With 18 games left of the regular season, the Miami Heat have very little time remaining before the start of the postseason, but their seeding is far from solidified. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke to the media before Wednesday night's crucial contest as they face the Denver Nuggets in an NBA Finals rematch.
Ever since the team's dreadful seven-game losing streak earlier in the year, Miami has been in the midst of a turnaround, but is back on a skid as they have fallen in their last three contests, including Sunday's ugly outing against the Washington Wizards. One would think that the Heat are at an all-time high this season in terms of their sense of urgency, but Spoelstra said to ClutchPoints that it is more than just one aspect and that they need to “put it all together” in the home stretch of the season.
“Probably a lot of things. You're gonna feel a bunch of different emotions when the competition gets involved, scoreboard gets involved, disappointing losses,” Spoelstra said. “We have a sense of urgency for sure on that road trip and I thought our approach like mentally the other night going into the game was was right, we just didn't play well. So we got put it all together and we understand the meaning of these games and that typically brings out the best in us.”
Spoelstra addresses Heat's second half struggles
Part of the recent woes has been the Heat's second half struggles in keeping up their offense which has led to a degradation of their defense. It's definitely reminiscent of the aforementioned long skid, but in this part of the season, they have to right the ship as soon as possible.
In this current three-game losing streak besides the Wizards, they played quality opponents in the Western Conference like the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder, all on the road where they led for most of the game, but were defeated. Spoelstra mentioned to the media before the contest against the Nuggets that he did feel that Miami was “getting over that hurdle” and acknowledged that these were problems the team had in the beginning of the regular season.
“We felt that we were getting over that hurdle,” Spoelstra said. “I think that's a little bit troubling for us early in the season and it's the ability to sustain a high level of play and we show that we can get to a high level play, competition will have something to say about that. We realized that but, the great teams can sustain it, and also do in the moments of truth.”
Miami's injury report
While it's one thing for the team to play well, it's another to look at the health of the Heat and see they are still missing integral pieces to the puzzle. On the positive side, star Jimmy Butler missed Tuesday's practice with an illness, but is playing tonight as was told to ClutchPoints by a Heat spokesperson.
However, Tyler Herro and Kevin Love are still out as after the game against the Nuggets, they will have missed their ninth and seventh game respectively. Spoelstra addressed Herro's status shortly saying that he is progressing as he is listed with “right foot medial tendinitis,” but does not have a time table for his return.
It remains to be seen when Herro or Love will come back, but the Heat hopes it's sooner rather than later as they are 35-29 on the season which puts them eighth in a tightly packed Eastern Conference. They face the Nuggets Wednesday night inside the Kaseya Center before they start a four-game road trip.
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