The Miami Heat are winning ball games again. The Heat are 14-12 and are currently 6th in the Eastern Conference. A couple of years ago you would be saying ‘so what? That’s not that great’, but given the low expectations for the Heat coming into this season with all of their young talent, that’s a pretty good place to be.
Personally, I looked at their roster this summer and told my boys at The Hoop Doctors my prediction that the Heat would be just about .500 and scrape their way into the playoffs in the East. So the fact they are getting a few wins isn’t surprising to me at all, but what IS surprising is HOW they are getting their wins. Personally I thought the Heat would be all offense, with a healthy and rejuvenated Dwyane Wade, a couple of young scorers in Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers, and the stat stuffer Shawn Marion. Thus far this season I couldn’t be more wrong. The Heat are winning games with defense. And it’s a new style of defense that is being described as a “swarming” or “frenetic” style with lots of blocks and steals, unlike the style of the Celtics and Spurs who play it more conventional by essentially jamming up the middle and forcing you to the perimeter for tougher, lower percentage shots.
The Heat are super athletic, but for the most part are often undersized. So they are using their athleticism and quickness to out hustle, force turnovers, and quite literally “swarm” the opposition. The Miami Heat are currently sitting 6th in the NBA in blocks per game, and 5th in the NBA in steals per game. Those stats are great, but what makes them even more amazing is that they are only 26th in the NBA in defensive rebounds per game. So that tells you that they are extremely undersized and rebounding poorly, but they are making up for it with steals and blocks. And they are great at forcing their opposition into turnovers. And costly ones, as they are regularly out performing their opponents on points off turnovers.
If you want a great example of the type of defensive intensity and “swarming” that is winning ball games for the Miami Heat you should look no further than this clip from the final seconds of Friday night’s win against the mighty LA Lakers which helped seal the win for the Heat.
