Miami Heat: Defense comes to the forefront on West Coast road trip

After finishing their West Coast road trip with a 3-2 record, the Miami Heat improved noticeably at the defensive end of the floor.

Entering their now complete West Coast trip, the Miami Heat found themselves in unfamiliar territory. First off all, here’s a quick snapshot of their recent five-game stint:

• vs. Denver Nuggets: Lost 95-94
• vs. Los Angeles Clippers: Won 104-101
• vs. Golden State Warriors: Lost 97-80
• vs. Phoenix Suns: Won 126-115
• vs. Utah Jazz: Won 84-74

For a franchise that prides itself on effort on the defensive end of the floor, the Heat were seemingly a little slow coming out of the gates. Firstly, they were ranked 17th in the league for defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) at 104.9, after finishing the 2016-17 season in fifth place.

Furthermore, the Heat were ranked 16th for opponent scoring in allowing 106.6 points per game, having fifth finished last season in allowing 102.1 points per game.

However, to the credit of the players, and head coach Erik Spoelstra and his staff, the team appears to have returned to its identity at this end of the floor during this challenging trip.

Over this five-game span, the Heat ranked third in the league by allowing just 96.4 points per game, behind only the league-leading Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics. Overall, they now rank ninth overall, well up from 16th prior to the trip.

Furthermore, the team ranked fourth during this span in defensive rating at 97.1, and as a result jumped from 17th to eighth overall.

On an individual basis, the performance of forward James Johnson was highly noteworthy. Having ranked last on the team in defensive rating prior to the trip at 110.2, Johnson recorded an outstanding rating of 95.9, fourth-best on the team during this stretch.

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Furthermore, the defensive performance of the Heat starting backcourt made noticeable strides. Entering this five-game stretch, Goran Dragic had a rating of 107.8, which improved to 101.3 over this span. Meanwhile, his backcourt partner Dion Waiters, who had a terrible rating of 110.1 prior to the trip, finished the trip with a team-best rating of 85.6.

Granted, Waiters missed two of the five games due to the birth of his daughter. However, he had possibly the most notable performance of the trip during the Heat’s win over the Jazz. Not only did Waiters score 10 of his game-high 21 points in the final 2:45 minutes of the game, he also compiled an astounding defensive rating of 55.7. This return represented the best rating across the league this season for any player who played at least 30 minutes in a single game.

The aforementioned Jazz game was really the crowning achievement of the Heat’s recent improvements at the defensive end. After a so-so first half in which they gave up 49 points, the Heat allowed the Jazz to score just 25 points after the break on 4-of-33 shooting from the field, including 0-of-14 from 3-point range.

In line with the improvements shown by Dragic and Waiters on the defensive end this trip, the following tweet demonstrates just how effective they were in the win over the Jazz:

This game of course concludes the West Coast swing, with a final stop to take on the Detroit Pistons on Sunday completing a hectic six-game road trip. Following the Jazz game, Spoelstra reflected on their output over the past week:

"“We talked about this road trip, like all other long ones, is an opportunity for you to develop your competitive character. We got knocked in the jaw that first night in Denver, but we continued to plug away, stay connected. You can turn those painful times into something you can grow from.”"

So while the heartbreaking loss to the Nuggets to kick off the trip could have ruined the team’s resolve, the Heat have clearly shown enormous character in winning three of their next four games.

Next: 2017-18 Week 4 NBA Power Rankings

As the Heat have now learned, defense is clearly the key to their success moving forward.