How To Beat The Miami Heat In "NBA 2K13"

Here's the tips for after tip-off.

Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

There are fairly straightforward ways to beat the Miami Heat in NBA 2K13. If you’re playing the computer, you can abuse the difficulty or the sliders and even if you don’t, the AI will almost inevitably fail to use LeBron and co. in the ways that make them so deadly in real life. And if you’re playing a human opponent, chances are they’ll play the Heat a lot more like the Heat team that lost to the Mavericks in the Finals than the one we’ve seen this season: lots of isos for James and without much specific attention to the defensive end.

With the Heat taking a loss in the first game of the NBA Finals, it's evident that there is indeed a chink in Miami's armor. That still doesn't take away from the fact that both in and out of the the video game, they're a tough team to take out. If you're playing against the Miami Heat in NBA 2K13, there are specific things that can be done to maximize your chances to get a ring. Here are 10 steps to take that might just give you a fighting chance.

Know your opponent’s numbers.

Any good NBA coach knows that games are often won or lost by preparation. Understanding an opponent begins with looking at how other teams have succeeded against them and seeing how you can do the same things.

According to NBA.com, in the Heat’s 66 wins this season, they averaged 24 assists per game while averaging 13.4 turnovers per game. Those marks would be good for 4th and 3rd in the NBA for the season overall, respectively, but in their 16 losses they only managed 19 assists per game while committing 16 turnovers. Those averages would land them last and second-to-last in the league in each category.

Basically, when they’re winning, they’re moving the ball effectively and taking care of it. When they’re losing, it’s because the other team is forcing turnovers and the ball is stopping. The first step to beating them is disrupting their offense and taking advantage of those turnovers—in wins they allowed 15 points off turnovers per game, while in losses they gave away 18.3 points off turnovers per game. That might not look huge, but against a team like the Heat, you have to fight for every advantage.

No, really know their numbers.

You can get an even clearer picture of how to disrupt the Heat if you drill down further into the numbers. The Heat’s primary offensive option is always going to be LeBron James, but he’s just as dangerous when he creates for others, and the Heat have shooters like Mario Chalmers, Ray Allen, Shane Battier and even Chris Bosh who can convert 3-point shots.

But in losses, they made fewer of their points off of 3-pointers than in wins (21.9% vs. 26.3%). Teams that beat the Heat couldn’t stop them inside (their points-in-the-paint average was virtually the same in wins and losses), but they could stop them from the arc.

Additionally, when they did make 3-pointers in those losses, more of those shots were unassisted than in their wins (16.8% vs. 12.8%). What that says is that fewer of those looks were open shots made off of passes and more pull-ups off the dribble.

Know your opponent’s game.

But there’s more to beating the Heat than just knowing how they’ve lost: it means knowing how they want to win. In real life, the Heat’s offense is unorthodox, relying on a lot of ghost action that can disrupt and confuse defenses and inversions that see Chris Bosh floating in the midrange while Dwyane Wade takes advantage of opposing guards in the post or LeBron operates from the elbow.

Their defense also relies on aggression and speed working in perfect synchronicity. They jump out and trap ballhandlers against the sidelines, blow up pick and rolls before they even have a chance to begin, and flood the strongside, relying on crisp rotations to cover up opposing shooters in the corners. (Note: things like flooding the strongside on defense are virtually impossible in NBA 2K13 because the rest of your team’s AI isn’t smart enough to know you’re doing it. So heads up, 2K Sports: Lots of teams in the NBA do this, and we should be able to do it, too.)

In essence, their offensive and defensive approaches are designed to frustrate opponents, get them out of their comfort zones, and force them into mistakes. Succeeding against the Heat will mean keeping your wits about you, having a plan and sticking to it. If you start gambling or trying to take advantage of what they’re giving you, you’re falling into their trap—often both literally and figuratively.

Pick a defensive team.

Not every team is built to compete with the Heat. It’s almost impossible—for example—to outrun or generally beat them with athleticism. Whereas a defensively stalwart team like the Celtics in 2008 were older and could be caught flat-footed, we’ve seen enough LeBron James chasedown blocks to know that hustle is not a problem for this Heat team.

Thus, offense is not as much of a priority in team selection as defense. Some of the top defensive teams in NBA 2K13 are San Antonio (92) and Chicago (91), and on paper they each match up with the Heat pretty well, especially if you have a healthy and willing Derrick Rose for Chicago.

The problem with San Antonio in NBA 2K13 is that they’re very hard to use as well as they play in real life simply because so much of what they do relies not on the individual abilities of their players but on a collective understanding of what they want to do. That’s hard to achieve in video game form. If you’re using them, your CPU-controlled teammates simply aren’t going to use the space on the floor as well as the Spurs do in real life.

You ever play Virtua Fighter? The Spurs are the NBA 2K13 equivalent of Akira and his Stun Palm of Doom. With study and practice, they can be absolutely deadly, but in the hands of any average player, they’re stubborn and unwilling to perform.

The Derrick Rose-led Chicago Bulls are a much better option: You get the down-low defense of Joakim Noah (a must against the Heat and more on that shortly), plus the scoring and playmaking of Rose to create room for off-the-ball work by Deng and shooters like Bellinelli and Hamilton. The Bulls are a strong option.

Pick a big team.

Although the Heat proved you don’t need a dominant inside presence to win it all last year, it seems like the best shot against them is still to go big down low, and while Chicago has Noah and San Antonio has the veteran presence of Duncan, neither is a team that dominates inside.

Even though the Indiana Pacers and the Memphis Grizzlies boast total defensive ratings of only 88 and 83, respectively, the real world has shown they stand a good chance against the Heat. Miami was 1-2 against Indiana this season and posted their lowest defensive rebound average (24 per game) against them, while Memphis held the Heat to their lowest field goal percentage of the season (42.1%) and split the pair of games they played.

The key to being successful with either the Grizzlies or the Pacers rests with their big men, though. Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol present serious size match-up problems, especially on the glass, as do David West and Roy Hibbert. The playmaking edge probably goes to the Grizzlies, who have Mike Conley’s underrated scoring and passing to rely on, while the defensive edge probably goes to the Pacers, who can use Paul George’s pestering defense on LeBron James. Either is a good choice.

Make important coaching adjustments.

Moving forward into the game itself—and assuming we’re going with either Memphis or Indiana—there are some adjustments you should make to the Coaching Profile to help shape the game.

Drop the Offensive Tempo as low as you feel comfortable. You want to eat the clock, not scarf it down. You won’t be getting very many good looks if you move fast, so you’ll need to rely on moving the ball from side to side to open up seams in the defense.

Raise the Defensive Pressure as high as you can stand. You’re going to need to attack and recover as quickly as possible on defense, which means strong defensive pressure across the board. Further tweaking can be done at the individual player level.

Additionally, raise the Help Defense slider. Your CPU teammates won’t always make the best help defenders, but if you want to stand a chance, you’re going to need to get comfortable with post players sliding across the paint to cut off drives to the hoop and running out on shooters.

The most important and extreme adjustments to make to the Coaching Profile are to zero out both Crash Offensive Glass and Double Team. With big men like Randolph and Gasol or Hibbert and West you will still get offensive rebounds, but outside of them, you want everyone back and ready to defend. Bottom line: you can’t give up points in transition to the Heat.

Zeroing out Double Team just means that all double team assignments are left up to you in the Defensive Settings screen. Basically, there are some players on the Heat you’re going to want to double judiciously and some you absolutely want to leave in single coverage—you don’t want the CPU making that decision for you.

Defensive Settings adjustments for the Big Three.

Controlling the Heat obviously starts with the Big Three: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Your biggest problem is James and what you need to do is keep him from getting comfortable, so adjust your settings to double him in the post, deny him the ball when he’s off-ball and double him on screens. The key is not to double him always, because he will definitely find the open man, but to double him at some specific moments to keep him on his toes.

Next up is Wade, who you’ll want to double on drives to cut down on his penetration. You’ll also want to set hard hedges on him when he’s using screens. These adjustments should force him into jump shots and ideally generate some turnovers when he does choose to drive. Bosh is a little trickier because he can hurt you from mid-range as well as down low. Set both the on-ball and off-ball defense on him to tight; this should keep him honest. Doubling onto James and Wade will at times give him open looks, but you’ll live with him shooting 18-footers.

Defensive Settings adjustments for the rest of the team.

The key here is to limit 3-point looks for the Heat’s good shooters and give open shots to their shaky shooters. To this end, set the defense on Mario Chalmers, Ray Allen, Mike Miller and Shane Battier to tight both on-ball and off-ball (Miller likely won’t see the court, but you know, just in case). You’ll also want to set the defense for Udonis Haslem to sag off when he doesn’t have the ball. Ideally this will goad the Heat into passing to him and him taking shots. He’s a decent mid-range shooter, but you’d rather have him shooting than just about any of the other Heat players save Joel Anthony, who doesn’t see much court time.

What both the previous step and this step are trying to do together is not create an iron wall of defense—because that’s hopeless against Miami—but to create a funnel of ball movement that makes the Heat take bad shots. If a defensive possession ends with Bosh or Haslem taking a midrange jumper, James or Wade driving into double coverage, or any player throwing the ball out of bounds because they’re being double-covered, it’s a success.

Quarterback your defense from the paint.

To keep them on the Heat on their toes, you’ll want to throw different defensive looks at them throughout the game, but your default defense should be the Halfcourt Trap. A good half-court trap will generate turnovers through bad passes and even the occasional back-court violation. At the very least, it makes it difficult for the Heat to get into their offensive sets smoothly and takes time off the clock.

Because of running the trap, though, you’ll actually want to control a defender off the ball. Your goal is not to get steals—you want to gamble as little as possible because they will definitely take advantage of you. Instead, take control of the center or power forward down low and play a pseudo zone where you patrol across the paint depending on which side of the floor the ball is on. You’ll take some defensive 3-second violations this way, but you can mostly stay out of trouble and it’s absolutely essential that you have a last resort under the hoop to protect the rim given the amount of doubles and traps you’ll be throwing at them.

Be patient on offense and look for mismatches.

One advantage of running your team from the defense out means that doubling and trapping will give you some mismatches on the offensive end. When you force a turnover, you don’t want to force the fast break, but nor do you want to let the Heat’s defense get set. Get the ball into the half-court quickly and look for mismatches. With the Heat playing James at power forward and Bosh at center, you’ll often see your own big men—West and Hibbert with Indiana or Randolph and Gasol with Memphis—matched up against players like Battier and Wade down low.

Scoring down low takes a little more patience than finding an open man on the perimeter after driving into the paint, but it’s worth it as it will wear down the defense and soften it up for more open jumpshots later in the game.

It takes more than an air conditioner to beat the Heat. It takes an understanding of what they want to do and what they want you to do. It takes smart coaching adjustments and a clear defensive plan and, most of all, patience.