The only team worse was … the Knicks, at 29.9 percent. Miami shot only 30.6 percent from behind the arc in Round 2.
In Round 2, that sizzle fizzled out, as the Heat mustered only 112.6 points per 100 possessions ( a mark that would rank 25th in the regular season) against the Knicks defense, which was never very good and didn’t have Immanuel Quickley (who might be New York’s best defender) for the last three games. (Both numbers are a 2023 postseason high in any series.) Since they’re coming off a regular season in which they finished 27th in 3-point percentage, it’s OK to call that performance an outlier. Through five games, their 60.4 effective field goal percentage was 10.3 percent above what they were expected to shoot, according to Second Spectrum. No team has looked hotter in these playoffs than the Heat did against the Bucks in Round 1. Can Miami score enough without hemorrhaging on defense? Here are a few questions worth considering before the conference finals tip off. Both cores know each other’s tendencies and impulses.
This rematch promises to have several twists and turns, adjustments aplenty, and bad blood. Miami and Boston enter this series with the exact same defensive rating (111.0) after two rounds of competition and a disciplined, adaptable style of play that goes up a level when Butler channels prime Michael Jordan. But basketball isn’t played on paper Erik Spoelstra and Butler have proved too many people wrong for us to count them out.
0 kommentar(er)
