one of the most underrated things about the miami heat zone defense is that it's by no means solidified.
they can match up, rotate, and pass guys off even within the zone structure.
watch this play here against the brooklyn nets:
it's a 2-3 zone, with andre iguodala top right, kendrick nunn top left, and a backline of goran dragic, bam adebayo, and duncan robinson.
the first thing to notice is that miami isn't simply sitting back in the zone; iguodala still picks up kyrie irving 30+ feet away from the basket because he knows his personnel.
that sets up the high pick-and-roll, and iggy gets caught on the jeff green screen. no problem though, as there's plenty of help from robinson and adebayo. kyrie drops it off to kevin durant, who has to hold as the heat zone recovers perfectly:
now the "matchups" are:
robinson on kd
iguodala on green
nunn on joe harris
dragic on james harden
bam on kyrie
durant brings the ball back out, and green cuts towards the rim and harris runs over for a handoff-into-a-3 attempt.
again, the miami defenders don't just sit in their respective zones: iguodala runs with green to cut off that passing lane, and nunn follows and closes out on harris to deter the shot attempt:
for a brief moment, kyrie is wide open in the corner (clapping for it too). durant just doesn't see him, and the heat dodge one. this gives them time to recover once again.
iguodala, who passed green off to dragic, sits on a harris cut and passes him to bam before switching onto harden.
as harden receives the ball, iguodala jumps out on him. notice how he's now the top left defender when he started the possession on the top right:
then comes a series of perfect communication and guys picking up assignments:
nunn, now back in the play, cuts off harden's drive
bam passes harris off to dragic, then takes away kyrie in the corner
robinson, who began the possession defending the corner, jumps out to the right wing to close out on kd and force him into nunn at the elbow
dragic passes green off to iguodala
suddenly there's 5 seconds on the shot clock. durant picks up his dribble, and brooklyn has nothing:
harden has to launch a deep one.
if i really wanted to nitpick, the close out on it could've been better. but it bounces off the rim:
really impressive possession from miami.
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