The Miami Heat start a four-game home stand Friday night as they will face the New Orleans Pelicans as with 14 games left in the regular season, there is little to no room for error. However, the Heat haven't been as successful at home as they used to be in previous years as head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke before Friday's contest as he tries to solve the equation of what has went wrong for the team.

Miami is 17-14 inside the Kaseya Center this season which is mediocre compared to prior seasons where playing at home has been a massive strength. On the other side, they are one of the few teams in the entire NBA where they have more victories on the road (21-16) than they do as the home team as Spoelstra said it's hard to pinpoint “a singular trend” why they haven't found much success.

“It's tough to find a singular trend,” Spoelstra said. “We just have not had not been good enough, we all know that, we're aware of it. We can't go back and change the games that we lost here, but we can focus on tonight and it's a very competitive night. Both teams are playing for something. That part, we're looking forward to. But yeah, certainly we would love t perform and show out better in front of our fans.”

Heat's current home stand starting with heated rematch against Pelicans

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra reacts during a timeout in the third quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

However, if they want to stack some wins inside the Kaseya Center, the current four-game home stand starting Friday is a perfect time to do it though they have the Pelicans who have won seven of their last 10 outings. The last time these two teams faced off, there was a lot of attention on what happened in the game rather than the Heat winning on Feb. 23.

Heat star Jimmy Butler got into a heated altercation with Pelicans player Naji Marshall that became physical which resulted in the suspensions for Butler, Nikola Jovic, and Thomas Bryant, plus a select few on the opposing side. Butler especially was fired up after the game saying the next time they face New Orleans, Miami will beat them as they are the better team.

Fast forward to the present time and one would have to think that players had this match up circled on their calendars. For Spoelstra, he believes that the incident is way behind the Heat as he even said to ClutchPoints that this is nothing “compared to the 90s.”

“I think it's all behind,” Spoelstra said when asked if the past altercation is still in the minds of the players. “This is nothing compared to the 90s, really it was nothing.”

Spoelstra updates on Duncan Robinson

As it has become a recurring statement, the Heat are dealing with injuries that will keep them out for Friday's game and possibly beyond as Tyler Herro and Kevin Love are going to miss their 14th and 12th game respectively. The injury report also has Duncan Robinson who missed the last game against the Cleveland Cavaliers due to a back injury that has later been specified as “left facet syndrome.”

Robinson had just achieved history where on March 17, he became the fastest player in NBA history to reach 1000 made three-pointers with 343 games on top of scoring 30 points that contest. Now that he's on the injury report, Spoelstra says that he is “day-to-day.”

“Always optimistic,” Spoelstra said. “He'll be day to day and we'll see how his body responds after all the treatment today and tomorrow we'll see what's going on.”

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Spoelstra talks about March Madness

While the Heat are locked in on winning as many games as possible in the home stretch of the season, he talked about finding the time to check out the beginning of March Madness and the college basketball national tournament. He talked about trying to educate his children about the tourney, mentioning his admiration on head coach Mark Few and the Gonzaga basketball team, plus the upset win of Oakland taking down Kentucky.

“I spent the night trying to teach my sons what March Madness is all about,” Spoelstra said. “I always try to watch Mark Few and Gonzaga whenever I can. A good friend of mine, Jeff Fryer, from Loyola Marymount, he did keep his three point records. I'm always rooting for that. If you don't know who that is, look him up. He still has the NCAA tournament for most threes in the game but that was a thrilling game yesterday and that just shows you why NCAA Tournament is so much fun. You know that whole one and done format, you just have no idea what to expect and probably more so now than ever.”

The Heat are 38-31 on the season which puts them seventh in the tightly packed Eastern Conference. As every game matters, a perfect home stand can be just what the doctor ordered.