Erik Spoelstra has once again done an absolutely incredible job as head coach of the Miami Heat in these playoffs. He has somehow taken a group that absolutely no one would consider to be the most talented in the league to the NBA Finals yet again.
One of the big reasons for their success has been their excellent defense and Spoelstra credited his best players for setting the tone on that end of the floor.
“The versatility and toughness in guys like this (Jimmy Butler) that drive it,” Spoelstra said when asked about the Heat’s defensive versatility. “If your best players aren’t defenders, it’s hard to create a good defense. We have Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, they care about defending and doing the tough things. It is pretty easy to figure out the rest of the stuff.”
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When Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are working hard on the defensive end, it sets an example for the rest of the team to follow. Adebayo has been terrific on defense all season and made the All-Defensive Second Team for the fourth year in a row. Butler, meanwhile, has made the Second Team five times in his career and is leading these playoffs in steals with 35.
If your best players are putting in the hard yards on defense, the rest can have no excuses to not put in the same amount of effort. While the Boston Celtics certainly shot themselves in the foot in Game 7, the Heat’s defense played its part in limiting them to a season-low 83 points and they’ll now be looking to stifle the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals.
Can The Heat Defense Slow Down The Nuggets?
While the Heat have excelled on defense, the Nuggets have put on a clinic on the offensive end. They have averaged 116.4 PPG on 49.0% shooting from the field, with both ranking second in these playoffs, as Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray have made light work of opposing defenses.
They have also had a lot of success in this matchup in recent years, as the Heat have only beaten them once in the last five seasons. This is easily going to be the toughest challenge Miami has faced in these playoffs and it’ll be interesting to see how they deal with it.
Their zone defense worked very well against the Celtics but Jokic picks that apart better than almost anybody in the league. They’ll have to make some adjustments and you would trust Spoelstra to come up with the best game plan. Will that still be enough though? Time will tell.
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