The Miami Heat lost Wednesday night in disappointing fashion as they fell to the Dallas Mavericks as while the goal was to avoid the play-in tourney, that pathway seems more likely each and every game. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra and star Tyler Herro spoke after the contest talk about what went wrong and the general feeling of the team with two games left in the season.
Spoelstra was nothing but defendant about his team amidst the struggles as of late as the task at hand is to win out and hope for the best as there is a way to get out of the aforementioned tourney, though a ton of variables are at hand. In any sense, Spoelstra said after the Heat's loss to Dallas that the “league can really humble you” and makes a promise for the last two games that he wants “our team playing the way we're capable of playing.”
“We have a great group. We have a very competitive locker room or guys want, we all want the same thing. And sometimes, this league can really humble you, that's what happened tonight,” Spoelstra said. “So we're going to regroup and try to do that several times this year. We keep on finding a way to bounce back and that's what we're going to do, we're going to focus on on the next 48 hours to get ready for another battle. I don't really care what's going on in the standings. I just want our team playing the way we're capable of playing, and that's what we're going to do this last two games.”
Erik Spoelstra talks about the loss to Dallas.
“It wasn’t a matter of fatigue…we have a great group…sometime this league can really humble you…” #HeatCulture pic.twitter.com/PWPodyHuwW
— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) April 11, 2024
Tyler Herro talks about the “energy” and “approach” of Miami in loss
The offense was non-existent for Miami early as Dallas got out to a 25-point lead at one point, but they did make it interesting where they dwindled the deficit to eight. However, they wouldn't capitalize on the effort and Dallas ran away with it.
While stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo had sluggish performances, scoring 12 and eight points respectively, Tyler Herro once again led the team in scoring with 21. He said after the game that he felt the “overall energy and approach to the game” was off from the team's standards.
“I think just our overall energy and our approach to the game, it's obviously a must win for us and we just didn't approach the game right,” Herro said. “You know, it's a big game that's pretty much a playoff game at this point in the year and we all as a collective group just felt like we could have brought more focus, more preparation. Even though it was the second night of a back to back, we could have brought more into the game.”
Tyler Herro on what stood out from the Heat’s performance against Dallas.
“I think just our overall energy and approach to the game…” #HeatCulture pic.twitter.com/sSKuCcI01c
— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) April 11, 2024
Spoelstra said sluggish performance wasn't “fatigue” from game before
There's no doubt that when it came to the performance of the Heat, it was frustrating as they were not playing to their strengths and let the Mavericks' dynamic duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving have an impressive night. While one could credit the outing to the team being tired as they went through a double-overtime the night prior, Spoelstra said “it wasn't matter of fatigue.”
“It wasn't a matter of fatigue. Dallas jumped us, shotmaking for sure. But they also had 17 in transition in the first half and yeah, our offense was a little bit funky,” Spoelstra said. “Some of that is to be, not expected, but you have to weather some of these storms. You know, as we're incorporating guys back in, I'm not even saying that as an excuse, but we have a formula of how we can win games. And it's not necessarily the easiest way but we've proven we can win games, get teams in the mud and make it really tough but it takes a great emotional, physical, spiritual, and connected commitment. But we've also proven that when we do that, the energy changes for us. offensively.”
Miami is 44-36 which puts them eighth in the Eastern Conference with two games left in the season. In those final outings at home, they will face the Toronto Raptors Friday and Sunday.
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