Miami has been coasting this season and it shows on defense. Yes they were 12-3, but they had the 19th ranked defense in the NBA on points per possession (via Hoopdata).
They play a style based on aggression, on using their athleticism and length to pressure you into mistakes. If you play that going half-speed, NBA players will make you pay for it.
The Washington Wizards have NBA players on the roster. It may not have looked like it at points this season, but they did.
And they made a coasting Heat pay with a 105-101 win. The Wizards put up 105 points on the Heat. Ouch.
Washington came into this game saying they could win, I had some fun with that. Well done Washington. I’ll take my helping of crow.
What Washington did that Miami didn’t is give a… I mean care about this game. Although my first thought better describes Miami’s defensive effort on the night against by far the worst offense in the NBA coming into the game. A Wizards team without John Wall still and only playing Nene limited minutes.
But Jordan Crawford came off the bench with 22. Kevin Seraphin had 16, A.J. Price had 16. Those are NBA guys who can score if you give them space and credit the Wiz because they played hard and played their system. But those are not guys who put up those numbers against a focused Heat team. However, Miami didn’t rotate with any urgency all night long, they didn’t help the helper. If the helper even showed up. They try to pressure and show out on picks, but when they didn’t rotate the Wizards were always one or two passes away from an open look.
That’s why the Wizards shot 58 percent in the first half.
LeBron put up a triple-double — 26 points but on 24 shots, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. But late in the game he missed two key free throws and two threes in the final three minutes and that cost the Heat.
Dwyane Wade had 24, Chris Bosh had an efficient 20 on 11 shots.
There were flashes of the Heat — an 8-0 run late in the first half for one. But give the scrappy Wizards credit, they answered the runs. They wanted this one… for their second win of the season.
When a team comes in 12-3 off winning a championship it’s hard for the coach to get their attention, to get them work on the process and take the steps to repeat. This should help Erik Spoelstra get his players attention. This was a sloppy loss for Miami.
And for the Wizards have maybe the best win they will get all season.
