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 accidentally made a season of them in the span of two seconds on Tuesday.
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.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of Spoelstra’s mistake. He continued under-exit master Kevin Love for a full-court pass, as advancing the ball was not possible due to his lack of breaks. 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.
