Even the best coach in the NBA has the occasional epic screw-up.
Enter Erik Spoelstra. The Heat were in overtime of tension Game of the NBA Cup with a struggling Pistons team on Wednesday night, but Tyler Herro kept them afloat – he finished with 40 points, making 10 3-pointers, plus dishing out eight assists, including this incredible alley-oop to a high-flying Bam Adebayo in the. extra frame
Everyone seemed a little tight and strong in OT and it showed – Terry Rozier stepped out of bounds at a key momebt, Cade Cunningham drove into a crowd and was tied – but with the game on the line it was Herro again, going into the. lane and banked in a 6-foot shot that put the Heat up two with 1.8 seconds left in overtime.
All Miami needed was a stop. They didn’t get it – Jalen Duren broke free from Adebayo moving toward the basket and Cade Cunningham threw the alley-oop from the lane, and Duren connected on it. It was an ugly defensive possession by Miami with the game on the line.
A frustrated Erik Spoelstra instinctively called a timeout to set up a play with 1.1 seconds left — except Miami didn’t have a timeout. That’s a technical foul (just ask Chris Webber). The officials blew the whistle, huddled, then gave Miami the technical, meaning a free throw and the ball out of bounds to the Pistons. Malik Beasley sank the free throw and that was the ball game (the Pistons were fouled on the enening and Beasley sank a few more meaningless free throws).
A highlight of the night was Jalen Rose’s reaction to Spoelstra’s timeout.
Spoelstra owned it postgame, via Hunter Patterson of The Soccer Club.
“That’s on me. I feel terrible about it. There’s really no excuse for that. I am 17 years in. We talked about it in the crowd. I knew we had nothing,” Spoelstra said during his postgame news conference. “I was just emotional and reactive about it. I just made a terrible mistake there at the end. It’s a shame because we really fought back.”
Miami is now 4-6 on the young season and trying to find their feet – and this loss really hurts their chances of advancing in the NBA Cup, they need to win now. Spoelstra probably doesn’t care too much about the Cup, but he is frustrated with himself and this team as they look for ways to win with Jimmy Butler out.
