With the Miami Heat taking on the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night, the team is looking to bounce back after a disastrous outing on Tuesday that saw them lose to the Milwaukee Bucks without Giannis Antetokounmpo, 128-117. As the Heat are looking to avoid the play-in tournament for this season, head coach Erik Spoelstra would speak on the pressure associated with the team.
Thursday's game has some postseason implications, as while Miami is the eighth seed at a 31-28 record, Philadelphia (32-26) holds the coveted sixth seed, which is the last spot a team can get to avoid the play-in tourney. Though there are 23 games left, the Heat must turn a corner and stack wins, which made Tuesday's loss to the undermanned Bucks more painful, especially with Miami snapping its three-game winning streak.
When asked about the pressure the team has on them, Spoelstra would channel legendary tennis player Billie Jean King with his latest sentiments.
“Good. I hope so,” Spoelstra said when asked about the pressure Miami has with avoiding the play-in tournament, according to The Miami Herald. “That pressure is a privilege, and I want our locker room to feel that pressure. We need to push our game to a higher level.”
Norman Powell on where the Heat “messed up”
While the Heat's goal for the rest of the season is to build some consistency to peak at the right time, it needs to start Thursday, as a win over the 76ers would give them the tiebreaker, something that could be crucial for seeding purposes. However, the team needs to be better than it was on Tuesday, especially defensively, allowing Milwaukee without Antetokounmpo to have offensive success.
Allowing 30-point quarters in the first half and a 39-point period in the final frame, Miami also struggled offensively, not making a field goal in the last six and a half minutes of the game. Norman Powell would still point to the defense as the Heat's fault.
“We just didn’t get enough stops, honestly,” Powell said after scoring 26 points. “They kept going back to the same play. And there are too many times where we messed up. Sometimes we got it right, sometimes we didn’t. And I think they were able to come through on that, and they had confidence. And they started making the plays on the stretch, and we just weren’t able to get the stops we needed.”
Spoelstra would mention how the defense needs to travel when on these vital road games, as the team looks to live up to that notion for Thursday's tilt against the 76ers.
