Disappointed Erik Spoelstra tells Angry Miami Heat fans WHY the team lost after going as much as 21 points over the New York Knicks but ended up bottling the game by 2 points.
The Miami Heat went up by as much as 21 points on Friday against the New York Knicks. Entering the fourth quarter, they had a 16-point lead. When the final buzzer sounder, however, Erik Spoelstra’s men found themselves on the losing end of a 100-98 game.
A lot of things went wrong for the Heat in the final quarter of the NBA In-Season Tournament showdown. Defensively, they just weren’t able to make the crucial stops as they did in the first three quarters that limited the Knicks to just 71 points. However, there’s none bigger than their offensive shortcomings as they managed just 11 points in the last 12 minutes of play–basically scoring less than one point per minute. Yikes!
Josh Richardson was Miami’s top scorer in the fourth quarter with five, while Bam Adebayo had four and Jimmy Butler with two. Both Butler and Adebayo combined for 38 points through the fist three quarters but couldn’t get anything going in the closing stages of the contest.
Speaking to reporters following the ugly loss to the Knicks, Spoelstra admitted that the team lost its offensive edge when they started to take their foot off the gas on offense. The Heat head coach admitted that it was their “kryptonite,” and evidently so.
“As soon as we start walking into our offense in the fourth quarter, that’s our kryptonite,” Spoelstra shared, per Anthony Chiang of Miami Herald.
There’s no denying that the Heat became complacent after it looked like they had the game in the bag. At the end of the day, they were reminded that no lead is safe in the NBA.
Hopefully they learned their lesson with the loss. No team can relax until there’s time left on the clock.