The Miami Heat didn’t exactly hide their zone defenses. They used it more than any other team in the NBA, 11.6 percent of the time per Synergy Sports. No other team even hit seven percent, but the Boston Celtics looked completely and completely unprepared for Miami’s trump card because the heat barely used them in the postseason.
In the first two playoff rounds, the heat never used zone defense, according to Synergy. This certainly made it easier for a Boston team that emerged from a seven-game war against the Toronto Raptors that was littered with box-and-one and triangle-and-two schemes that nearly knocked them out of the playoffs. The Heat may be a heavy zone team, but they are nowhere near as exotic. They’ve stuck to the more traditional 2-3 zone for the most part, but while they saved it for most of the playoffs, they uncorked it for 16 possessions from game 1 and doubled that total to 32 in game 2.
Of those 32 zone owners, 29 came in the second half. The setting worked wonderfully. Boston scored 60 points in the first half … and 41 in the second. Too many possessions went like this: lots of aimless surrenders of the perimeter in a desperate attempt to get footage that wasn’t there. Too many times Celtics found himself with the ball on the nail unsure of what to do with the defenders around them.
The main tenant of a 2-3 zone is the protection of paint. The heat was successful on this front. Boston scored 32 points in the paint in the first half but only 14 in the second. Watch what happens when Enes Kanter rolls to the basket. The top of the zone has fallen in color. All five heat defenders are below the 3-point line. Jae Crowder, one of the two defenders at the top, gets the strip. If not, Bam Adebayo waited on the sidelines and Duncan Robinson was there to help.
The theoretical compromise should be open shots behind the bow. That didn’t happen. The Celtics scored 14 3-point points in the first half and 14 points in the second. After six hits in the first two quarters, there were only four. Does that look open to you?
It’s testament to Miami’s remarkable defensive speed, and no Heat defender took his duties more seriously than Jimmy Butler, who wreaked havoc on the fringes in the fourth quarter.
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There were a dozen such possessions on the route, but none stood out more than the three thefts that sealed the game. The first came through wise help in defense. Daniel Theis shielded Jae Crowder from Walker, and while Adebayo was still deep in his position in the zone, Butler stepped in to mark his ride, but when Walker walked by, Butler had the presence of mind to put up a hand and deflect the pass , chase it to the sidelines and save it for the quick break. Two points for Miami.
The next two came in inbounds games. Usually the domed baseline transition to the perimeter is conservative in a crime. It is a concession if the preferred action against the basket fails. But Butler refused to allow even the concession. He dissolved the pass and sure enough two more points for the heat.
The last bargain was the cherry on top. Until five with less than eight seconds left, Butler didn’t need to break off this attempt at praise. But he played until the last buzzer and sealed the win.
Butler covers so much ground from the top of the zone that his typical weaknesses need not apply. It allowed Erik Spoelstra to pack the paint with impunity in the second half of Game 2 and knocked Boston out of the game entirely. With the unbridled dedication of their best player, the Heat nearly disarmed the Celtics offensive with a single adjustment.
Boston will have 3 points for the zone in game, but there aren’t any obvious ones if the heat can successfully close shooters without affecting their rim protection. Floaters will be available, and more determined ball movement can help as well. But if Miami’s athleticism and creativity continue to manifest so dynamically in defense, this will be a short streak. The Celtics were not mistaken for a 2-3 zone. Every player and coach in the NBA has seen one before. They got essentially perfectly confused by a 2-3 zone run, and unlike the traditionally flawed rosters they use, the Heat is led by a defensive superstar in Butler who is essentially schema-safe. If the Celtics butlers can’t do less engaged and less athletic in the next few days, their offensive will continue to fight.
