Heat's Erik Spoelstra has defiant take after blowing another double-digit lead in loss to Bucks
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As the Miami Heat take on the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night, it will be the second game of a back-to-back where the day prior, they suffered another disappointing loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, 120-113. The Heat’s fatal flaw this season has been the inability to sustain double-digit leads which were put on display Sunday in Milwaukee as Erik Spoelstra still is confident in the team to turn it around.
Miami controlled the majority of the game once again leading at one point by 14 points, even by 10 at halftime, and had an eight-point lead going into the fourth quarter. The team would once again have their worst frame in the final period where they scored 20 points compared to Milwaukee’s 35 where they started on a 15-2 run, taking their first lead, and even with the Heat clawing back, the Bucks would score seven unanswered to put the game away.
"Their second unit at the top of the quarter, they just really took the momentum," Spoelstra said according to The Miami Herald. "I had to call two timeouts. [Kevin Porter Jr.] gave them some relief points and that just kind of shifted the momentum. And then from there, it seemed like we couldn't get a stop for a while."
Miami has now lost 14 games where they had a double-digit lead, second behind the Utah Jazz.
Tyler Herro on the Heat finding “consistency”
After another collapse by the Heat, losing a double-digit lead and falling disappointingly, Spoelstra says that they are “making some progress.”
"We're making some progress and we just have to stay with it," Spoelstra said. "We have to show collective grit and resolve. The head coach can see that there's some good trends happening. This is not a matter of the ball didn't go where it needed to go. I thought we were executing with some purpose in the fourth quarter. We missed some open shots, some timely ones."
The Heat was led by their lone All-Star Tyler Herro who put up an explosive game of 40 points on 12 for 27 shooting from the field, though three of 12 from deep, to go along with 11 assists and seven rebounds. He mentioned after the game that the one goal for this team is finding “consistency” which has been hard to come by.
"Obviously, no one wants to lose and that's where we're at right now," Herro said. "We're just continuing to try to find consistency at this point of the season, where we can just try to stack these wins right now."
Heat suffers a potentially big loss in the rotation
With the Heat needing to have a sense of urgency with 27 games left in the season, the team also suffered an injury to young star Nikola Jovic. He would leave the game early and wouldn’t return after an X-ray revealed a fracture on the second metacarpal in his right hand, an injury that could keep the Serbian-born player out for a while.
"I feel for Niko," Spoelstra said. "I know how much he has put into this."
"He's a big swing player for us in terms of when he plays well, it really moves the needle for us," Spoelstra continued. "If he doesn't, we lack in some things that he can provide."
Spo on Jovic: IDK all the details right now. I know what you guys know. I feel for Niko. I know how much he’s put into this… he’s not snake-bitten or anything like that. He was playing with force tonight… We’ll see how long it will take. In the meantime, others will step up pic.twitter.com/04FGitH9us
— Naveen Ganglani (@naveenganglani) February 24, 2025
It had been already a process for Spoelstra to decide what rotations work best and now it’s likely he’ll lose a big piece of the lineup for the foreseeable future. Sunday was another game where such players as Jaime Jaquez Jr., Pelle Larsson, and Haywood Highsmith didn’t log a single minute while Duncan Robinson, Terry Rozier, Kyle Anderson, and Jovic got the playing time off the bench.
"I don't want to jump into any massive conclusions right now," Spoelstra said before Sunday's game when asked about trying to find some consistency with the team's rotation. "It's all hands on deck. We have a lot of work to do. If I can provide some clarity for the rotation, I will. But I'm not going to hesitate to go deeper into the rotation. The strength of our roster, depth is a massive strength that we have."
Bam Adebayo chasing records, Heat looking for “breakthrough”
Other than Herro, it was another productive game for the Heat’s newcomer Andrew Wiggins as he had 20 points, six rebounds, and four assists, while the captain Bam Adebayo recorded 24 points and seven rebounds. When Adebayo got the sixth rebound, he became the franchise’s second all-time leading rebounder at 4,809 after Alonzo Mourning which now his sights are set on Udonis Haslem at No. 1 with 5,791.
"UD knows I'm chasing the record," Adebayo said with a grin. "We ain't got to say anything about it."
Miami now has one more game on the road against a sub. 500 team in Atlanta before they return home to take them on again, so it is a prime opportunity for the team to rack up some victories. As Spoelstra said, they are working to find a “breakthrough.”
"Just optically, there's some things that look better right now," Spoelstra said. "But we're going to have to stay with it. We're going to have to dig deep and fight through this frustration right now to get a breakthrough on the road, and find a way to get it done in the moments of truth."
Spo: “Tyler’s skill level/confidence is getting to a point he can do it against all different coverages…”
“We’re going to have to dig deep/fight through this frustration to get a breakthrough on the road/find a way to get it done in moments of truth.” pic.twitter.com/EmpfmyYrBl
— Naveen Ganglani (@naveenganglani) February 24, 2025
At any rate, the Heat are 26-29 which puts them eighth in the Eastern Conference.
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