What should worry the Miami Heat against Portland

On Saturday night, the Miami Heat will match up against the frisky Portland Trail Blazers, who handed the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder their first and only loss of the season. The Heat need to be wary of the following factors if they want to secure a second consecutive win:

Pesky defense: The Blazers' defense, like the Heat, is their calling card, as their defensive rating ranks ninth in the league, (11th in both transition and halfcourt defensive rating).

Notably, their strategy often features a relentless full-court press, playing at the highest pick-up distance in the league, leading to the highest steal percentage and most opponent turnovers per game. The downside of their physical defense is they give up the fourth-highest free throw rate in the league.

As far as shot profile goes, their plan is to run teams off the three-point line. They give up the fourth-lowest percentage of opponent field goals coming from three, the fifth-highest percentage of opponent field goals in the mid-range, 11th-highest at the rim.

Opposing teams are shooting the second-best percentage in the mid-range, the ninth-lowest percentage at the rim, and 11th-lowest percentage from three against them.

With functional size at every position, they pose a real threat to a Heat team coming off the second night of a back-to-back, without their two best players, that can sometimes become turnover-prone when their fast-paced offense backfires.

'Morey-ball': They rely on their defense and ability to create turnovers to generate transition offense, (fourth in transition frequency percentage, third in transition offensive rating).

The Blazers take the fewest mid-range shots in the league by far, and shoot it at the worst percentage by far. Offensively, their game is about getting to the rim, (fourth-highest percentage of field goals there, 10th in free throw rate, first in free throw percentage), and getting up threes, (seventh-highest percent of field goals from behind the arc).

They actually rank in the bottom 10 in the league in converting from those areas, however, which is partially why their offensive rating ranks 17th, along with their 23rd-ranked halfcourt offensive rating.

Second Chances: Although their offense isn't so great, the Blazers give themselves plenty of extra opportunities, ranking seventh in the league in offensive rebound percentage, (Heat 29th).

The Heat are coming off two straight games, mostly without Bam Adebayo, where they were hammered on the glass, giving up 32 combined offensive rebounds, leading to 49 second chance points.

Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at toledoalexander22@gmail.com. Twitter: @tropicalblanket

What should worry the Miami Heat against Portland

MORE MIAMI HEAT STORIES

Breaking down the Miami Heat's historic first quarter against the Charlotte Hornets

Powell, Wiggins lead historic first quarter, a drop-off and other takeaways from Heat-Hornets

Jaime Jaquez Jr. electrifies with poster dunk, but injury clouds Heat’s win over Hornets