The Miami Heat were at the wrong end of another blown double-digit lead on Friday night, this time to the Boston Celtics.
It wasn’t a good night offensively for either team. But Miami managed to blow a 21-point lead, a league-leading 31st double-digit deficit blown since the start of 2024-25.
The biggest reason for it is their play in the third quarter — which Heat fans online have famously dubbed the “turd” quarter — a trend that has frequently plagued this team over the last several years.
The turd quarter is, once again, not being kind to the Miami Heat:
For the most part, Miami closed games well at the start of the season. Through their first 33 games, the Heat owned the 13th-best NET Rating in the second half (plus-1.5). But that has since cratered to minus-12.0 (29th) since the turn of the calendar, including a league-worst minus-18.6 NET in the third quarter.
Over that span, the Heat sport a league-worst 106.1 offensive rating in the second half. They also have the worst effective field goal percentage, true-shooting percentage and the eighth-worst turnover rate as well.
The Celtics outscored the Heat 36-15 in the third quarter. Miami shot just 5-of-19 from the floor and 2-of-12 from 3-point range. Conversely, Boston went 13-of-20, including 5-of-7 from deep, led by Payton Pritchard, newly-acquired Nikola Vucevic and Derrick White.
“I don’t know,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said regarding the third-quarter woes. “We’ve tried everything. It was a little bit chaotic with Pelle going out right before we started the half, then Norm had to come out a little bit. But that’s not an excuse. It really started with that free-throw line blockout.
“That’s the point I’ve been making to the team. You got to check all the boxes first — the easy things. There’s a lot of hard things in this league, but we didn’t block out on a free throw. And we know that our level of urgency and attention to detail and everything coming out of the third quarter — that’s what we’re trying to conquer.
“We played so hard and really well in that first half. And then we had a mental glitch on the free throw line. And that just kind of led to some other breakdowns.”
Miami has been outscored in the third quarter in nine of their last 11 games, including by 14-plus thrice over the last seven games.
This isn’t a new issue. If Spoelstra, one of the league’s best coaches, has a fatal flaw, one of the biggest is the third quarter. Though while this isn’t a new issue, at some point, Spoelstra and Co. will have to figure out a solution — whether that’s a new substitution pattern, being quicker to adjust, etc.
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maybe ad says fk this im going to so beach
This was on Spo. It was clear, that Boston will try to get into the game by shooting 3s. In that case you have to bring the game into the mud.
Play starting unit in 3th for- 3-4 minutes, and then bring in aggressive players, like Kas and Gardner and tell them to foul first and ask later.
Making free throws brings less points and by far less momentum then making 3p.
Inserting Ware and Jovic, Ware playing poorly (Jovic disastrous) when things already went south, was a huge mistake.
charlote has won 9 in a row yikes .bagley 16 pts 12 rebs 4 blks for dallas
Why TF does Miami stop running and revert to the slow down half court game in the turd quarter. I don’t know what Spo’s instructions are at half time but they sure as hell ain’t working. Snap out of it Spo. No excuses. Run the hell out of the guys and substitute frequently. By the 4th quarter it will be the other teams who are completely worn down and out of gas.
wiggs norm little old running is harder on the body.jogging up the ct your body will last longer.just a thought.norm and wiggy breaking down little bit and they want to get paid.
That’s why you use frequent substitutions. Like football when the offense stays on the field more than the opponent’s. By the 4th quarter the other defense is burned out/exhausted. Then you steamroll em. They knew the job was dangerous when they took it. If they can’t stand the heat, they should get out of the kitchen. Jus sayin.
Our bench sucks ars jjj pelle ware bam wig norm ware are the only nba players we have.i want norm wig bam jjj ware on the ct 35 mins pace or no pace.hes not appropriating the mins correctly.shorten rotation dru jovic kasper unplayable they hurt more than help.the first 8 normally help more than hurt.i want kelel out there 35 mins with that 8 ft wingspan let him learn the nba game.practice makes perfect he needs on job training .spo is stunting his growth with his SPOradic idiotic use of ware darn shame feel sorry for the kid
Miami has tried everything except acquiring better players. They’ve tried to squeeze every ounce of talent out of a middling team, and maybe they have. But the results in shockingly are middling.
And rebuild
u need to rebuild your posts try some positivity,are u a heat fan?show me a positive post youve had in last few years.
I wish you wouldn’t say that to hhh4l. It’s like having two of the more insightful people, the ones who have always seen thru the hype, going after each other. hhh4l is absolutely a fan, loves our team.
A bunch of believers became nonbelievers recently, finally saw thru the hype. But, you two were there when we just missed a title, the year after when we only needed one more right move and we would have been parading, that’s when all three, and Sun, and a few more of us started to lose the faith.
We realized that the GM was still functioning like the Godfather when he got Butler, but shortly thereafter his abilities started to decline. But, Butler hid a lot a lot of deficiencies. Now, most people see it, but you two saw it even when we went to the finals. Butler, with a little help from Caleb and others, put the team on his back and made an already faltering GM look good. But, things continued to downslide from there as our GM would make two bad moves for his one good one, a ratio that continues today.
Now, there are only a few who still buy the hype. It’s ok, there needs to be good diversity of ideas here and what does it matter anyway. But, going after hhh4l is a mistake. He’s one of the best. And when we finally do see Pat retire and we get competitive again,,you will see all of us basking in the glory and our comments will reflect our happiness.
hes not a heat fan maybe hoops fan
Shut up delusional you don’t care if they get better or are mediocre forever as long as you get to watch them clown
It’s like having two of the more insightful people, the ones who have always seen thru the hype, going after each other.
Why, 30, because those 2 people agree with your point of view? Just because I, or 2qbn, or Manila, or Vagibugi, or 2015 have different opinions doesn’t mean that we are less insightful. Less negative? Yes. More hopeful? Yes. Folks that try to see the positives like Pelle, Gardner, Jaquez while acknowledging the current negatives like Jovic and Ware? Yes. Btw, thank you for disagreeing with your insightful friend suggesting Kas is not an NBA player. He is 19 and raw, but has shown good passing ability, ball handling, decent 3p shot and is not a terrible defender. What will he become? Nobody can know right now, but it looks like at least a decent backup pg or sg
So these last few playin years out getting mauled to a corpse by the Cavs last year, or the year before that getting beat by the Celtics lmao just because your delusional everyone else doesn’t have to be. I’m not a heat fan because I think the correct path to get a star/ss is to perhaps draft one preferably in the top 5-10 area, news flash they are traded sign deals with their current teams or if we’re being honest FA whales are a thing of the past no longer do they even hit the open market. Which brings me back to said drafting of our own homegrown ss/star player.
Also commented the other day about how maybe we can get Jalen Williams from okc for bam. And was met with sarcasm some “heat fan” saying why not sga like they would ever do that and atleast Williams may be somewhat attainable. Said a core of Williams and ware could be the future of the team one a star/ss status the other maybe all star status build the roster around those two but sure I’ve never said anything positive about them. Your so delusional you think if they aren’t rooting for them to be in the playin year after year you’d not a fan if you want better for them your not a fan. If your ok with the current playin first round exit ceiling build of this team then your not a fan
these guys are always hurt.when there healthy there a decent team only problem someones always hurt
But isn’t ‘there (sic) a decent team’ the very definition of mediocre?