The Miami Heat opened their season with a disappointing loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and while there were plenty of reasons Miami came up short, some of Erik Spoelstra's decisions deserve a closer look.
I was curious mostly about his defensive strategy and schemes more so than his rotations. Heat fans are blowing this loss out of proportion, it’s only one game.
So, what was Spoelstra's biggest mistake in the season opener? We asked three of our On SI writers to share their thoughts.
The mistake that punished the team the most from Spoelstra was his defensive scheme on LaMelo Ball. He switched up Andrew Wiggins and Tim Hardaway Jr often throughout the game which proved to not be enough. LaMelo went 7-17 and had 21 points. The job wasn’t enough. He was too focused on Ant-man and getting the rotations on stopping him, which left LaMelo with easy scoring positions most of the time.
This isn’t to take away from Wiggins or Hardway’s defensive skills. But when it comes down to stopping the Timberwolves who have both Ball and Ant-Man, you have to realize you can’t shut down both and focus on limiting one of them. That bet is always going to be stopping LaMelo and basically all but daring Ant-man to go off and do his thing. Instead, both shooters had easy looks and were able to have their way against Miami’s defense. Switching it up on LaMelo would have put more pressure on him to pass the ball, which would have put more pressure on Ant-man to come through in the clutch because he would have had to be the guy every possession.
Oddly enough, Spoelstra deployed a steady dose of drop coverage — specifically against Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball. Spoelstra has been known to be scheme-flexible depending on the personnel. Still, it didn’t make much sense with Bam Adebayo and Giannis Antetokounmpo — two all-world defenders in space — as drop defenders. Even if they’re at the level, it can be too much space for those two, especially Edwards, one of the best pull-up jump shooters in the NBA.
By the time he adjusted to a more switch-heavy scheme, it was too late. Edwards and Ball made 14 threes, six more than the Heat’s entire team combined. Right now, Spoelstra’s likely tinkering with different ideas with this new-look Heat squad. But playing as much drop as he did in ball screens was the wrong call, especially for this matchup.
One game into the season, I am not overly concerned with the outcome of the game. Erik Spoelstra certainly did not have his best game but I wonder if a large portion of that is trying to figure out his new team. The biggest thing that stuck out to me was the defense playing drop coverage. This allowed the Timberwolves shooters to have some space to shoot. Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball torched the defense and there was no adjustment made. That was the biggest question mark to me.