Heat’s Erik Spoelstra Unveils Unfortunate Fallout from Grueling Defeats Against Mavericks and Thunder. [Full story link in comment]
The Miami Heat are in the midst of a two-game losing streak heading into Sunday evening’s contest against the Washington Wizards. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke before the game about the struggles the team was on in the past few games as they are in the home stretch of the season.
While it was always going to be a challenge going through a back-to-back against the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder, the Heat have been going through a turnaround after the seven-game losing skid earlier in the year. When asked if Spoelstra felt the two defeats were a step back for a team or a learning experience, he said to ClutchPoints that it is “all of the above.”
“All of the above, you have to deal with your reality. There are two losses, there are two games that we felt we put ourselves in a position not to get over the top and we felt like there were winnable games against quality opponents,” Spoelstra said. “We weren’t able to do it. We know what the main culprits to that were and so you do have to learn from that and make sure that you’re better the next time you compete and that’s tonight. Want to come out with a great disposition and competitive spirit and work to try and get a bounce back.”
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Spoelstra talks how Heat have played without Tyler Herro, Kevin Love
One can blame the two losses for a bevy of reasons with one possibly being the down performances from stars Jimmy Butler or Bam Adebayo, especially the latter who had arguably his worst outing of the season against the Thunder with five points. Another could be that Miami has dealt with the absences of key Heat players like Tyler Herro and Kevin Love, who will have missed eight and six games respectively, including Sunday against the Wizards.
Spoelstra addressed the latter of the reasons saying to ClutchPoints that the Heat have handled their absences “appropriately.” He would then talk about the depth of the team and mentioning that the “outside noise” would be complimenting that aspect if they would’ve won the past two contests.
“We’ve handled it appropriately, we have depth. And all this looks different, this is a bottom line business. So if we’re able to pull out these last two games, everybody be talking about like the depth and how we’re able to have different guys contribute,” Spoelstra said. “We have these two games, that’s a perfect example of it. So many different guys were contributing in a positive way and if you don’t get the final win, you’re left to thinking about the shortcomings or whatever people think about on the outside, but there were there were good things even the head coach can see it. But we do have to get better for sure.”
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Part of that depth is the Heat’s new addition in veteran guard Patty Mills who shined in his debut against the Thunder on Friday where he scored 13 points as he made five of his seven shots from the field and made three of four from deep. Spoelstra said before Sunday’s contest that he’s glad to see a “Heat killer” in their own uniform.
“It’s definitely good to see a Heat killer do it in a Heat uniform, but it just shows you how ignitable he is and the way he plays fits what we do and I think that was part of him assessing his options, which he had a lot of options,” Spoelstra said. “In terms of why I chose to go to him, these are those kind of sliding door moments that could have easily been Delon [Wright]. And I’m fully aware of that when you have a lot of depth, a lot of versatility, these are decisions that there’s multiple guys that can contribute and that’s the point I make to the team is we’re going to need everybody at different times, and just have to stay ready. Be prepared. You know to be productive when your number is called and ultimately to help us win. But Patty was was really good in terms of that game.”
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Miami is 35-28 on the season which puts them sixth in a tightly packed Eastern Conference.