How Kevin Love has affected Heat’s defense and why he isn’t to blame for struggles

The Miami Heat’s defense was a top-five unit before the All-Star break, but it has been among the league’s worst since then.

After entering the break with the NBA’s fifth-best defensive rating (allowing 111.2 points per 100 possessions), the Heat entered Sunday night’s matchup against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena with the league’s 25th-ranked defensive rating (allowing 117.8 points per 100 possessions) in its first 13 games since the break. That includes another rough defensive effort in Saturday night’s 113-99 loss to the Bulls in Chicago.

It would be easy to make new starting power forward Kevin Love the scapegoat for this defensive regression, considering he signed with the Heat during last months’ break, represents the biggest change to the rotation since then and is not known as a plus-defender. But that wouldn’t necessarily be fair.

The Heat actually entered Sunday as a better defensive team with Love on the court (allowing 114 points per 100 possessions) than when he has been on the bench (allowing 119.1 points per 100 possessions) since he joined the team since the break. Some of that is because Love has spent most of his minutes alongside the defensively gifted duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler as part of the Heat’s starting lineup, but the bottom line is Miami has statistically been worse on that end of the court when Love has not been in the game.

“We built great habits for 50 games,” coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about the Heat’s defense. “We just need to get back to it.”

What Love’s addition has done, though, is change some of those defensive habits.

When Caleb Martin was playing as the Heat’s starting power forward before the break, he was able to fit into a switch-heavy scheme that has been successful for Miami in recent seasons.

With Love taking over as the Heat’s starting power forward since play resumed after the break, he has been showing or blitzing the ball-handler on screens. This allows Love to avoid the mismatch on a switch, pressure the ball in an effort to force a turnover and close driving lanes as he relies on the back line of the defense to cover for him until gets back in position to his man.

“Not a whole lot because we had already adjusted a decent amount,” Spoelstra said to downplay how much Love’s insertion into the starting lineup changes the Heat’s defensive strategy. “It wasn’t like we were switching one through five.”

But Heat players have noticed Love’s effect on the defensive scheme, especially when the starting unit is on the court together.

“It’s going to be different looks,” Martin said. “We’re showing more with K. Love and that’s going to be more containment on the ball, but it might create weak-side closeouts and stuff like that for guys who are off the ball. Guys like Tyler [Herro] and Jimmy, whoever is on that weak-side. Sometimes it will put Bam in closeouts and stuff. But we’re not the only team showing with guys and we’re not the only team zoning with guys with their fours, so it’s just going to take a little bit of time.”

Love, 34, has been used as a drop defender against pick-and-rolls throughout his NBA career, but he believes the show-and-recover look the Heat primarily has him in is “probably my best coverage.” Love added that the Heat has used him as a show-and-recover defender more consistently than any other team has before.

“These guys know that I’m capable and I can do it,” Love said. “Again, I think it’s a great coverage for me when I’m defending, especially just making an impact on the ball and understanding that I can trust those guys on the backside and recover to my man.”

Adebayo is often one of those players on the backside covering for Love until he recovers back to his man. While Adebayo is known for his ability to effectively switch onto any player, he said playing on the back line allows him to be “more of a roamer” on the weak side.

“It’s been different because we never had a big really show,” Adebayo said. “So it’s going to take some time. But for us, just everybody else has to be on a string. I feel like that’s where we get lost. One game, we’ll have the low man. The next game, we don’t have the low man. One game, we’ll have shrinks. The next game, we don’t have shrinks. We just need to get consistent again.”

Consistency has been elusive for the Heat this season.

“The biggest thing is accept every challenge,” Adebayo said. “We don’t run, we don’t cower, we endure and conquer.”

BROOKS ADDRESSES INCIDENT

After being fined $35,000 by the NBA “for the unsportsmanlike act of shoving a camera person on the sideline after pursuing a loose ball” in the second quarter of Wednesday night’s loss to the Heat at Miami-Dade Arena, Memphis Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks said the push was unintentional.

“It was unintentional,” Brooks said as he addressed the incident for the first time following the Grizzlies’ win over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night. “I was running full speed. I didn’t mean to hurt him in any way possible. I’m not that type of person.”

Heat broadcaster Jason Jackson offered an update on the Bally Sports cameraman involved.

“I rarely comment on these things, BUT this one is personal,” Jackson posted Friday on Twitter. “Our veteran @BallyHEAT camera operator was injured & remains under evaluation. The fine was on point, but the max would have felt like a sliver of justice after disregard for another human - an incredible one at that.”

Brooks said he planned to reach out to the cameraman, who regularly works Heat home games.

“I’m going to give him a call tomorrow to check on him and see how he is,” Brooks said. “But it’s a bad situation. and whatever the NBA did is what they did. But I’m not that type of person. I play the game hard.”

INJURY REPORT

The Heat ruled out Orlando Robinson (G League) and Cody Zeller (broken nose) for Sunday’s game against the Pistons in Detroit.

Rookies Jamal Cain and Nikola Jovic rejoined the Heat in Detroit after spending time with the G League’s Sioux Falls Skyforce and are available to play on Sunday.

Robinson was also expected to rejoin the Heat in Detroit, but he missed his flight and remains with the Skyforce for now. He will instead rejoin the team when the Heat returns to Miami following Sunday’s game.

Heat guard Kyle Lowry is available to play against the Pistons. He was held out of the front end of the back-to-back in Saturday’s loss to the Bulls as part of the team’s maintenance plan for his troublesome knee.

The Pistons, which have not played since Thursday, have dropped 13 of their last 14 games.

Detroit ruled out Bojan Bogdanovic (left Achilles tendinopathy), Alec Burks (left foot soreness), Cade Cunningham (left tibia stress fracture), Hamidou Diallo (right ankle sprain), Isaiah Livers (right hip soreness) and Isaiah Stewart (left shoulder impingement) for Sunday’s game against the Heat.