The Miami Heat have long been known as one of the most well-conditioned teams in the league. Just ask Dion Waiters and James Johnson about the notorious tests players must pass to participate in training camp.
But now, instead of crawling through games as the Heat have done in the past, Miami has turned the dial all the way up. Through seven games, the Heat lead the league in pace, averaging 106.4 possessions per 48 minutes.
“We run less pick-and-rolls, run less screens; there’s more five-out, and sharing the wealth,” Heat center Bam Adebayo told The Athletic after a thrilling 120-119 victory over the LA Clippers Monday night at Intuit Dome. “And to me, that’s the best way to play basketball. We’re on this long journey. And when you go through this long journey, you got all 15 of us on the bus. We all can’t drive the bus.”
Last season was a wake-up call for the Heat, who were on the wrong side of a four-game sweep against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in what wound up being the most lopsided NBA playoff series ever after Cleveland won the four games by a combined 122 points.
“We were done at the end of April, and it was a very painful, embarrassing first-round loss,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We had done a lot emotionally to earn that ticket to get into the playoffs, and we felt really proud about that. Back-to-back games on the road to earn that ticket. And it was just — it was embarrassing. And you had to credit Cleveland with that.”
Following Miami’s playoff exit, Spoelstra, Adebayo and team president Pat Riley spent some time discussing what needed to change.
“That sparked a lot of thought that we needed to do some things better, and differently,” Spoelstra said.
“We wanted to switch the philosophy of how we played basketball,” Adebayo added.
One of those changes included the Heat playing faster. Miami has never been ranked higher than 12th (2005-06) in pace during the play-by-play era, which began in 1996-97, the second season that Riley was with the organization. The Heat have only ranked in the top 20 in pace twice (20th in 2010-11, 16th in 2011-12) during Spoelstra’s 17 seasons as head coach.
But it’s not enough for Miami to play fast. The Heat must also be effective while doing it. When I asked Spoelstra about defending with a fast pace, he quickly responded, “You know who my boss is, right?” A reference to Riley, who always emphasizes defending at a high level. Teams rarely play fast and defend at a top-10 level, but Miami is doing that as well, ranking third in defensive efficiency through Monday’s games. That is despite allowing 130 points to the Los Angeles Lakers Sunday night.
“They play super fast,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Miami’s offense. “And then that sort of swing, swing, drive over and over again until they get the advantage. Still can’t allow the ball to go middle, but Memphis last year felt really reliant on the middle drive. This team doesn’t. They do a great job of just attacking and that low man, whoever just cut sits there, and he kind of just reads where he’s supposed to go.”
Look out when you’re on the Jaime Highway 💪 pic.twitter.com/vbzZ8Wqfc1
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) November 3, 2025
Miami has key defensive pieces to be able to get the stops necessary to trigger a fast pace of play. Andrew Wiggins, who was acquired in the Jimmy Butler deal from the Golden State Warriors in February, defends top wings.
“I’m used to the pace … the Warriors, they played pretty fast, and that’s what we’re doing now,” Wiggins said. “We got the guys for it, got the personnel for it. So, we’re playing fast, scoring. But the most important part is getting stops on the other side.”
Davion Mitchell, another February trade acquisition, defends at the point-of-attack against guards. Adebayo is a five-time All-Defense selection capable of playing power forward next to 7-footer Kel’el Ware or center alongside 6-foot-10 Nikola Jović. Players such as 6-foot-5 second-year wing Pelle Larsson have provided sparks defensively as well, while third-year wing Jaime Jaquez Jr. says that his focus on getting better starts on defense.
“I think, ultimately, defensively is what I really wanted to improve,” Jaquez told The Athletic after he struggled to follow up his 2024 All-Rookie selection in 2024-25. “Just being able to be super solid on the ball, be a guy that can really shut guys down and be as disruptive as I can defensively. And offensively, I just want to keep playing to my strengths, play under control, and just create for my team.”
Pace isn’t good or bad by itself. Fast-paced teams can give up a lot of fast-break points, just like slow-paced teams can struggle to score fast-break points. The Heat rank ninth in fast-break scoring differential, outscoring teams by an average of 3.0 points per game.
“I would prefer having an undefeated record, if that’s what you’re getting at, and then averaging 89 points,” Spoelstra quipped. “I’d take that. The pace will be whatever the pace is. We have a style that we’re trying to get to that we think maximizes our personnel. That’s it. We’re not trying to trick people or whatever people may think.”
When it comes to personnel, everything comes back to Adebayo. The three-time All-Star and five-time All-Defense selection has spent his prime being an offensive hub in the middle of the floor, mostly in tandem with the now departed Butler. Last season was the first during which Adebayo attempted more than 0.6 3s per game. This season, Adebayo is averaging about 10 fewer touches per game but is letting the 3-ball fly more often, going from 2.8 3-point attempts per outing last season up to 6.4 3-point attempts per game. And the extra possessions Miami is playing with has Adebayo being more aggressive than ever as a scorer while averaging what would be a career-best 22.4 points per game.
“This team is different because it’s a collective effort,” Adebayo says. “We’ve been playing like this all summer. So, just going straight into the season, it’s second nature for us. Everybody’s involved. You don’t know whose night it’s going to be. That’s the wonderful thing I like about this offense and this team. We share the ball. We’re getting to our spots. We’re willing to sacrifice and enjoy somebody else’s success.”
That ethos of enjoying the success of others played out when the Heat visited the LA Clippers on Monday. Miami’s biggest offseason acquisition, Norman Powell, who spent the prior three-plus seasons with the Clippers before he was traded to Miami in July, is representative of the change in pace Miami is utilizing this season. He’s averaging a team-high 23.3 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and 52.4 percent shooting from 3.
“I don’t know what they were doing in years past; I just know what we’re working on now,” Powell said. “It’s my style, you know: fast-paced, up-tempo, attacking gaps, running in transition. Like I said, I think my game is very versatile. You can put me in any offense, and I’ll be able to execute.”
Miami still has a big piece to consider as part of an offense that runs 12 1/2 fewer pick-and-rolls than any other team in the league, per Synergy. Tyler Herro was a first-time All-Star last season while playing more point guard than ever. He is in the seventh week of what was an eight-week recovery timetable after undergoing ankle surgery in September. How Herro fits into a team that ranks fourth in drives per game, per Second Spectrum, is going to be interesting considering the on-ball talent Miami is already playing with between Mitchell, Jaquez, Adebayo, Powell and Wiggins. But Spoelstra doesn’t see any issues with Herro fitting in.
“That’s easy to figure out,” Spoelstra said of Herro prior to Monday night’s meeting against the Clippers. “He’s doing well. And his skill level, I mean, come on. He’s one of the most skilled guys in the league. It’s going to fit, it’s going to add. We miss him dearly. But he’s not playing tonight, so we just don’t spend a lot of time just talking about what we’re going to miss from him. But that offensive talent. Playmaking, scoring, can play fast, all of that really fits well. Just like we thought it would with Norm.”
It is still early in the season for the Heat, and teams tend to slow down as a season progresses. How well Miami maintains this level of play will come down to how well it is working, and how healthy the personnel is. But it is clear that the Heat are committed to the change they have undergone for the long haul.
“Yeah, it’s a new era of Miami Heat basketball,” Adebayo said.
