Miami Heat’s Defense vs Cleveland Cavaliers Breakdown

The Miami Heat had a 91.3 defensive rating, excluding the 4th quarter, per Cleaning the Glass. That number dropped all the way to 67.9 with Bam on. They did so beautifully by preventing drives, rim deterrence, being active in the passing lanes, deflecting everything, causing havoc with turnovers, and Bam was simply Bam

With Bam on, they caused 14 turnovers in 28 minutes. The Cavaliers had a 25% turnover. That’s a quarter of their possessions just ending in the worst possible way.

They allowed only 10/24 from inside the arc + 5/18 from 3pt. But the stat that stands out is only allowing 3/3 at the rim. Everything else was around the paint and above – went 7/21

Here’s a link to a thread of the breakdown going through each clip!

[https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka\_/status/1772260323703079363](https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1772260323703079363)

* Bam in drop vs Garland PNRs was key – limiting him to only 9pts on 9 shots. There was no drive available, no pocket passes either
* Guards did a good job screen navigating
* Bam’s defense in the passing lanes was insane with some of the reads he was making
* Full court press after free throws forced Cavaliers to kill clock
* Everyone recovering after the press was so sharp
* That’s when they fell back to zone & the zone with Delon/Haywood/Caleb was just nasty
* Everyone was executing switches, peel switches were on point. I didn’t see many rotations being missed
* Early tags(Patty & Jovic were great with that)

Let me know what you think of the breakdown & anything else you picked out from the game defensively!

by SimplyBallin