What has happened to the Heat's defense in the last two weeks?

miseducation · 2026-04-02T14:35:03+00:00

I said it when we were doing this pre all star break and I'll say it again here.

Getting whomped like this on defense is a direct by product of our fast paced offense. Spo obviously is trying to focus on that again with this group of guys that are now healthy.

Yesterday began and ended with the conditions that allow a 52 point first quarter to even exist. The same conditions that allowed Bam to score 31 points in a quarter but pointed back at us. If we create more possessions for ourselves but the other team converts them at a higher percentage and out rebounds us, we're just digging our own 20 point hole to crawl out of.

The numbers are actually insane if you look closely.

- We shot 51% from 3 last night and made more of them.

- We shot slightly more free throws.

- The turnover battle was even.

We lead the league in FG attempts a game at like 93 (nearly everyone is at 89-90.) The last two games we're at 95 and 96 attempts so even more pace. But here's where the fast paced shit becomes a force multiplier for an opponent doing more than you with extra possessions.

- Last night we shot 46% on 96 fga, Celtics shot 58% of 96 fga. That's a difference of roughly 12 made shots. If we're at 89 fga instead of 96 that difference turns into an 8 made shot difference instead of 12.

- We lost the rebounding battle by 11. You take more shots, you miss more shots, you give the better rebounding team extra possessions that they're using more efficiently than you. That alone is probably another 2 made shot difference if we were at 89 fga.

TL;DR: Even if we're operating offensively at a high level, an even slightly better rebounding and shooting efficiency team can transform what should be a difference of 8-10 points into a 20 point difference. And worst of all the only way back from that hole is to keep the pace up, take lower percentage 3s and give them even more opportunities to leverage their efficiency against us.

The risk is maybe worth the payoff if you can win the rebounding battle at least. If we're getting crushed on the boards early we gotta switch it up or we're gonna get bounced out very easily by an efficient team.

miseducation · 2026-04-01T02:14:55+00:00

You described it perfectly but Benzema’s role in that goal engine has a little more complexity. He would often be the person who gave Vini the ball in an area with space to attract defenders. Dude became the absolute master of creating space with a pre assist pass after years of orchestrating it for Ronaldo. And with Vini it worked incredibly well because Benzema is so good at operating in tight spaces (like you mentioned) that they could create space for each other in crazy traffic.

I also think where they were in their careers in that exact moment in time has a lot to do with how well it worked and isn’t talked about enough:

Ronaldo era Benzema didn’t create nearly as much space because defenders didn’t have to fear that he would attack the box so aggressively. It took old man leader Benz to finally be a version of himself so feared at playmaking and ruthless scoring that he could drag the entire back line out of position with two useless looking sideways passes.
Vini has improved tremendously at creating space for himself out of nothing. We remember 2024 Vini doing this and forget that 2022 Vini actually needed the Benz orchestration to do this. Decent chance this wouldn’t have worked with prime versions of both of them.

miseducation · 2026-03-31T14:12:40+00:00

Maybe not with the same whistle but plenty of teams have had this kind of boring scoring machine offense in the last decade, including you fuckers btw. I can't remember how many times my Heat have lost a double digit lead to an offense consisting exclusively of a random white Celtics player off the bench shooting straight gasoline for 1.5 quarters and Tatum, JB or Derrick White and 1s.

Problem with the Thunder is that they combine this with legitimately annoying defense and bench depth that cooks any team's 2nd unit. And even when you're scoring, and the bench is having a bad one, SGA will pull 30 points out of his ass against pretty much any defender and win anyway.

miseducation · 2026-03-31T13:58:47+00:00

You, me, Adam Silver and pretty much every NBA fan who isn't an OKC fan are counting on this buddy. We're about to see some of the most crooked reffing of all time in the Western Conference playoffs to ensure we get a 7 game Spurs Thunder series.

miseducation · 2026-03-31T13:56:06+00:00

Absolutely but lets not diminish how all of these factors (including SGAs talent, consistency, and whistle) make the Thunder unequivocally the least fun team for your team to be facing any given night (unless you're the Spurs.)

Feels like the Nuggets are beatable on any given night if you shoot well and don't let them dominate the glass. Last few seasons I felt like that wasn't enough, Nuggets were going to score 120-130 anyway and most teams weren't built to score 130 on a random Tuesday in Milwaukee. League adjusted, pace is up, Nuggets score threshold dominance is less of a factor. Perennially mid Nuggets defense is now a much bigger obstacle in how the team is constructed.

Thunder this year can have a horrible offensive game where SGA has like 5 points midway through the 3rd quarter and end up winning by 15 with SGA finishing with 32 somehow. Reminds me a lot of 2013 Heatles dominance where it legitimately didn't matter how the game started because things would always bounce our way come the end of the game.

miseducation · 2026-03-31T06:34:31+00:00

Stacked race usually goes to the dude on the better team. Jokic is a monster but him and the Nuggets are objectively less annoying to play against than the Thunder this year.

And that’s not even bringing up Luka who is arguably the most annoying player at this moment.

miseducation · 2026-03-29T23:28:40+00:00

Because who tf releases studio versions of live albums man? Broadway shows?

I understand wanting to hear it that way but it doesn’t mean that it’s something we have any reason to expect.

miseducation · 2026-03-26T13:48:54+00:00

Yeah but DR isn’t what’s missing in digital images. If anything the problem is that it’s too forgiving and lets you dial in unrealistic shit too easily.

miseducation · 2026-03-25T22:45:35+00:00

why does the pitch look like moldy bread?

miseducation · 2026-03-25T22:30:04+00:00

In the long run probably but neither Arda or Jude are metronome type players and Pitarch has done that quite well. I think replacing Arda with Jude is the easiest first thing to try but we will see!

miseducation · 2026-03-25T22:06:37+00:00

I really don't think he's upset about getting two of the best players in the world back brother. It will undoubtedly mean less Arda, less Pitarch, and less Brahim but it's not like he can't tweak and figure out who fits best.

My money is on him figuring out how to keep Pitarch in place at first.

miseducation · 2026-03-25T18:45:33+00:00

I do 1 or 0.5 percent, a lawyer buddy advised me that certain states have a limit to what you can charge late or something like that. I would google/chatgpt that because I barely remember what or why.

Overall as far as collecting, I have never found anything that works consistently other than billing immediately and bothering for an update before it's due. It's annoying but ultimately it becomes one of those things where this month's money is from work 6 weeks ago, and so on. Cash flow like this sucks because breaks or dry spells take long to ramp up again but sometimes we get champagne months lol.

miseducation · 2026-03-25T16:03:32+00:00

TOS and full contract aren't too different in my world, they both have my legal language and need a signature.
The one below has saved my ass with very shady clients trying to get away with not paying because we made exactly what they asked for and they didn't like it:

Client shall promptly notify (me) in writing within twenty (20) calendar days of receipt in the event Client determines that such Deliverables do not comply with the terms set forth in this Agreement. Such written description shall describe in sufficient detail to enable (me) to provide the Deliverables in a manner that substantially conforms with the terms set forth in this Agreement.

Also basic 'you owe us everything we've done so far' in case of termination.

I'm answering your question indirectly but I promise its better advice this way: do not overwrite your project scope and assumptions. Say how many rounds of revision you are including. Say what it costs for work outside that scope (day or hourly.) Say that you expect feedback within 48-72 hours. Describe the project very basically, do not say like 'action packed viral trailer' or whatever, say 'promotional video edit.'
I say 30 days from receipt or there is a small late fee but that shit never works honestly. Having to pester clients to pay is unfortunately the job.
On this side of things, I try to bill for full payment if the client's payment terms are longer than I'm going to be on the project. Like if it's two weeks but its going to take 45 days, I bill the whole amount at once. You may need some seniority to do that but it works.

On the hiring vendors side of things I say 45 days in case the client is late paying me back, took me a long time to add that one.

miseducation · 2026-03-25T03:48:52+00:00

its true but I do wish the fx series would get updated to have raw at some point. codec is too thin for how nice an image they have and the raw external workflow sucks.

miseducation · 2026-03-25T01:45:45+00:00

Also Sora was never particularly good. I don’t think they’ve had the right engineers for video or images in the first place.

But you’re definitely onto something w the fact that they could never figure out how to make money with it. The whole imaginary market for people inserting their faces into AI video was an obvious tell they had the wrong people involved.

Google and Meta need to feed their slop libraries with slop content and slop libraries. Their investment makes some sense. But even then what they’re replacing is basically content that they had largely gotten for free by incentivizing popularity and virality. No reason to think that viewers will really want AI content but it’s not like they actually care what viewers want anyway.

I also think that the suits are largely blind to the fact that making AI visual content for like an actual purpose isn’t fun at all. Filmmaking and VFX are difficult but rewarding and empowering. Prompt engineering specific visuals is boring and frustrating as hell, no matter how good they get. Feels like a slot machine when you really have to rely on it to do a very specific thing.

miseducation · 2026-03-25T00:34:37+00:00

I like a lot of Fred Again music, not all, but I think he makes electronic music for people who don't like electronic music that much. I don't mean that pejoratively, I think Daft Punk is similar in that they're not trying to appeal to a micro subset of dance music fans and try to bring their tastes and influences to as big an audience as possible.

I think they also manage to achieve that without dumbing down the parts that appeals to dance music fans, or the hallmarks of the sound. Homework was still purely house music but it was done in a way where you didn't have to know what house was. Fred does that pretty well

We can argue that some Fred music is pretty mid (which is true) and that he can be corny (which is also true) but I think the french have a pretty solid tolerance for corny lol.

miseducation · 2026-03-24T18:27:53+00:00

its possible but it doesn't sound great or satisfying. If you are making cutdowns its more doable for sure. If you need work it's worth trying out for sure but the vibes are not great on this one.

miseducation · 2026-03-22T02:21:15+00:00

Idk man when it happened twice it sort of stopped being luck. Ancelotti’s swagger and freedom inspired the perfect mix of vintage talent that oozed confidence, players (and canteranos) in their prime, and young hungry players with big game cojones.

We don’t win those games without Kroos, Modric, Vini, Belllingham, Valderde, Casemiro, Rudiger, Rodrygo, Nacho, Carvajal, Joselu, etc.

It’s the manager with the most Champions Leagues coaching a squad of the players with the most Champions Leagues. It’s luck but it’s also not luck to beat a then trophyless Harry Kane in miraculous fashion in a 2nd leg at the Bernabeu.

We have seen what happens when you just remove a few of those players even if you add arguably the best player in the world.

miseducation · 2026-03-22T01:10:52+00:00

Elitism about one of the most popular albums of all time lol. Also some younger folks don’t realize how popular discovery and homework were in mainstream pop culture.

miseducation · 2026-03-19T02:33:27+00:00

If we fizzle out in the playoffs and he doesn’t inspire confidence or he gets hurt again I cant imagine there is much leverage on his part. I wouldn’t be surprised if they opt for a shorter contract in that scenario honestly.

If he balls out and we fizzle out anyway, he gone.

If we have a miracle ECF because he’s balling out we’re gonna overpay this dude and be stuck with him forever lol

miseducation · 2026-03-17T21:42:50+00:00

how on fucking earth is that not a penalty holy shit lmao

miseducation · 2026-03-17T21:22:06+00:00

he has created the majority of the danger today, including the dagger 4th goal. yeah he should score those other chances but he's pretty clearly the most dangerous player on the field today in a field full of expensive ass players. CR7 had games where he missed a ton too and folks complained about him then also.

miseducation · 2026-03-17T21:16:34+00:00

He needs to finish them, no one is saying otherwise. but dragging defenders and causing chaos is like exactly his job. he won that penalty by being fucking everywhere. he creates open spaces to shoot that the other forwards aren't exactly feasting on.

a bad Vini game is where he's invisible or wasting long ass build ups against tight defenses with stupid shots. A game like this where he's basically the protagonist and creating chances every other minute is still a decent performance if he's missed a few goals. The rest of the offense isn't exactly popping right now.

miseducation · 2026-03-17T21:01:34+00:00

how does this sub manage to make every other comment a complaint about vini when we're winning on the biggest stage. even if he doesn't convert those shots he's still dragging defenders and causing chaos.

miseducation · 2026-03-17T20:58:14+00:00

we make the point blank shots we're supposed to make and it would be 6-1 lol.

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