Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra: 'I have to do a better job.'

For the first time since Erik Spoelstra took over as head coach in 2008-09, the Miami Heat are in the midst of an eight-game losing streak. They also dropped to 10 games below .500 for the first time since 2016-17 and have only continued to rise in the lottery ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft.

While the Heat have been mediocre for much of the last three seasons, this is unfamiliar territory for Spoelstra, who took accountability after Monday’s 116-95 loss to the Jalen Brunson-less New York Knicks.

“There is no one that’s absolved from this. I have not come up with enough answers for this team. I have to do a better job,” he said. “Our group has to do a better job. We have to put our feet into the dirt and hold our ground at this point.

“We have to take strides where we’re making progress. And it felt like we were making progress even with some of the losses in the last three weeks; we felt like we were making strides. The last two games haven’t felt like we’re making those kinds of strides.”

The Heat has been one of the worst second-half teams in the NBA this season. In the third quarter on Monday, they were outscored by 26 points–41-15–for the second time this season after being outscored by 26 points in a single quarter just twice over the team’s previous 33 seasons.

It also marked the 14th time the Heat scored 15 points or less in a single quarter, three more than any other NBA team. Miami’s second-half NET Rating is the sixth-worst in the NBA at minus-6.0, including a league-worst minus-16.1 since the All-Star break.

While the team obviously isn’t as talented as it was with an engaged Jimmy Butler, nobody expected the lows to be this low. We could play the blame game all day, but there are currently no answers for a team that looks way too mentally fatigued–especially after opponents begin to creep up after double-digit deficits.

This year has been one of Spoelstra’s worst years as head coach. He’s not just a mad scientist, he’s the mad scientist. He’s done far more with less, so it’s weird to see him look as visibly defeated as he did Monday–even though there are still 14 more regular season games (plus at least one play-in game) to find the answers he’s yearned for the last two months.

“We have not come up with solutions and we’ve pretty much tried everything,” Spoelstra added. “I have not been able to come up with solutions for [the second half struggles]. This has been one of the biggest challenges of a regular season that I’ve been part of. We just have to stay the course. … I think this is a great challenge for every single one of us to overcome and to have a breakthrough.”