Nikola Jovic revealed Heat coach called team out before Jazz game

Miami Heat Nikola Jovic — Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra was not happy about the team’s recent efforts defensively (Mandatory Credit: Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

While the Miami Heat demolished the Utah Jazz Saturday night, it didn’t come without some tension. Not in-game, but before it.

While they were shorthanded, the Heat were coming off a 127-110 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. The loss dropped the Heat to 1-2 on their road trip, 3-6 over its last nine and 5-7 in January. Better yet, the Heat’s offense dropped to No. 27 while the defense cratered to 18th over that span.

After their dominant 31-point win, Heat wing Nikola Jovic revealed that Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra lit a fire into the team — especially Heat captain Bam Adebayo — at the morning shootaround.

“This morning, [Erik Spoelstra] kind of went off on us, especially on Bam [Adebayo], which I think kind of set the tone,” Jovic said, according to the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang. “When you start talking to the captain first, we just knew we had to take more responsibility and be more locked in. So I think it’s (as) simple as that. Just maybe we had a little more pressure on us and it helped.”

Adebayo led the Heat from 26 points with 15 rebounds on 8-of-19 shooting in the team’s 31-point win. He’s had a quality stretch of six or so games. But as the team’s captain, he’s always going to be the one with the brightest spotlight regardless of his numbers — and whether it’s conducive to success.

“We like when coach confronts us,” Adebayo said. “It’s just he got to be prepared when we burp back. We’re all grown men at the end of the day. So if we don’t like what he said, we can always have a man-to-man conversation.”

Spoelstra explained after the game that he didn’t believe the Heat were physical enough defensively. The Heat’s defense was still far from perfect against Utah. But they tied a season-high in points scored with 147, six away from tying the franchise record that was set last April.

If you look at strictly defensive rating, four of the Heat’s worst nine games of the season defensively have come since the turn of the calendar. Thankfully for the Heat, only one (Celtics) of their next 10 before the All-Star break will be against teams inside the top-13 offensively.