Miami Heat Searching For Perfect Mix Of Strong Defense and Offense

The Miami Heat have improved offensively after the All-Star break but are now struggling on defense
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The Miami Heat's struggled in the first half of the season but have since improved. 

Now, the concern turns to the defensive end. In Saturday's loss to the Brooklyn Nets, the Heat allowed them to shoot 49 percent from the field and make 18 3-pointers. 

"It's definitely been worse than the first half of the season," guard Tyler Herro said. "Our offense is also getting better after the break. I think when we're making shots usually we're defending better."

Heat guard Kyle Lowry said the difference is they have switched to man-to-man defense after playing so much zone earlier in the season. Part of that is because they are playing so well offensively. 

The goal now is to find a good mix. 

"We're playing a lot less zone," Lowry said. "We played a lot of zone and we slowed the pace down. Now, we're scoring more and we've got to figure out how to find that balance of doing both, scoring and defending." 

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here