that to

Happen some sorry top 10 yeah top 10 uh I think we expected that to happen top five I don’t know if we’re expecting them to be top five but uh top 10 we expected to happen at some point here um you know there obviously there’s going

To be nights where they give up 120 130 even like that’s the nature of the NBA these days but do you think they’ve kind of figured it out defensively like is are they now this is the best probably the best defensive stretch they’ve played all year I don’t want to say

Figured out because I don’t know it’s three games but like have they what what are you seeing I guess from these last couple games here that that again this is the defense we kind of think they can be what what are you seeing over these last couple games that that makes you

Think this is going to be sustainable for this team they’re healthier they have their best defenders available I mean for so long now it’s been Jimmy out right Caleb Martin missing chunks of games hwood heith missing chunks of games now they’re all available and that makes a difference and we’re seeing it

And yes like you said it helps that you’re playing Charlotte yeah Orlando who are bottom 10 bottom 10 offenses and then Brooklyn is you know an average offense like run on 15th 16th in offensive rating um but again not a great offense so it’s help the the level

Of opponent but I also think you’re seeing this team get healthier and we’re seeing the defense come around because of that because Personnel matters when you have your best defenders available your point of attack defense is going to be better your overall defense is going to be better um it’s almost like it’s

Like now they’re getting healthier we’re kind of starting to see what we expected the defense is now ninth and the offense has fallen to like 19 so I mean this is kind of what we thought it would be you would hope the offense would be you know you know

Around 15th 14th at least um for they seem to really be probably where it wants to be uh but top 10 defense is a must and for the last few weeks they’ve been 14 13th 15th in defense and that was just not going to cut it so it’s a

Good sign that they’re back into the top 10 and you know for them hopefully they’ll stay there yeah like you said doing it against Bad teams but I think if I have my count right they’d only held teams under 100 twice all year right before this three- game stretch

And they you know we talked a lot earli in the season how you know the schedule wasn’t super tough they were winning a lot of games but and I know 100’s kind of like an arbitrary number they had games where they gave up 102 or what 100

I think once or twice um but yeah it’s still doing what you’re supposed to do against the bad teams in your schedule we’ve said it a million times is kind of the difference between this Heat team this year and and what we saw from them last year where it was a real SLO

Through the whole regular season um but you know they’ve got their identity still and um like you said the offense is has tailed off a little bit um since they’ve kind of gotten healthy which is obviously funny I mean it’s just how they’re going to play though right like

It’s so much of that is the style the pace uh to an extent like I know a lot of those numbers are Pace adjusted but still when you when you play Fast just there’s higher variance and um you know more threes all that kind of stuff like teams that play faster typically rank

Higher offensively not even when you adjust for for tempo um but you know the heater you know we wanted how many times have we said it this year we want to see the herob BAM Tyler um sorry herob bam Jimmy which we just hadn’t seen a lot um

You know now we’re seeing it and they kind of look like like you said what we thought maybe they could look like and importantly they’re winning games when they’re playing the way that we thought they might look yeah I was about to mention one thing about the offense it’s

Hard to score a lot of points when you’re seven you’re taking the 17th most threes you know percentage of shots like they just don’t take that many threes three-point volume is down they take a lot of mid-range shots they don’t take many shots around the rim so if you make

A lot of Threes even they’re you know sometimes they’ll take 30 threes and they’ll make as much as the other team because they’re just shooting it efficiently but if you shooting efficiently your margin of err is low um those Knights you’re not going to score

That much so you need a defense to be good and that’s kind of what’s happened and they’re going to rely on their defense we know that about it when this team is healthy they’re GNA they’re going to lean on their defense to win games um yeah so I think that’s what

We’ve seen but yeah bam Tyler Jimmy uh Brook that Brooklyn game was the ninth time they’ve played together all year seven finished yeah um so hopefully now for them they could have a a little bit of a sustained stretch where those three guys can play together figure out some

Things in in the clutch right in those late game moments it looked good in Brooklyn uh Tyler Tyler and Jimmy combined for 60 points which can’t you can’t ask for much more than that both were efficient some at points they were playing off of each other other times

They were just you know he were just dialing up different possessions for one time for Jimmy another them for Tyler um so it looked good but you know we’ve seen it throughout the season there are Kings to be worked out like a lot of times when they played together Jimmy’s

Usage has been way down he’s not involved um but Brooklyn was was probably the maybe the best they’ve looked together all year those three um and it was Jimmy’s first game back um so we’ll see if they can build on that you know in Toronto and moving forward yeah

You you mentioned 17th and three-point attempts right now they’re still Fifth and three-point percentage though and that’s like H that’s like I don’t worry about the if they’re gonna shoot that percentage I don’t worry about the offense because they can kind of turn it up when they need to right like when

Obviously like when you shoot a higher volume your percentage probably going to go down that’s just like the way math tends to work but they’ I mean they’ve got the shooters um you know last last night they’re what down 16 points early in the third quarter and you know

Obviously a lot of the comeback is their defense but they can score in bunches uh because of how efficiently they shoot threes um you know I don’t see any reason why this team won’t continue to shoot threes pretty much as efficiently as they are this year it doesn’t feel

Like they’re leaning on you know it’s not like the one year when PJ Tucker shot like 50% from three right like it’s Duncan Robinson is shooting well um and Tyler hero sh Ty her shooting well like the the guys part of the reason they three-point numbers are low

Is like the bad three-point Shooters don’t shoot a lot of Threes yeah um so I I think I think this is what you want to see from them right now I think you want to see them um you know identity is such an important part of um basketball at large but playoff

Basketball particular it’s why we’ve wanted to see these guys guys together all along um I think if they can really like lock in on this defense first identity while knowing that you know I the offense I still kind of trust a lot of what they can do um because of Jimmy

And close games right because Tyler herro in close games he made some monster shots uh in overtime on Monday and um because of three-point shooting like that’s just going to be like if you if you’re down by 15 points last year the heat were kind of toast when that

Happened this year right they they’re shooting well enough that they can make up but they were down 16 and how quickly was that lead gone it was like three minutes minut second half well the thing is they started making threes they were right exactly yeah they were like 0 of

13 in the first half from three and then they made like three threes in a matter of three minutes and Brooklyn shot I think the Brooklyn shot 10 of 55 from three just insane talk about volume 10 of 55 from three they actually ended up shooting worse than the heat did even he

Shot 0 third didn’t make a three in the first half so yeah the heath started making a few more shots and you know the heath defense kept you know they played well throughout and that was the difference um and I think that’s the heat I mean that’s been the heat forming

Off for a couple years where you just keep the game close even if your offense isn’t great keep the game close you know with the defense and you have you have closers on this team Jimmy Tyler like those are two of the best clutch players in the league uh so they have confidence

That they can win a lot of close games which they did last year that was uh their biggest strength was like this keeping it close and winning down the stretch behind Jimmy or Tyler or Bam um and and that was the formula in Brooklyn yeah that I mean that was what you

Really saw it felt a little bit like the good heat from like like Duncan zero points the bench did nothing pretty much last night um except Caleb who was you know kind of like his typical Caleb self didn’t score a ton but big minutes you know defense all that kind of stuff um

But otherwise the bench didn’t do anything and but their defense kept it close like we said they hit enough shots and then um the closers down the even bam was like not great last night so although he did have 20 rebounds um Brooklyn by the way that’s we talk about

That real quick Brooklyn doubled him more than any other team in his career they were sending doubles at him whenever he had the ball in the post and isos hard doubles and you could see it had an effect on the offense it had effect on bam he I think season low 11

Points for I i’ have to imagine had an effect on Duncan as well like when you when you that you take Duncan out of what he does best um but yeah that’s I mean this is when we talk about Tyler hero is an X Factor for this team that’s kind of the

Reason why right because bam is this you know he’s the second best player in this team but you can kind of take him out offensively in a way that um you can’t with a Jimmy or or a Tyler or you know a guard or a wing or you know the the

Emids and yic like that level of Center so um hero was kind of the kind of you really kind of the MVP last night I thought yeah hero and Jimmy those two Yeah just they made big play after big Play 60 60 of 96 points in an overtime

Game so that’s that was not that was 90s basketball I mean it was it was 88 88 after after four quarters I mean what the it was I think it was the first I looked it up last night the first game in the NBA season that neither team

Broke 90 points in regulation regulation which is not hard to believe I mean I should have even looked last season like probably last season never happened yeah when’s the last time that happened like in general right like maybe 199 1998 like I don’t know the6 finals or something yeah there you go I

It was just it was a weird game um but SPO loves that type of stuff he loves winning in the mud as he says he loves grinding out wins he loves finding different ways to win he always talks about the regular season how it’s important to find different ways to win

And that’s a skill and that’s kind of what this team has done all season like sometimes it’s a three some now lately it’s been the defense yeah sometimes it’s the depth sometimes it’s the main guys like and that that is you know that that works in heat favor down this in

The long run like in the playoffs where they have so many different ways they could beat you and even when a guy goes out like they’ll find a different like they like obviously dealing with an injury and you kind like you missed him obviously because you only scored 96 points but like

You know it didn’t feel like weird like it didn’t feel like you were playing anyone who was like not capable right like everyone on the floor feels like an NBA player and yoi I mean maybe we could talk a little bit Nicola yic before we wrap up because we we talked a little

Bit about him last week but um and he didn’t do you know he wasn’t incredible last night but plus 17 in his minutes is pretty good um and he’s just become a really viable he started last night he he started a lot lately but a really valuable like he’s basically the ninth

Man essentially right like when everyone’s healthy I mean probably not even in the rotation necessarily when everyone’s healthy but um he’s he’s become really viable and that is just another wrinkle I think for this um this Heat team that already we felt like had good depth uh just to get

One more piece there and a guy who’s like really rapidly improving finally yeah the interesting thing was he started last night yeah I didn’t think he was starting brce Brooklyn with Jimmy back I mean it was the Lowry Tyler Jimmy bam like the four usual starters I thought maybe Haywood

Would plug back in because he kind of works for that group he left Nico to start um will that will he be the long-term starting power forward on this team I’m not saying that I guess we’ll see but it is interesting that that at least gave him a chance right yeah he

Didn’t play great but his minutes were were positive because mostly because he was playing with the team’s best players but still he the minutes were positive and honestly like ni’s minutes with bam during this stretch have been really really good yeah um before last night they the heat were out scoring teams by

13.1 points per 100 possessions in 153 minutes adabo and Nico play together um so that front Court as aicer said I think last week is it’s Dynamic um just with their two skill their two SK kind of complimenting each other he can he’s shooting really well from three not on

High volume but shooting very well from three which obviously is always like that’s been the what you’re looking for to play next to B and it’s really that’s a really skilled front Court I mean yic is every game multiple assists and some nights where it’s four five six

Um it’s it’s one of the more interesting front courts in like I I can’t think of another tandem like that um around the league like honestly yic and some reminds me a little like Kyle Anderson I guess kind of but Kyle Anderson was always more of like like a a true Wing

Whereas yic is is kind of like a feels like a real stretch for um but with some passing ability yeah that’s what he does best right now it’s passing and pushing the PA like that’s another thing he brings is well bam is a good dribbler also like you got five guys bring the

Ball up all the time now get a rebound and just bring it up like just push it you know um the thing is his defense you know when they play better teams they play Boston they play Milwaukee can he hold up on defense for 20 minutes that I don’t know and that’s

What we’ll have to see over the course of the season I still think Haywood heith is the long-term starter at that spot I just think he fits for the identity of this team he’s a good enough shooter to make defenses respect him from the three-point line um I just

Think he he’s a more viable player at this point of his career um but I I think I kind of like what B’s doing just kind of seeing what what n can give them in that lineup just to know because how else are you going to know right right I

Mean if he was killing him if he was killing him he’d play 10 minutes right he get his run at the beginning and be out but right and look he didn’t play in the fourth quarter he didn’t play in overtime yeah and that’s not a surprise that’s just kind of like it’s almost

That he’s a placeholder starter not discredit Nico but that’s we’ve seen a exposer do that in the past he starts somebody doesn’t play much Beyond those minutes where they start the first half and the second half um he’s going to play the guy you know the guys he trusts

Most down the stretch but again I we’ll see we’ll see if Nico could maybe earn this role long term or at least for the next few weeks but um that’s one thing I’m definitely interested to see like tomorrow even in Toronto will he start again at Power Forward yeah um because

That is a little bit of a surprise um all right anything else before we wrap things up no I think we’re good I think we covered it all right I saw snow today in at in in Atlanta in New York snow in New York City in 700 plus days and I was there

Really wow that’s crazy isn’t that insane I couldn’t believe it so it’s the first like time it’s snow over an inch in 700 right yeah like again surprising yeah still surprising are you uh as a Miami and like what are your thoughts on snow do you get excited when you see it

Are you annoyed when it I mean obviously today it annoyed you because you uh sat at I don’t know what airport you were at but you sat at the airport uh all day just what what what are your snow takes I like seeing it from the

Inside I take a lot of pictures from my hotel room then I go outside and I don’t like it that much is it snoow in Toronto there’s snow on the ground but it’s not snowing all right but it is eight degrees with a wind show of like

Negative s so all right well don’t let your mustache freeze try not uh all right you can follow Anthony on Twitter Anthony Chang you follow me on Twitter at DB Wilson 2 uh we’ll be back next week we’ll talk to you Donis haslum um and obviously whatever else

Happens in uh in heat over the next couple games is um we’ll see if they can keep this winning streak going um B schedule is still pretty favorable for for the next week and then um I guess next week when we record we’ll have to figure out when exactly we’re going to record

Um but uh tues a good one Boston game coming Boston New York coming at the end of next week so some big ones uh for the East East playoff race um thanks again for listening we’ll talk to you guys next week

Read More: https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nba/miami-heat/article278350724.html

On this week’s Heat Check podcast: A look at the Miami Heat’s recent defensive surge, Jimmy Butler’s return from injury and the news of Dwyane Wade’s statue.

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