Erik Spoelstra is one of the most respected, and highest paid, coaches in the NBA, with a reputation for disciplined play and getting the most out of his players for over a decade. Even he will make some bad mistakes.
He just made a season’s worth of them in the span of two seconds on Tuesday, with one of them bringing back bad memories for spectator Jalen Rose.
An error-riddled stretch saw Spoelstra’s Miami Heat blow a lead against the Detroit Pistons with just 1.8 seconds remaining in overtime. Holding a 121-119 lead after a Detroit timeout, the trouble began when the Heat nearly came out of the break with six men on the floor.
Kel’el Ware got off the floor in time, but the confusion foreshadowed Miami getting burned on the Pistons’ ATO play, which ended with a Jalen Duren alley-oop to tie the game. Spoelstra was so frustrated that he immediately called a timeout.
The problem was, Spoelstra didn’t have any timeouts left.
That earned the Heat a technical foul, sending Malik Beasley to the free throw line. He made the shot to put the Pistons up with 1.1 seconds left.
It’s unclear if it was intentional or not, but the camera immediately cutting to Rose, a former NBA player and ESPN personality, was an incredible piece of work. Rose was one of the stars of the “Fab Five” Michigan team that lost the 1993 NCAA championship game against UNC because Chris Webber infamously called a timeout he didn’t have.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of Spoelstra’s mistakes. He proceeded to submit to outlet pass master Kevin Love for a full-field pass, as advancing the ball was not possible due to his lack of timeouts. Unfortunately, since it was a technical foul, it was still Pistonball.
The end result was a foul on Beasley, who made another free throw, and an embarrassing loss to open NBA Cup play.
The end erased a huge fourth quarter for the Heat, who trailed by 14 at one point in the frame and reeled off a 9-0 run at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime. It was a typical gritty Heat win, until it became an inexplicably sloppy Heat loss.
