The Miami Heat have a chance to put a stop to their three-game losing streak as they're back home to take on the Brookyln Nets. Head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke before the game about the injuries to players such as star Jimmy Butler, facing the Nets, and how to get out of the slump they're currently in.

Spoelstra was asked about the injury to Butler who is dealing with right knee tendinitis. He sternly responded that he's done talking about injuries and that he's only focused on who's playing.

“I'm not going to talk about anybody's injuries anymore. If anybody's hurt, if they're not available, all they have to do is focus on being available, that's it,” Spoelstra said. “I'm not talking about any injuries or who's in or who's out. I know who's playing tonight, that's all I'm focused on.”

Butler is listed as “probable” according to the official injury report and the Heat said that he'll be working out, as well as Haywood Highsmith, to see if they're ready to go for tonight. While he's had a slow start to the season, the Heat will need Butler to lead them out of their rut.

Spoelstra gives a scouting report on the Nets

Miami Heat stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo with head coach Erik Spoelstra in front of Kaseya Center.

In breaking the slump, they have the Nets tonight and while on paper it should be an easy win for the Heat, especially with players like Nic Claxton and Spencer Dinwiddie out, Spoelstra notices their strengths. He said to ClutchPoints that they play fast and that'll be exemplified with the injuries, plus a goal for the Heat is to make them uncomfortable on their floor.

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“Yeah, they're playing fast. Goes without saying, you can see it just from the from the numbers but without Claxton, they're playing smaller, a little bit more position-less. You don't really necessarily know who the center is. You could probably say [Ben] Simmons is the point and their center,” Spoelstra said. “More than anything, we have to make this team feel us. We have to get after them and in our building, we have to make them uncomfortable. It's going to take great efforts to do that, we're fully capable of it. We did not do it on the road and it's it's time to start changing that.”
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Spoelstra's goal for the Heat as the season moves forward

“I think everybody goes into training camp trying to leverage a little bit more pace and space and I think more teams have been able to do that early on. At some point some teams are gonna say ‘enough of this' and let's start committing to a defense that can slow teams down. And there will be some and that's our objective,” Spoelstra said. “We want to be one of those teams right now and we are not, but I don't see a lot of teams that are doing that right now. And so we have a great opportunity in front of us to change that.”
As the Heat are 1-3, tonight against the depleted Nets is a great opportunity to start a winning streak as the next three games are at home.