"(It's) really more about how the games have gone," Spoelstra said. "It wasn't like a strategy or a staff retreat and said, 'I have to more challenges.' "A few of them I've done because I'm just trying to wake the officials up. I felt like there was some incorrect calls that maybe from wasting a challenge, it might them ready to focus, probably to no avail."
"For starters, he challenged a league-low 18 times, succeeding just 10 times, according to the Sporting News' Stephen Noh. That 55.6 success rate was the sixth-worst in the NBA, while his 18 challenges were the league's fewest ... by far (second-fewest were Bulls, Warriors - 36!!). For perspective, the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder used 82 - yes, eighty two - challenges last year. That's one per game, literally."
The Miami Heat have shifted offensively to a faster, free-flowing approach while head coach Erik Spoelstra has adjusted his use of the NBA challenge rule. Spoelstra was notably conservative last season, using a league-low 18 challenges and succeeding on 10, a 55.6 percent rate. This season Spoelstra has used 14 challenges and won 11, explaining some challenges are meant to jolt officiating focus after perceived incorrect calls. Spoelstra criticized the ubiquity of challenge gestures as distracting to players. By contrast, the Oklahoma City Thunder used 82 challenges last season, averaging one per game.
Read at Hot Hot Hoops - Miami HEAT NBA Blog
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