MIAMI — The 2016-17 Heat are the blueprint for Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek: An in-season turnaround can be made with a commitment to defense.
It’s too late for this season, though Friday’s 98-94 stunner over the Heat was a first step. Hornacek garners hope the 2017-18 season won’t be as miserable once defense becomes the central aim at training camp in October. Hornacek said he’s unsure if any changes will be made to his staff to add a defense-focused coach after such a disastrous season, but he promises the mentality will be different.
In Phoenix, Hornacek had Mike Longabardi as his defensive assistant, but after Longabardi was fired by the Suns last season, the New York native landed in Cleveland in midseason and won a title. Hornacek hired Jerry Sichting, Howard Eisley and Corey Gaines as assistants. In desperation, Hornacek promoted triangle maven Kurt Rambis to defensive coordinator after the Knicks’ shoddy start defensively.
“We’ll talk about all that stuff when the season ends — players, coaching,” Hornacek said. “We feel like we all played the game long enough. The defensive schemes, maybe simplify it for them. We’ll take a look at all that stuff. [We don’t] necessarily need a defensive guy. We’ve been around the league long enough.’’
A defensive mindset never got through to the Knicks like Miami coach Erik Spoelstra got through to the Heat.
“Use Miami as an example,’’ Hornacek said Friday morning at shootaround. “You started playing basketball, all of a sudden we just get after it [defensively] the whole game, we’ll have chance to win games and than get confidence. It’s a different mentality you have to have to win in this league.
“Defensively, they go at it right from the start of the game,’’ Hornacek added. “They get in you.”
The Heat, once 11-30, now have a 37-39 record — tied for the most victories for a club that was at least 19 games under .500 at some point of the season.
The record is held by the Mike Woodson-coached 2013-14 Knicks, who finished 37-45 after dipping to 21-40. The Knicks closed that season with a 16-5 surge and missed the postseason by one game before new team president Phil Jackson made all his changes — including firing Woodson.
This Heat team assembled by Pat Riley, projected as a lottery bottom-dweller, is in seventh place in the Eastern Conference and is expected to make the playoffs.
“It’s old-school basketball,’’ Hornacek said before the game. “Bump and grab, and the referees are not going to call all of those. As long as they stay that aggressiveness all game long, they get away with those things. They have good stretches — get five, six, seven stops in a row and take the lead on you.’’
Hornacek said the Heat have done well at “finding guys who are defensive-minded.’’ A case can be made the Knicks’ top three players — Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick Rose — are neither. Rose has talked constantly about the club’s defensive woes, but didn’t have a good season on that side of the ball.
“Defensively as a whole, not helping each other, schemes, it’s a lot of things you can look at,’’ Rose said. “We were trying to figure out everything at once — who was going to be out there. A lot of things we had to figure out, but overall we didn’t help each other.’’
The Knicks have six games left, including Sunday’s nationally televised home encounter versus the Celtics. The Knicks (29-47) haven’t put together a winning streak since before Christmas, and need to close with a 3-3 record to match last season’s 32-50 clip.
Spoelstra credited Miami’s turnaround to “multiple-effort things defensively.’’ Hornacek said that’s coachspeak for helping out on D.
“If you’re having your guys really pressuring the ball, you’re going to get beat sometimes,’’ Hornacek said. “When a guy does get by, someone rotates and you just fix it. That’s that extra effort. If you get beat, don’t just quit on the play. You find the next guy.’’
Wait ’til next year.