Erik Spoelstra gets real on Heat’s defensive woes amid downward spiral ahead of postseason

MIAMI – As the Miami Heat have been experiencing extreme disappointment as of late, especially after losing to the league-worst (by record) Indiana Pacers on Sunday, 135-118, it’s the defense that’s been a key area of concern. With the Heat looking to make a playoff push, time is running out, and head coach Erik Spoelstra speaks on how to get past the recent woes.

It wasn’t that long ago that Miami was in the NBA’s top five of defensive rating, showing how crucial that side of the ball has been for the franchise, with the team citing it as part of their culture. However, in the Heat’s recent stretch of losing its last seven of eight games, their defensive rating is 27th, showing how dreadful it’s been, with Spoelstra saying to ClutchPoints that it’s a balance of putting the bad losses behind them, but also using it as a tool to improve.

“I mean, we know what it is,” Spoelstra said before Miami takes on the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night. “You know, at this point, our guys want to, I feel like we have enough of the habits. We’ve talked about it enough right now. It just needs to show when we need it the most. And last night was a tough game. By the time we got off the plane, everything was just focused on this game tonight.”

Asked Erik Spoelstra about the balance of putting the last few games of defensive woes behind them, but using them as ways to get better on that side:

“Yeah it’s both…I feel like we have enough of the habits. We've talked about it enough…” #HeatNation pic.twitter.com/FLywhzEi1Z

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) March 30, 2026

In that aforementioned eight-game stretch, the last two contests have arguably been the two most disappointing defensive efforts for the Heat, as they allowed 149 points to the Cleveland Cavaliers last Friday, which is a franchise record. A few days later, they were unable to stop the 17-58 Pacers as they shot 58 percent from the field and 46 percent from deep.

The Heat have been getting bombarded from the three-point line

While the Heat look to get back to their identity on the defensive side of the ball, one of the areas that’s been damaging the team is how opponents are shooting from three-point range. Looking at that eight-game stretch, teams have been shooting 40.2 percent from beyond the arc against Miami, with Spoelstra speaking on how they’re defending the three-point line.

“The way we look at it, there was a series of games, last time we played Philly, Milwaukee, that stretch there where we were giving up way too many threes, and it was costing us games,” Spoelstra said. “And then now we’re in a stretch where it’s the same thing in the airspace…but we have to make those extra efforts to get guys off the line.”

“It’s as simple as that, but it’s not easy to do,” Spoelstra continued. “It just requires more…we’re going through a stretch where teams are also making shots. Think it was a Cleveland game, we had more uncontested shots, but they had more contested shots from three, and they made more still, sometimes that’s going to happen the way you shoot the ball, but we know we can impose our will on teams even beyond the three-point line.”

Erik Spoelstra speaks about the quality of three-point shots they’re giving up during this disappointing defensive stretch: #HeatNation pic.twitter.com/nAjBmcLtJf

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) March 30, 2026

Miami starts a three-game home stand on Monday against the 76ers, looking to end the regular season on a high note, with them entering the contest at 39-36, ninth in the Eastern Conference. With the goal to avoid the play-in tournament, there are seven games left in the season, with the Heat being three games back of the sixth seed.

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