Times have changed.
Once upon a first-round series, the Miami HEAT’s choices in covering Carmelo Anthony punched their ticket to the conference semifinals and, eventually, an NBA Championship. With New York’s scoring savant hitting jumper after jumper in 2012, Erik Spoelstra elected to have his defensive wings sit directly in front of Anthony in the post and force opposing guards to throw the ball over the top. As was the HEAT’s primary directive in those days, forcing a higher degree of difficulty on entry passes to a star player created turnovers, turnover fed transition, transition fed efficiency and efficiency won games.