Why Erik Spoelstra remains confident in Heat despite 4th quarter meltdowns

Yesterday at 11:48 PM

MIAMI – As it may sound familiar to fans, the Heat have once again blown a double-digit lead, this time to the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night at home, 105-102. While the Heat felt they regressed Saturday night in the loss to the Chicago Bulls, the same result happened as that now makes 17 games where the team blew a double-digit lead.

This also marks nine games where Miami loses a game where they were leading by more than 15 points, which leads the NBA. Still, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra remains confident in the group in overcoming, saying because of their “competitive spirit,” the team will be “fine.”

“We have a bunch of competitors in the locker room, so I want our group to just embrace the competition of these close fourth quarters,” Spoelstra said. “When you’re in the middle of July, and you’re starting up your training. This is what the guys want, you know, these games like this. But it’s tough to kind of transport your mind to that kind of mindset, you know, but that’s what it is.”

“Our group, like I said, is a connected group. It’s like a college atmosphere,” Spoelstra continued. “So, you know, in terms of our spirit, will be fine, you know, we just have to forge ahead. You have to forge, sometimes you get tested. Sometimes you get tested in a way that you don’t want to be tested in this league, and you can fold the tent, or you just keep on forging and forging and forging, and that’s what our group is going to do.”

Here are three takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Hornets:

A semi-promising start for the Heat in first half

As the Heat looked to face their demons after the dreadful loss to the Bulls, it had to start Monday night against Charlotte and when it came to the first quarter, there was no doubt improvement on the offensive side of the ball. They would find their spots easily led by heavy-hitting early outings from Wiggins and Adebayo who had 12 and 11 respectively in the period.

Oveall, the team made 61.5 percent from the field, but they only made two of their nine attempts from beyond the arc and those were the first two shots of the game from Herro and Adebayo. Still, it was a much-needed strong first 12 minutes, especially from Wiggins who is in his second game coming off an anke sprain and didn’t look limited.

The former Golden State Warriors star made four of his six shots in the paint which was a strength for the rest of the team as they outscored Charlotte 24-10 in that category. Miami once again has a double-digit lead, though no doubt any fan isn’t comfortable due to how prone they’ve been in blowing them.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Heat had a 17-point lead as the opposing team dwindled it down. If you’re feeling deja vu and don’t know why, it’s because the same happened Satursay in the disappointing loss to the Bulls. Never mind the exact lead, the fact that Miami has been unable to sustain any type of double-digit advantage has been baffling and no doubt frustrating to every one in the locker room.

They hope to turn that around, but looking at the second period, Miami shot nine of 23 from the field while making three of six from deep, being outscored 31-24 in the frame.

A familiar sight for the Heat in second half 

With the topic around the Heat unable to sustain double-digit leads, the narrative will continue to surround them as during the midway point of the third period, Charlotte would have their first advantage of the game. It started when the Hornets went on an 8-0 run with six minutes and a half minutes to take their deficit down to four. t

Then a Mark Williams dunk with 5:08 left, which included rough defensive possessions for rookie Kel’el Ware, gave the opposing team the lead. However, Miami would go on their own 7-0 run which put them back in front and later had it going into the fourth quarter.

Still, Miami scored a game-low 19 points up until that point, where they made six of their 15 attempts from the field and only hit on one from deep out of five attempts. Herro (eight) and Adebayo (six) combined for 14 in the period to keep the team afloat.

When examining the fourth quarter, it was one that fans wanted to look away from as the Heat once again fell to a lottery team where they had a double-digit lead and blew it. There would be an exciting point towards the end of the contest where the team had two chances to tie the game and send it into overtime, but they couldn’t get it done.

Specifically, they had a 17-point lead like Saturday and also an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter, both games resulting in Miami losing at home in what is the most frustrating stretch for the team.

Heat’s Kel’el Ware played in clutch time?

An interesting component of the last game and some contests this specific player was the lack of key fourth quarter minutes for Ware. While Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra teased more for Ware, he kept to his promise, kind of.

Spoelstra brought him back out with 7:48 left in the frame, even when he was not having his best effort offensively, which led to him playing the first minute and change of clutch time. Soon after he would collect his fourth foul, Spoelstra took him out of the game in place of Haywood Highsmith.

"With Ware, he’ll definitely get his opportunities moving forward, Look, I get it," Spoelstra said to ClutchPoints. "Everybody’s gotten opportunities and if you lose games the coach puts himself out there to be second-guessed. There’s no question about it. And then everybody else, you know, you can catch strays as well. That’s part of the business. This is the business we signed up for. That’s why we have to continue to work on figuring out how to just get over the top and turn these."

"There’s a lot more good things going on, you know, we’re getting leads and playing well, but we need to handle those moments of truth better," Spoelstra continued. "And where I saw things getting a lot better, I saw some of the things that we’ve been struggling with six weeks ago kind of happened in Chicago, but I think that’s going to be a short-lived thing. I think the habits and the things that we’ve been working on have been much better."

While Ware looks to play more in clutch time, the Heat have more problems to figure out like sustaining leads as they continue the home stand on Wednesday vs. the Los Angeles Clippers.

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