Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Heat Index: Windhorst: Heat suffer first loss on Hawks' changeup

Brian Windhorst:
[M]ostly the Hawks beat the Heat with their scouting report. That left the Heat with more than just a loss but with a headache. Like a hitter who can’t lay off the curve in the dirt, the Heat know they’re probably about to face a steady diet of what finally beat them for the first time in six games.

The season is now a little more than a week old and the book on the Heat has started to get around. The advance scouts have filed their reports. The assistant coaches have a catalog of games to watch to make suggestions. Head coaches have a huge bullet point for their game plan.

Right now, the Heat have a problem with zone defense and the whole league is about to realize it.
First, Jason Collins. Now, an opponent-specific* zone. Like his predecessor, Larry Drew's strengths may be on the opposite end of the floor as was advertised.

*As opposed to last season's use of zone defense as a way to play Mike Bibby, Jamal Crawford, and Joe Johnson all at the same time.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Makes sense that the Heat have problems with the zone. Both Lebron and Wade are open court players and it slows them down. Fortunately they have a good player in Chris Bosh to attract defenders and lead for open shots.

Unknown said...

I think much was made of Larry Drew simply being Mike Woodson's understudy when he took over. He has emerged as more than that and as has put together rather impressive defensive gameplans in the last year plus. Like stately in the post, the defensive burdens of Bibby and Crawford last year ruin any attempt at a cohesive defensive unit but this year's personel has the ability to disrupt passing lanes and frustrate slashing based scorers. In a word, kudos to LD