Not many gave the Charlotte Bobcats much of a chance to compete in their series against the Miami Heat. Things looked like a mismatch from the start and Monday night’s Heat win to give Miami a sweep wasn’t much of a surprise.
At 43-39 in the weak Eastern Conference, Charlotte was barely a playoff team. Really, Miami could have won this series any way they wanted. In the end, though, they used defense.
The Heat are known for their offense from a trio of stars, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. However, while those three are supreme offensive talents, Miami has really made a living out of winning with defense this year. The team allowed only 97.4 points per game in the regular season, good for fifth in the NBA. That defensive intensity was on display in their series against the Bobcats as well.
Miami stifled Charlotte, holding the Bobcats to under 100 points in every game. Over the four games, the Bobcats averaged a paltry 92 points per contest. For a team that had trouble scoring in the regular season (96.9 points per game), Charlotte had even more difficulty with the aggressive Heat defense.
Overall, the Heat simply forced the Bobcats into far too many slumps. In five of their 20 quarters, Charlotte failed to score even 20 points. In addition, the Miami defense had key moments in every game:
- In Game 1 with a seven-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, Charlotte scored only five points in the first six minutes
- In Game 2, Charlotte scored only one field goal in approximately eight minutes of action in the first quarter and with a ten-point lead, the Heat led the rest of the way
- Holding a two-point lead with a little over six minutes to in the second quarter of Game 3, the Bobcats scored only one field goal over the next 12 minutes and, as a result, found themselves in a 17-point hole
- In the clinching Game 4, after a Kemba Walker jump shot brought Charlotte to within four at the 7:00 mark in the third quarter, the Bobcats made only two more field goals in the quarter.
Charlotte’s own defense kept them in games, but the team was just outdone on the offensive end and those sequences were big reasons why the Bobcats were swept.
The defensive intensity was welcome in part because the Heat offense wasn’t exactly clicking on all cylinders, either. Miami matched their 102 points per game in the regular season during their series with the Bobcats, but the team made fewer than half of their shots in the series and were forced into 17 turnovers in one game. Overall, the Heat were sufficient on offense – just not dominant as is so often the case. Those defensive stops were key to Miami moving on so easily.
Miami will surely win games this postseason with their offense, but it was their defense that made quick work of Charlotte in the opening round.
