The Miami HEAT face the Washington Wizards Friday night at Capital One Arena.
The HEAT fell to the Wizards 102-93 in their last meeting Wednesday. Tip-off is
set for 7:00 PM. Television coverage on FOX Sports Sun begins at 6:30 PM. You
can also listen to the action live on 790 The Ticket.
1: What did we learn from the first night of this two-game series with
Washington?
Couper Moorhead: We didn’t necessarily learn this on Wednesday since its common
sense, but the best way to get yourself back into a game is to get stops. Miami
shot very well from deep throughout the game, but with the Wizards shooting
equally well in the first half the HEAT still wound up with a 12-point deficit
at the break. It was in the third when Miami held their opponent to just 10
points that they closed the gap and even took a lead – and the HEAT only needed
a 25-point third of their own to do so. You can’t count on holding opponents to
10 points in a quarter any more than you can hitting ten threes in a single
half, but keeping them below 30 and making the shots tough enough so as to
facilitate a possible cold spell goes a long way toward keeping the game close.
Getting those stops is even tougher on the road and Washington still has a
variety of lineups that match up very well with Miami. Last year the HEAT were
able to get a win by going with James Johnson at center when the Wizards had
Jason Smith at the same position. But Wednesday Scott Brooks was able to toggle
between small lineups involving Markieff Morris, Otto Porter and Kelly Oubre. On
the bright side, however, Washington’s starting lineup which ranks as one of the
best five-man groups in the league wound up a minus-two for the evening.
Joe Beguiristain: We continued to see the HEAT respond to adversity. After Miami
started off slowly in the first half, both Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters erupted
in the third quarter with 15 points combined on 5-of-9 shooting from deep.
Thanks to the duo, the HEAT held a seven-point lead with 9:47 left in the
fourth, but turnovers marred the rest of the period and the Wizards took it from
there. That kind of inconsistency has plagued Miami for most of the season, but
as Waiters stated after practice on Thursday, “It’s still early. It’s a long
season.”
Despite the struggles offensively, we continued to see Miami wreak havoc on the
defensive end on Wednesday night. In fact, the HEAT held Washington to just
10-of-36 shooting (27.8 percent) after halftime.
Waiters reflected on the team’s strong defensive play and talked about how that
will go a long way once the offense improves.
“Our defense is…where we want to be in , then we’re going to put ourselves in
a position to win night in, night out because our defense is going to be there
night in, night out.”
2: With turnovers an issue on Wednesday, what steps can Miami take to help keep
those numbers down?
Couper: That was the question of the day after practice on Thursday, and there’s
no easy, complete answer. As we’ve discussed before, not all turnovers are bad
because some come from being aggressive with attacks at the rim and passes
searching for good opportunities. Those turnovers are the byproduct of good
offense. But there’s a fine line between the good ones and the ones that are
simply mistakes – especially when it’s a live-ball turnover that leads to a
transition opportunity for the other team. Both Erik Spoelstra and his players
commented that some of the mistakes are mental errors and in the end that’s what
it comes down to – making good decisions without pulling back from your
offensive goals. Given that this HEAT team has a good idea of what it wants to
do with the ball would lead you to believe they can reduce their turnovers by
two or three a game, but defenses being more familiar with Miami’s formula for
success isn’t going to make it easy on them.
Joe: As Coup mentioned above, Erik Spoelstra and the players addressed the issue
at length after practice on Thursday. While it’s been such an issue that Coach
Spo stated that “turnovers are crippling our team right now offensively”, the
good news is the team is aware and understands what it needs to do in order to
get things going in the right direction.
Perhaps the first step in doing that is making things more simple, which is
something Spoelstra hinted at. Of course, when you attack the basket as much as
Miami does (55.1 drives per game), you’re naturally going to turn the ball over
at times. That said, errors like stepping out of bounds or driving to the rim
without a plan need to be avoided as much as possible.
3: As Bradley Beal and John Wall combined for 53 points, does Miami need to do
anything differently in defending them?
Couper: Yes and no. Overall, Miami did pretty well in forcing both players into
the mid-range, especially getting Wall to take pull-up jumpers in that zone.
Those are shots each player is more than adept at hitting, but they are less
damaging than either Wall getting to the rim or Beal getting an open three. That
said, there were definitely moments where Wall got an easy driving lane or Beal
got an open look from deep – he just happened to miss some of those – that can
reduce the margin for error that your defense is working with. But in general,
it was a strong effort.
That said, Wall and Beal also drew a combined 22 shots at the free-throw line.
Some of those came in the final minutes when Miami was trying to extend the
game, and some were on jumpers that maybe could have gone either way, but if
you’re doing well limiting the other team’s best scorers to as many contested
shots as possible, putting them on the line is only doing them a favor. But
that’s the trick, isn’t it? Defending as aggressively as possible while not
fouling is the ideal for many players, but it’s easier said than done.
Joe: For the most part, the HEAT did a nice job of defending the duo and threw a
bunch of different guys their way. While Beal and Wall did score 53 points
combined, they did so on 15-of-40 shooting. In particular, Josh Richardson and
Tyler Johnson answered the call more often than not and made things difficult
for them.
Still, there were some instances when Wall got to the basket easily thanks to
his elite speed, but in that case Miami’s help defense needs to be sharp. That
shifts the onus on guys like Hassan Whiteside, James Johnson or whomever is near
the basket at the time.
Like we’ve stated before, the HEAT’s defense has been one of the bright spots of
the season. There’s no reason to believe that won’t continue on Friday night.
Highlights:
Nov. 15 – Wizards at HEAT
April 12 – Wizards at HEAT
Game Notes:
Efficiencies (Rank):
Player: Goran Dragic
Player: James Johnson
Player: Tyler Johnson
Player: Josh Richardson
Player: Dion Waiters
Player: Hassan Whiteside
Media Content: http://www.nba.com/heat/preview-miawas-171117
Media Keywords: NBA, Sports, Miami Heat, Goran Dragic, James Johnson, Tyler
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Heat
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Taxonomy: Game Preview
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