You could argue that no head coach in the NBA currently garners more respect than Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra.
That doesn’t mean he won’t make mistakes–sometimes costly ones, too.
Tyler Herro’s runner–his 14th made field goal of the night–with 1.8 seconds left gave Miami a 121-119 lead in overtime against the Detroit Pistons. Cade Cunningham heaved a lob off the impending SLOB to center Jalen Duren to tie it, prompting Spoelstra to call a timeout … except the Heat didn’t have any.
As a result, Detroit was rewarded a technical free throw plus possession, resulting in a 123-121 Pistons victory. Spoelstra took full responsibility for his colossal late-game blunder after Tuesday’s loss.
“I made a serious mental error at the end. That’s on me,”he said. “I feel horrible about it. There’s really no excuse for that. I’m 17 years in. We talked about it in the huddle I knew we didn’t have anything. I just got emotional and reactive and I made a horrendous mistake at the end.
“You don’t want it to come down to a mental error like that. … (The game) deserved to go double overtime and not have somebody get in the way of that. Unfortunately, even as a veteran coach, I got in the way of that.”
Even though Spoelstra’s a mad scientist, he’s imperfect. Every coach, player, general manager or front office executive is imperfect from time-to-time.
Herro’s shotmaking down the stretch helped the Heat–helping them climb back down from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit with under nine minutes left–force overtime in the first place. It was another ugly game for the Heat outside of their 24-year-old guard, who scored a career-high 40 points on 10-of-17 from 3-point range, including six 3s in the fourth alone.
This is going to stew with Spoelstra until the Heat tip-off Friday against the Indiana Pacers, who have also had an underwhelming start to their 2024-25 season.
Again, as respected as Spoelstra is, he’s not perfect. He’s the best, but this one was on him and he knew it. Let’s just hope that it’s the last Chris Webber-esque decision he makes late in a game this season.
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Paulo Coelho said, “The less you respond to negative people, the more positive your life will become”
I can tell you from experience, this is very true! 😉
Generally true, but I don’t like his books.
I suppose that’s a bit negative.
I probably shouldn’t respond to you, haha.
Well it happens. No. 1 in shaqin fool this months, if that still exists.
not only the to spo how bout the non use of jjj in the 4th and ot who couldnt be stopped going to the rim.hes your second best offensive playerwtf,terry rozier has been an above avg pg his career now he looks unplayable .quit making bam hoists 3 thats not his game.alex burks say something to your wife ,he totally outplayed dunc in pre season but hes in spos dog house.luckily dunc playing ok but shooting only 38% on 2s 41 on 3s.,coaches really dont influence a game much(except bonehead tos) like football so its really on our players to produce which only ty is doing.the other teams just have more talent is what it comes down to and thats on pat.
Totally on Pat. It seems quite obvious to me that he used to be the solution but now he is the problem. Some guys hang onto their jobs too long. You got your naming, and your legacy, so leave now and let someone more creative and flexible in their decisions take over before you sully your body of work any further.