Erik Spoelstra's blunt reaction to historic Heat collapse vs. Magic
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The Miami Heat suffered a major collapse Saturday night as they lost to the Orlando Magic, 121-114 after they led by 22 points heading into the final period. They would be without Heat star Jimmy Butler due to a stomach illness as Erik Spoelstra spoke after the game to give his visceral reaction to the meltdown.
Miami’s largest lead was 25 points against the Magic as the home team was short-handed themselves, missing players such as Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and even Jalen Suggs. Spoelsta would say after the game that there are “tough lessons” to learn as the season moves forward according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
"These are tough lessons that we all have to learn," Spoelstra said. “These are tough, tough-ass lessons to complete a game.”
It would all culminate in the fourth quarter where it seemed like Orlando was unable to miss as they shot 60.9 percent from the field and four of eight from beyond the arc. As for Miami, they were held down, shooting two of 18 from the field, and didn’t make any of their eight three-point shot attempts, finishing with a measly eight points as Spoelstra spoke about the breakdown in the final frame.
"They stepped up their defense, they got stops," Spoelstra said. "That's what they do. We started to try to self-will a little bit versus that pressure, that led to turnovers. And then when we did get open looks, we weren't in a rhythm and you're feeling a little bit of the momentum shift. It's tough to knock those down."
Heat’s Bam Adebayo on the “karma” the team got in the collapse
The game wasn’t all bad for the team as they led by 20 points at halftime, scoring 76 which was by far their highest-scoring half of the season. But it ended up being somewhat historic as per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, “Teams with a 22-point lead or more entering the fourth quarter had gone 796-0 in NBA games since Dec. 22, 2019.”
Well, until Saturday night when Miami lost. The Heat’s captain Bam Adebayo spoke about what went wrong in the contest and accredited it to them feeling “relaxed” since they had a comfortable lead throughout, saying they received “karma.”
"I feel like we relaxed because we were up," Adebayo said. "I feel like that's the karma of the game. You relax and then you let a guy get hot, and then it goes the other way and you're trying to fight back."
New starting lineup for the Heat in loss to the Magic
The Heat big-man in Adebayo would finish with 23 points, six rebounds, and two steals, and he also recorded a -35 on the floor. As for the Heat’s All-Star hopeful Tyler Herro, he had 22 points to go along with six rebounds and five assists, but the lead scorer along with Adebayo would be Terry Rozier off the bench with 23 points.
Miami would bring out a different starting lineup as besides replacing Butler, Spoelstra would take Highsmith out and put in Dru Smith and Nikola Jovic. Highsmith would end up not playing a single minute as he was active in the contest.
"It was a little bit different because of their frontline size and we're built for it without Jimmy that we can just slide Niko in there, particularly now that he's healthy," Spoelstra said of the change. "I thought those minutes helped us in terms of size. It wasn't anything against H. The dynamic changes if Jimmy is out. And who we play, it was a different kind of team with a big frontline."
At any rate, the Heat look to get back in the lab as after previously having a four-game winning streak, they are currently on a three-game skid highlighted by the collapse. They are 13-13 which puts them sixth in the Eastern Conference as they’ll next face the Brooklyn Nets at home on Monday night.
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