As of now, defense not a concern for Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are just calling it one bad performance.
There is no defensive concerns after Tuesday's 126-110 scrimmage loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. With the preseason portion of the NBA restart complete, the Heat still feel they are capable of playing playoff-quality defense.
"Not very concerning because we know what we got to do," forward Jimmy Butler said. "We didn't make anything difficult for them. We didn't get back. We didn't rebound. We turned the ball over. We did everything that we always say that we are not going to do. Now, it gets real."
The Heat resume regular season play Saturday against the Denver Nuggets in Orlando. Before the season was suspended in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were ranked 11th in scoring defense at 108.9 points a game. They are one of two top four seeds outside of the Top 10. The other is the Los Angeles Clippers.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said he will use the next three days to assess the situation.
"I'll get to the film with the rest of the staff and we'll get a better evaluation than right now," Spoelstra said.
Center Bam Adebayo, who returned to the lineup Tuesday after a two-week bout with coronavirus, has noticed a pattern when the defensive issues begin.
"I feel like our biggest thing is we've just got to communicate when we get fatigued," Adebayo said. "I feel like that's the only thing that is stopping us. When we get fatigued, we stop talking and they start making a run."
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