The Miami Heat finally get back in the win column as they snap a seven-game losing streak and get a victory over the Sacramento Kings, 115-106, inside the Kaseya Center Wednesday night. Instead of a typical practice, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra opted for a film session where players described it as a “vulnerable” meeting where “things were said that needed to be said.”
Jimmy Butler played like a true star Wednesday night as he scored 31 points on an efficient night making 10 of his 14 shot attempts. He mentioned in the past during the skid that the Heat needed to go back to “smiling” again and having fun when they play as that energy was definitely brought against the Kings.
“The effort was there. But we were smiling, we were legit having fun again,” Butler said to the media after the much-needed win. “I'm glad we made shots, glad that we guarded, glad that we won, but I'm glad we were smiling.”
Spoelstra says to never “take things for granted” after Heat win
The message was clear and it resulted in a bounce back win that gave a huge sigh of relief for the Heat after it matched the seven-game losing streak from the 2007-2008 season where that squad had 15 wins the whole year. Spoelstra spoke after the game and praised Miami for trusting the process, saying that winning in the NBA is hard.
“The group poured a lot in the last 24 hours. Poured into this process, poured into each other, poured into the solutions. I commend the group because in this day and age and in pro sports, it is tough to do that,” Spoelstra said. “The noise gets louder and everybody gets distracted and we just kind of circled the wagons and just got in the locker room and just started to work through solutions for one day, but it sure feels a lot better. We're probably the only team that had a seven game winning streak and seven game losing streak and what it does more than anything, and when I told the guys in the locker room is it just definitely teaches you not to take things for granted in this league. It is hard to win. And probably in particular, this season.”
After a major slump on both sides of the ball, it changed facing Sacramento as Miami shot 50 percent from the field and 46.4 from three-point range which was helped by Josh Richardson who made nine of his 15 attempts from deep. Defensively, they held the Kings to 44.1 percent shooting from the field and 30 percent from beyond the arch.
Tyler Herro wanting the Heat to “come in and compete together”
While he didn't eclipse the 20 point mark, Tyler Herro still was effective with his 14 points, eight assists, and eight rebounds as he expressed that the team wanted to see themselves come together and compete.
“We just wanted to come in and compete together, do this all together, not point fingers, not go our separate ways, it's more about us as a collective group, how we can collaborate together to get a win,” Herro said. “I thought we did well on both sides. You know, they went on a run and were able to stick together respond and ultimately get the W.”
The Heat were inching closer and closer to that .500 record, but have halted it as they are now 25-23 and entered the game seventh in the Eastern Conference. They can build off Wednesday's win against the Kings with a matchup on the road facing the Washington Wizards who only have won nine games on the season thus far.
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