Was last night an example of the value of coaching?

[18isGREATERthan72]

I'm not sure what we're doing here composing a long post like this if you're not going to watch the stretch of game in question. Defense can't be evaluated beyond a surface level of did they get stops via play by play box score.

I said that from the beginning.  Was it the zone that caused all of the missed 3's or just them going cold?  Sometimes teams just miss.  Watching the highlights, they missed a lot of open shots.  The turnovers in that stretch were just bad passes/decisions and not a result of the zone.  It is all fun to blame coaches, but they don't actually play the game or take the shots.  Simmons' blocked shot was on a fast break after he grabbed the rebound and went coast to coast.  Was that zone defense that caused that one or just a good defensive play (or bad offensive play)?

Reading the Philadelphia press, they didn't focus on coaching so much as the team as a whole lacks ball handling outside of Simmons.  They just don't have anyone that can effectively dribble the ball, except for Simmons.  Is it a lack of coaching that Simmons is the only plus ball handler on the entire team? 

Then again others in the Philadelphia press, also say things like

This isn’t usually the case, though, as the Sixers are actually one of the best teams in the league when it comes to attacking the zone defense. Coach Brown is well aware of this, and he knows that it was just an off shooting night for his team on Tuesday.

Using an 8 minutes stretch, when the Sixers couldn't hit the broad side of the barn to imply that Brown and Simmons are terrible just seems strange.  The zone works when teams don't hit shots.  The zone works when teams don't have ball handlers that can break it down.  Who is the 2nd best ball handler on the Sixers.  Neto and Burke are the 2 back-up PG's and they are just bad.  Richardson isn't much of a ball handler.  Despite all of that, the Sixers are usually pretty good at beating the zone, of course that requires them to hit their shots, something they just weren't doing last night during that stretch (they also weren't defending well as they gave up 27 points in just under 8 minutes, which is terrible).

Since you didn't watch the game, maybe it just logical to sit the conversation out? I actually watched the game and can tell you with confidence they were flummoxed by it for whatever reason and had a lot of bad possessions and shots. Did they miss some open 3's? Sure, but I think I am trusting both my own eye and the eyes of the 76ers fans from the game thread that consistently watch all their games over whatever nonsense you are trying to do here from a box score and some highlights. Good grief.

To add more hilarity to your argument here is Brett Brown openly discussing their struggles and admitting it bothered them more than other times this year...

"I think that we ended up overthinking it too much. I think that we have been quite good against the zone this year, with the fifth-best offense against the zone, so they tell me. I feel like it put us on our heels, and I don’t think that we responded the way that I thought we would, and I think it crept into our defense. It watered us down on both sides of the ball"

Please just stop man... I'm would not sit here and argue with you over a celtics game that you watch and i don't. It literally makes no sense.

I watched the game.  Philly seemed absolutely clueless as to how to attack it.  For about 5 minutes they seemed completely clueless as to what to do, and I don't remember Embiid even sniffing the ball that whole time.

[tenn_smoothie]

The move to zone totally changed that game last night. It looked like a massive blow out for The Sixers and then it just flipped. I think the Sixers finally solved it in the 4th but they ran out of time. I don't think it would work for a whole seven game series but I could be wrong. Brett Brown was out coached.

Speaking of a 7-game series, I was wondering, why not save this for a crucial game in the playoffs instead of unveiling it during the season - though I enjoyed watching the Sixers go down in flames, at home no less.

[Fierce1]

The Mavs used a Zone on the Celts in the 2nd half.

Didn't work out too well for the Mavs.

[GreenCoffeeBean]

Spoelstra is obviously a better coach than whoever is in Philly but we’re probably over indexing on how an unusual move worked one time.

[Moranis]

I'm not sure what we're doing here composing a long post like this if you're not going to watch the stretch of game in question. Defense can't be evaluated beyond a surface level of did they get stops via play by play box score.

I said that from the beginning.  Was it the zone that caused all of the missed 3's or just them going cold?  Sometimes teams just miss.  Watching the highlights, they missed a lot of open shots.  The turnovers in that stretch were just bad passes/decisions and not a result of the zone.  It is all fun to blame coaches, but they don't actually play the game or take the shots.  Simmons' blocked shot was on a fast break after he grabbed the rebound and went coast to coast.  Was that zone defense that caused that one or just a good defensive play (or bad offensive play)?

Reading the Philadelphia press, they didn't focus on coaching so much as the team as a whole lacks ball handling outside of Simmons.  They just don't have anyone that can effectively dribble the ball, except for Simmons.  Is it a lack of coaching that Simmons is the only plus ball handler on the entire team? 

Then again others in the Philadelphia press, also say things like

This isn’t usually the case, though, as the Sixers are actually one of the best teams in the league when it comes to attacking the zone defense. Coach Brown is well aware of this, and he knows that it was just an off shooting night for his team on Tuesday.

Using an 8 minutes stretch, when the Sixers couldn't hit the broad side of the barn to imply that Brown and Simmons are terrible just seems strange.  The zone works when teams don't hit shots.  The zone works when teams don't have ball handlers that can break it down.  Who is the 2nd best ball handler on the Sixers.  Neto and Burke are the 2 back-up PG's and they are just bad.  Richardson isn't much of a ball handler.  Despite all of that, the Sixers are usually pretty good at beating the zone, of course that requires them to hit their shots, something they just weren't doing last night during that stretch (they also weren't defending well as they gave up 27 points in just under 8 minutes, which is terrible).

Since you didn't watch the game, maybe it just logical to sit the conversation out? I actually watched the game and can tell you with confidence they were flummoxed by it for whatever reason and had a lot of bad possessions and shots. Did they miss some open 3's? Sure, but I think I am trusting both my own eye and the eyes of the 76ers fans from the game thread that consistently watch all their games over whatever nonsense you are trying to do here from a box score and some highlights. Good grief.

To add more hilarity to your argument here is Brett Brown openly discussing their struggles and admitting it bothered them more than other times this year...

"I think that we ended up overthinking it too much. I think that we have been quite good against the zone this year, with the fifth-best offense against the zone, so they tell me. I feel like it put us on our heels, and I don’t think that we responded the way that I thought we would, and I think it crept into our defense. It watered us down on both sides of the ball"

Please just stop man... I'm would not sit here and argue with you over a celtics game that you watch and i don't. It literally makes no sense.

that quote isn't about coaching though which is what you started this post about.  He was talking about execution.  He even acknowledges that the Sixers are the 5th best offense in the league against the zone this year.  They just didn't hit shots. It happens. It isn't an indictment on coaching.

[celticsclay]

I'm not sure what we're doing here composing a long post like this if you're not going to watch the stretch of game in question. Defense can't be evaluated beyond a surface level of did they get stops via play by play box score.

I said that from the beginning.  Was it the zone that caused all of the missed 3's or just them going cold?  Sometimes teams just miss.  Watching the highlights, they missed a lot of open shots.  The turnovers in that stretch were just bad passes/decisions and not a result of the zone.  It is all fun to blame coaches, but they don't actually play the game or take the shots.  Simmons' blocked shot was on a fast break after he grabbed the rebound and went coast to coast.  Was that zone defense that caused that one or just a good defensive play (or bad offensive play)?

Reading the Philadelphia press, they didn't focus on coaching so much as the team as a whole lacks ball handling outside of Simmons.  They just don't have anyone that can effectively dribble the ball, except for Simmons.  Is it a lack of coaching that Simmons is the only plus ball handler on the entire team? 

Then again others in the Philadelphia press, also say things like

This isn’t usually the case, though, as the Sixers are actually one of the best teams in the league when it comes to attacking the zone defense. Coach Brown is well aware of this, and he knows that it was just an off shooting night for his team on Tuesday.

Using an 8 minutes stretch, when the Sixers couldn't hit the broad side of the barn to imply that Brown and Simmons are terrible just seems strange.  The zone works when teams don't hit shots.  The zone works when teams don't have ball handlers that can break it down.  Who is the 2nd best ball handler on the Sixers.  Neto and Burke are the 2 back-up PG's and they are just bad.  Richardson isn't much of a ball handler.  Despite all of that, the Sixers are usually pretty good at beating the zone, of course that requires them to hit their shots, something they just weren't doing last night during that stretch (they also weren't defending well as they gave up 27 points in just under 8 minutes, which is terrible).

Since you didn't watch the game, maybe it just logical to sit the conversation out? I actually watched the game and can tell you with confidence they were flummoxed by it for whatever reason and had a lot of bad possessions and shots. Did they miss some open 3's? Sure, but I think I am trusting both my own eye and the eyes of the 76ers fans from the game thread that consistently watch all their games over whatever nonsense you are trying to do here from a box score and some highlights. Good grief.

To add more hilarity to your argument here is Brett Brown openly discussing their struggles and admitting it bothered them more than other times this year...

"I think that we ended up overthinking it too much. I think that we have been quite good against the zone this year, with the fifth-best offense against the zone, so they tell me. I feel like it put us on our heels, and I don’t think that we responded the way that I thought we would, and I think it crept into our defense. It watered us down on both sides of the ball"

Please just stop man... I'm would not sit here and argue with you over a celtics game that you watch and i don't. It literally makes no sense.

that quote isn't about coaching though which is what you started this post about.  He was talking about execution.  He even acknowledges that the Sixers are the 5th best offense in the league against the zone this year.  They just didn't hit shots. It happens. It isn't an indictment on coaching.

I’m gonna simplify this a lot for you. If you watched a Celtics first half that I didn’t have chance to watch and I didn’t, I would never in a million years try to argue about how the defense affected the half. I’m honestly baffled that, after admitting you didn’t even watch the game, you are trying to argue about how much a coaching switch impacted the game. This literally makes no sense to me. I’ve been on this board since it started and this is one of my most bizarre experienced. I just flat don’t get it

[Moranis]

I'm not sure what we're doing here composing a long post like this if you're not going to watch the stretch of game in question. Defense can't be evaluated beyond a surface level of did they get stops via play by play box score.

I said that from the beginning.  Was it the zone that caused all of the missed 3's or just them going cold?  Sometimes teams just miss.  Watching the highlights, they missed a lot of open shots.  The turnovers in that stretch were just bad passes/decisions and not a result of the zone.  It is all fun to blame coaches, but they don't actually play the game or take the shots.  Simmons' blocked shot was on a fast break after he grabbed the rebound and went coast to coast.  Was that zone defense that caused that one or just a good defensive play (or bad offensive play)?

Reading the Philadelphia press, they didn't focus on coaching so much as the team as a whole lacks ball handling outside of Simmons.  They just don't have anyone that can effectively dribble the ball, except for Simmons.  Is it a lack of coaching that Simmons is the only plus ball handler on the entire team? 

Then again others in the Philadelphia press, also say things like

This isn’t usually the case, though, as the Sixers are actually one of the best teams in the league when it comes to attacking the zone defense. Coach Brown is well aware of this, and he knows that it was just an off shooting night for his team on Tuesday.

Using an 8 minutes stretch, when the Sixers couldn't hit the broad side of the barn to imply that Brown and Simmons are terrible just seems strange.  The zone works when teams don't hit shots.  The zone works when teams don't have ball handlers that can break it down.  Who is the 2nd best ball handler on the Sixers.  Neto and Burke are the 2 back-up PG's and they are just bad.  Richardson isn't much of a ball handler.  Despite all of that, the Sixers are usually pretty good at beating the zone, of course that requires them to hit their shots, something they just weren't doing last night during that stretch (they also weren't defending well as they gave up 27 points in just under 8 minutes, which is terrible).

Since you didn't watch the game, maybe it just logical to sit the conversation out? I actually watched the game and can tell you with confidence they were flummoxed by it for whatever reason and had a lot of bad possessions and shots. Did they miss some open 3's? Sure, but I think I am trusting both my own eye and the eyes of the 76ers fans from the game thread that consistently watch all their games over whatever nonsense you are trying to do here from a box score and some highlights. Good grief.

To add more hilarity to your argument here is Brett Brown openly discussing their struggles and admitting it bothered them more than other times this year...

"I think that we ended up overthinking it too much. I think that we have been quite good against the zone this year, with the fifth-best offense against the zone, so they tell me. I feel like it put us on our heels, and I don’t think that we responded the way that I thought we would, and I think it crept into our defense. It watered us down on both sides of the ball"

Please just stop man... I'm would not sit here and argue with you over a celtics game that you watch and i don't. It literally makes no sense.

that quote isn't about coaching though which is what you started this post about.  He was talking about execution.  He even acknowledges that the Sixers are the 5th best offense in the league against the zone this year.  They just didn't hit shots. It happens. It isn't an indictment on coaching.

I’m gonna simplify this a lot for you. If you watched a Celtics first half that I didn’t have chance to watch and I didn’t, I would never in a million years try to argue about how the defense affected the half. I’m honestly baffled that, after admitting you didn’t even watch the game, you are trying to argue about how much a coaching switch impacted the game. This literally makes no sense to me. I’ve been on this board since it started and this is one of my most bizarre experienced. I just flat don’t get it

what was the value of coaching though?  You started an entire post about an 8 minute poor shooting spell from the Sixers.  The Sixers are the 5th best offense against the zone this year.  Why did it work so well for Miami in the game last night?  What went well for the Heat that doesn't for so many other teams?  What was the poor coaching decision that Brown made, that was in full effect last night?  I mean it seems like you want to say that Spo did a brilliant coaching job by merely going with the zone, but if the Sixers execute like they typically do, that experiment fails.  My comments in this thread are because you quite simply didn't explain what the value of coaching was that you saw last night.  What was the coaching decision in your estimation that was great or poor coaching?  I just don't buy that switching to the zone was a great coaching job because quite simply the Sixers are usually a great team against the zone.  It worked for Miami last night because the Sixers just didn't execute. 

I mean that is like claiming the Bucks did a great job of coaching by putting Hill into the game midway through the first quarter, when they then outscored the Lakers by 15 over the next 10 minutes of game time or so in a large part because Hill was bombing 3's.  What a great coaching job that was.

[celticsclay]

I'm not sure what we're doing here composing a long post like this if you're not going to watch the stretch of game in question. Defense can't be evaluated beyond a surface level of did they get stops via play by play box score.

I said that from the beginning.  Was it the zone that caused all of the missed 3's or just them going cold?  Sometimes teams just miss.  Watching the highlights, they missed a lot of open shots.  The turnovers in that stretch were just bad passes/decisions and not a result of the zone.  It is all fun to blame coaches, but they don't actually play the game or take the shots.  Simmons' blocked shot was on a fast break after he grabbed the rebound and went coast to coast.  Was that zone defense that caused that one or just a good defensive play (or bad offensive play)?

Reading the Philadelphia press, they didn't focus on coaching so much as the team as a whole lacks ball handling outside of Simmons.  They just don't have anyone that can effectively dribble the ball, except for Simmons.  Is it a lack of coaching that Simmons is the only plus ball handler on the entire team? 

Then again others in the Philadelphia press, also say things like

This isn’t usually the case, though, as the Sixers are actually one of the best teams in the league when it comes to attacking the zone defense. Coach Brown is well aware of this, and he knows that it was just an off shooting night for his team on Tuesday.

Using an 8 minutes stretch, when the Sixers couldn't hit the broad side of the barn to imply that Brown and Simmons are terrible just seems strange.  The zone works when teams don't hit shots.  The zone works when teams don't have ball handlers that can break it down.  Who is the 2nd best ball handler on the Sixers.  Neto and Burke are the 2 back-up PG's and they are just bad.  Richardson isn't much of a ball handler.  Despite all of that, the Sixers are usually pretty good at beating the zone, of course that requires them to hit their shots, something they just weren't doing last night during that stretch (they also weren't defending well as they gave up 27 points in just under 8 minutes, which is terrible).

Since you didn't watch the game, maybe it just logical to sit the conversation out? I actually watched the game and can tell you with confidence they were flummoxed by it for whatever reason and had a lot of bad possessions and shots. Did they miss some open 3's? Sure, but I think I am trusting both my own eye and the eyes of the 76ers fans from the game thread that consistently watch all their games over whatever nonsense you are trying to do here from a box score and some highlights. Good grief.

To add more hilarity to your argument here is Brett Brown openly discussing their struggles and admitting it bothered them more than other times this year...

"I think that we ended up overthinking it too much. I think that we have been quite good against the zone this year, with the fifth-best offense against the zone, so they tell me. I feel like it put us on our heels, and I don’t think that we responded the way that I thought we would, and I think it crept into our defense. It watered us down on both sides of the ball"

Please just stop man... I'm would not sit here and argue with you over a celtics game that you watch and i don't. It literally makes no sense.

that quote isn't about coaching though which is what you started this post about.  He was talking about execution.  He even acknowledges that the Sixers are the 5th best offense in the league against the zone this year.  They just didn't hit shots. It happens. It isn't an indictment on coaching.

I’m gonna simplify this a lot for you. If you watched a Celtics first half that I didn’t have chance to watch and I didn’t, I would never in a million years try to argue about how the defense affected the half. I’m honestly baffled that, after admitting you didn’t even watch the game, you are trying to argue about how much a coaching switch impacted the game. This literally makes no sense to me. I’ve been on this board since it started and this is one of my most bizarre experienced. I just flat don’t get it

what was the value of coaching though?  You started an entire post about an 8 minute poor shooting spell from the Sixers.  The Sixers are the 5th best offense against the zone this year.  Why did it work so well for Miami in the game last night?  What went well for the Heat that doesn't for so many other teams?  What was the poor coaching decision that Brown made, that was in full effect last night?  I mean it seems like you want to say that Spo did a brilliant coaching job by merely going with the zone, but if the Sixers execute like they typically do, that experiment fails.  My comments in this thread are because you quite simply didn't explain what the value of coaching was that you saw last night.  What was the coaching decision in your estimation that was great or poor coaching?  I just don't buy that switching to the zone was a great coaching job because quite simply the Sixers are usually a great team against the zone.  It worked for Miami last night because the Sixers just didn't execute. 

I mean that is like claiming the Bucks did a great job of coaching by putting Hill into the game midway through the first quarter, when they then outscored the Lakers by 15 over the next 10 minutes of game time or so in a large part because Hill was bombing 3's.  What a great coaching job that was.

So to recap. I post asking people that watched the game last night for their views on how coaching impacted the game. You join in saying you didn’t watch the game with a play by play. Me and another poster point out this is ridiculous and not what was being discussed or asked for. You dig in. I add quotes from the coach about how the team did not respond how he would hope and was surprised they struggled with the zone. You, still not having watched the game, come back with more. All I can say is do better. I’ve been in these boards since they started and this is some of the most nonseical stuff I have ever seen

[The Oracle]

Miami was undermanned as they have been for awhile.  They only played 8 guys and deployed the zone against Philly who don't have a lot of 3 pt. shooters that can kill you.  It gave them a chance against a team they would have struggled mightily against had they not done so.  It forced them into a style they aren't best suited for and Phi. struggled to find a consistent rhythm.  They turned it into more of a jump shooting contest and kept Philly off the foul line.  Phi. shot 39 3's, 9.5 per game more than they shoot normally.  It worked for Miami because Phi. shooters simply didn't make enough jumpers along with befuddling them for a stretch or 2.

Good coaching decision for sure by Spoelstra but not something that is likely to work against most of the rest of the league or against Philly regularly.  Every coach should have the zone at their disposal just to give teams a different look for a few possessions and maybe throw off a team that is hot.  A lot of nights when used extensively it will get you killed though and is why last year no team used it for more than I believe 10% of their defensive possessions (Miami and Brooklyn used zone the most by far) with most teams deploying a zone far less or hardly at all. 

One other thing that Miami did that I haven't seen mentioned was that they inverted the zone some with the small guards down low on the wings with Butler and DJJ up high.  I hadn't seen that wrinkle before and don't know what if at all that was a factor.

[Somebody]

I think the zone just really highlights the 76ers' weaknesses on offence: lack of ballhandling and shooting. They have a completely non-shooter in Simmons and Embiid isn't a great outside shooter, and they have 1 ballhandler in their starting 5 who is bad at running a half court offence.

[Moranis]

Miami was undermanned as they have been for awhile.  They only played 8 guys and deployed the zone against Philly who don't have a lot of 3 pt. shooters that can kill you.  It gave them a chance against a team they would have struggled mightily against had they not done so.  It forced them into a style they aren't best suited for and Phi. struggled to find a consistent rhythm.  They turned it into more of a jump shooting contest and kept Philly off the foul line.  Phi. shot 39 3's, 9.5 per game more than they shoot normally.  It worked for Miami because Phi. shooters simply didn't make enough jumpers along with befuddling them for a stretch or 2.

Good coaching decision for sure by Spoelstra but not something that is likely to work against most of the rest of the league or against Philly regularly.  Every coach should have the zone at their disposal just to give teams a different look for a few possessions and maybe throw off a team that is hot.  A lot of nights when used extensively it will get you killed though and is why last year no team used it for more than I believe 10% of their defensive possessions (Miami and Brooklyn used zone the most by far) with most teams deploying a zone far less or hardly at all. 

One other thing that Miami did that I haven't seen mentioned was that they inverted the zone some with the small guards down low on the wings with Butler and DJJ up high.  I hadn't seen that wrinkle before and don't know what if at all that was a factor.

this is what I was getting at.  It worked because Philly went cold.  That happens, but it doesn't strike me as something that is repeatable especially against a team that is normally a top 5 offense against that particular defense.  Philly just missed their shots.  I'm sure that will also happen again as Philly has no elite shooters and has a non-shooter in Simmons who has to be on the floor because they have no other credible ball handlers.  This strikes me more as a roster problem then a coaching problem.  Only so much you can do with that roster

[elcotte]

Miami was undermanned as they have been for awhile.  They only played 8 guys and deployed the zone against Philly who don't have a lot of 3 pt. shooters that can kill you.  It gave them a chance against a team they would have struggled mightily against had they not done so.  It forced them into a style they aren't best suited for and Phi. struggled to find a consistent rhythm.  They turned it into more of a jump shooting contest and kept Philly off the foul line.  Phi. shot 39 3's, 9.5 per game more than they shoot normally.  It worked for Miami because Phi. shooters simply didn't make enough jumpers along with befuddling them for a stretch or 2.

Good coaching decision for sure by Spoelstra but not something that is likely to work against most of the rest of the league or against Philly regularly.  Every coach should have the zone at their disposal just to give teams a different look for a few possessions and maybe throw off a team that is hot.  A lot of nights when used extensively it will get you killed though and is why last year no team used it for more than I believe 10% of their defensive possessions (Miami and Brooklyn used zone the most by far) with most teams deploying a zone far less or hardly at all. 

One other thing that Miami did that I haven't seen mentioned was that they inverted the zone some with the small guards down low on the wings with Butler and DJJ up high.  I hadn't seen that wrinkle before and don't know what if at all that was a factor.

this is what I was getting at.  It worked because Philly went cold.  That happens, but it doesn't strike me as something that is repeatable especially against a team that is normally a top 5 offense against that particular defense.  Philly just missed their shots.  I'm sure that will also happen again as Philly has no elite shooters and has a non-shooter in Simmons who has to be on the floor because they have no other credible ball handlers.  This strikes me more as a roster problem then a coaching problem.  Only so much you can do with that roster

I mean really. So the timeout just coincided with them going cold?

[Moranis]

Miami was undermanned as they have been for awhile.  They only played 8 guys and deployed the zone against Philly who don't have a lot of 3 pt. shooters that can kill you.  It gave them a chance against a team they would have struggled mightily against had they not done so.  It forced them into a style they aren't best suited for and Phi. struggled to find a consistent rhythm.  They turned it into more of a jump shooting contest and kept Philly off the foul line.  Phi. shot 39 3's, 9.5 per game more than they shoot normally.  It worked for Miami because Phi. shooters simply didn't make enough jumpers along with befuddling them for a stretch or 2.

Good coaching decision for sure by Spoelstra but not something that is likely to work against most of the rest of the league or against Philly regularly.  Every coach should have the zone at their disposal just to give teams a different look for a few possessions and maybe throw off a team that is hot.  A lot of nights when used extensively it will get you killed though and is why last year no team used it for more than I believe 10% of their defensive possessions (Miami and Brooklyn used zone the most by far) with most teams deploying a zone far less or hardly at all. 

One other thing that Miami did that I haven't seen mentioned was that they inverted the zone some with the small guards down low on the wings with Butler and DJJ up high.  I hadn't seen that wrinkle before and don't know what if at all that was a factor.

this is what I was getting at.  It worked because Philly went cold.  That happens, but it doesn't strike me as something that is repeatable especially against a team that is normally a top 5 offense against that particular defense.  Philly just missed their shots.  I'm sure that will also happen again as Philly has no elite shooters and has a non-shooter in Simmons who has to be on the floor because they have no other credible ball handlers.  This strikes me more as a roster problem then a coaching problem.  Only so much you can do with that roster

I mean really. So the timeout just coincided with them going cold?

teams go cold all of the time.  Heck we had 2 examples of this last night. 

The Clippers were up 15 at the half against the Rockets and with just under 8 minutes left in the 3rd quarter were still up 12 (77-65) when a timeout was called.  At the end of the 3rd quarter the Rockets were up 90-87.  So a 15 point turnaround in about 8 minutes of game time.

Something similar happened in the Lakers/Bucks game as well.  Lakers were up 10-9 and then in the span of about 12 minutes, the Bucks went up 21 so a 22 point turn around.  During that stretch the Lakers had a 6 minute stretch where they scored 2 points. 

These things happen every day and in just about every game.  It isn't an indictment on coaching because players have a cold streak, especially when the team is typically pretty good when facing a particular set.

[celticsclay]

Miami was undermanned as they have been for awhile.  They only played 8 guys and deployed the zone against Philly who don't have a lot of 3 pt. shooters that can kill you.  It gave them a chance against a team they would have struggled mightily against had they not done so.  It forced them into a style they aren't best suited for and Phi. struggled to find a consistent rhythm.  They turned it into more of a jump shooting contest and kept Philly off the foul line.  Phi. shot 39 3's, 9.5 per game more than they shoot normally.  It worked for Miami because Phi. shooters simply didn't make enough jumpers along with befuddling them for a stretch or 2.

Good coaching decision for sure by Spoelstra but not something that is likely to work against most of the rest of the league or against Philly regularly.  Every coach should have the zone at their disposal just to give teams a different look for a few possessions and maybe throw off a team that is hot.  A lot of nights when used extensively it will get you killed though and is why last year no team used it for more than I believe 10% of their defensive possessions (Miami and Brooklyn used zone the most by far) with most teams deploying a zone far less or hardly at all. 

One other thing that Miami did that I haven't seen mentioned was that they inverted the zone some with the small guards down low on the wings with Butler and DJJ up high.  I hadn't seen that wrinkle before and don't know what if at all that was a factor.

this is what I was getting at.  It worked because Philly went cold.  That happens, but it doesn't strike me as something that is repeatable especially against a team that is normally a top 5 offense against that particular defense.  Philly just missed their shots.  I'm sure that will also happen again as Philly has no elite shooters and has a non-shooter in Simmons who has to be on the floor because they have no other credible ball handlers.  This strikes me more as a roster problem then a coaching problem.  Only so much you can do with that roster

I mean really. So the timeout just coincided with them going cold?

Not only cold, but their coach acknowledged the team did not respond well the zone as he would have hoped. The coach himself didn’t realize it was just a case of going cold that happens all the tine. What a time to be alive

[The Oracle]

If anyone is interested there is an 8 minute video analyzing the Heats defense in this game.  It was posted by TooMuchHoops and can be found on YouTube.