Feb 20, 2016; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat guard Goran Dragic (7) prepares to shoot the ball as Washington Wizards guard Garrett Temple (17) defends during the second half at American Airlines Arena. The Heat won 114-94. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Erik Spoelstra has led a dramatic shift by the Miami Heat from one of the slowest teams in the NBA to one of the fastest, and hottest.

What a difference a break makes.

Since the All-Star break, the Miami Heat are 7-2 and beginning to pull away from a crowded Eastern Conference playoff race. The Heat are firmly in the playoff picture, currently two games up from the Atlanta Hawks for the no. 4 seed.

While teams like the Hawks, Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons have faltered in the last several games, Miami is playing its best basketball of the season. In fact, they’re almost a completely different basketball team all together.

Entering the All-Star break, the Heat were among the slowest teams in the NBA, averaging 94.7 possessions per 48 minutes. A mark that was second to last in the league. Since the break, the Heat are top 10 in the league in pace, averaging 101.08 possessions per 48 minutes.

So, by allowing Goran Dragic to push the ball and for forwards who grab a defensive rebound to bring the ball up the floor, the Heat have shoehorned in nearly seven more possessions per game.

In doing so, the Heat have leapt from scoring 96 points per game to 108.7 points per game. Nearly 13 more points per game! It’s not as if the Heat are gunning more, the onus is still finding efficient shots. Miami’s true shooting percentage has increased from 53.7 percent before the All-Star break to 54.4 percent, and the team is scoring 106.5 points per 100 possessions, up from 101.4.

So what’s changed?

Erik Spoelstra’s tweaks that allow his forwards–Luol Deng, Justise Winslow, Josh McRoberts and, now, Joe Johnson–to push the ball up the floor are well reported.

Then there is Dragic’s role. Before the break, Dragic was using 19.7 percent of Miami’s possessions. Since the break, he’s using 24.7 percent of Miami’s possessions. What’s more is that those extra possessions haven’t come at the cost of Dwyane Wade–still Miami’s best scorer. Wade is still hovering above 30 percent in usage.

Some of that can be attributed to Chris Bosh’s absence and Hassan Whiteside moving to the bench, but Spoelstra has also staggered Dragic’s and Wade’s minutes more often. Before the break, Dragic and Wade shared the court for 25 minutes per game. Since then, they are playing 20.1 minutes per game with each other.

Those five minutes with Wade have basically been switched to Deng. Since the break, no two Heat players share the court more than Dragic and Deng, who play 29 minutes per game together and are plus-9.1 in those stretches. That same pair before the break played an average of 25.5 minutes per game together and were a minus-0.4 points per game. That number, more than anything, represents the shift in Miami. Dragic–handling the ball and initiating the offense more often–and Deng–now playing as a stretch-4–are thriving.