Heat shows ‘anger and frustration.’ Inside the Butler-Haslem-Spoelstra confrontation
About 40 minutes after the Miami Heat’s second straight disappointing loss came to an end Wednesday night, coach Erik Spoelstra finally made his way to the podium for his postgame media session.
What happened during a third-quarter timeout when tempers flared between captain Udonis Haslem, All-Star Jimmy Butler and Spoelstra in the Heat’s huddle?
“Everybody was wondering where the dinner plans were tonight after the game,” Spoelstra joked.
But there weren’t many laughs on the Heat’s side following a 118-104 home loss on Wednesday to a Warriors team missing its leading trio of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. This comes just two nights after the Heat lost in Philadelphia to a 76ers team playing without its All-Star duo of Joel Embiid and James Harden.
Those two losses are concerning with less than a month remaining before the start of the playoffs. Entering Thursday, the first-place Heat’s lead in the East is down to just 1.5 games over the second-place 76ers, third-place Milwaukee Bucks and fourth-place Boston Celtics.
What will draw even more attention, though, is the third-quarter confrontation involving Butler, Haslem and Spoelstra.
WHAT HAPPENED?
With the Warriors opening the second half on a 13-0 run to take a 13-point lead, Spoelstra called timeout with 8:39 left in the third quarter. That’s when the Heat’s frustration became evident for everybody to see, as Haslem began yelling at Butler in the team’s huddle and an angry Spoelstra slammed his clipboard as he also began yelling at Butler.
“We have a very competitive, gnarly group and we were getting our asses kicked,” Spoelstra said of the heated moment, with the Heat hoping to end its first two-game losing skid since January on Friday against the New York Knicks at FTX Arena (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “That’s two straight games where we weren’t playing to the level we wanted to play. I would say virtually every single person in that huddle was pretty animated about our disappointment and how we were playing.”
Butler and Haslem were not made available to speak to the media following Wednesday’s loss.
Heat center Bam Adebayo held Haslem back to prevent the situation from escalating, center Dewayne Dedmon pulled Butler out of the huddle and tried to calm him down, and forward Markieff Morris remained in front of a bothered Spoelstra shouting in Butler’s direction. As Haslem remained around the bench, Spoelstra walked on to the court to continue his dialogue with Butler.
“It’s crazy. But it’s passion,” Heat point guard Kyle Lowry said. “We’re in a situation where we have a lot of competitive guys and our biggest competitor is our head coach, and Jimmy and UD are tough competitive guys. It’s good to sometimes get some anger and frustration out and just talk about it. We’re going to have situations that make people uncomfortable. But at the end of the day, as long as we’re comfortable and we figure it out, that’s all that really matters. And as long as we’re still together, and we are.”
Another timeout was called a few minutes later with the Heat trailing by 15. This time nobody had to be physically restrained with players leading the huddle, as the coaching staff watched from a distance and Haslem quietly stood behind his teammates with his arms behind his back.
“Got our butts handed to us two games in a row by teams that didn’t even have their star players,” Heat veteran forward P.J. Tucker said. “That’s us just figuring it out. Everybody. Emotions run high. I laugh, man. I walked off the court laughing. C’mon, let’s play. We’re grown, man. This is a part of the game. I haven’t been on any team that emotions didn’t run over sometimes. Get back together, everybody loves each other. Blah, blah, blah.”
What sparked the tense moment?
“To be honest with you, losing basketball games,” Lowry said. “Stuff happens. They’re making shots, and frustration builds up sometimes. We had two games in a row where their better players and stars are not playing, and we lost. Frustration builds sometimes. I think it’s a situation where it’s good to get it out and move forward. We’re not going to dwell on it.”
The Heat believes it has the internal leadership to make sure Wednesday’s drama doesn’t affect the team moving forward with just nine games left in the regular season.
In the past, similar moments have propelled the Heat.
Dwyane Wade and Spoelstra argued during a timeout in a Game 3 loss to the Indiana Pacers, and the Heat went on to win three straight to bounce back from a 2-1 hole to win the series and eventually the NBA title. And early in the 2010-11 season, LeBron James bumped shoulders with Spoelstra on his way to the bench during a loss that dropped the Heat to 9-8 in what became known as “Bump-gate,” and the Heat went on to win 21 of the next 22 games.
“You can use moments during a season to catapult you,” Spoelstra said. “You can galvanize together over frustration and disappointment. Teams can also go the other way. I don’t see that with our group. I don’t see that with our locker room. But we have needed a kick in the butt from these two games.”
Spoelstra left the Heat’s starters on the court for the entire third quarter Wednesday for the first time this season. The group was able to trim the double-digit deficit to one entering the fourth quarter, but the Warriors outscored the Heat 37-24 in the final period to hold on for the win.
ROTATION QUESTIONS
The last two losses have irritated the Heat. But part of the frustration also stems from changes to the rotation that have left some trying to figure out their new roles as the roster moves closer to full health with guard Victor Oladipo and Morris recently returning from extended absences.
“We’ve had guys out, finally got everybody back. It’s tough,” Tucker said. “Guys not knowing the minutes. Guys trying to figure it out. It’s tough, I’m not gonna lie. Even I’m one of the guys. I got to try and figure it out daily how to keep being able to do my job, plus do what I got do to help the team win. It’s tough, man. Every single guy on this team, it’s tough.”
Lowry added that he doesn’t believe “we are where we need to be at all.” The Heat is 3-4 in its last seven games.
“Nine games left and rotations still kind of are funky right now, and we’re trying to figure it out,” Lowry added. “Vic is just getting himself back, Markieff is just getting himself back. We’re still just trying to figure out what we’re doing rotation-wise. That’s going to take time, but not too much. We don’t have too much time.”
Butler and Haslem are not expected to be fined or suspended by the Heat for the incident. Multiple sources said the situation was diffused following the game, as Butler and Haslem seemed to work things out as two of the final players in the Heat’s locker room late Wednesday night.
The Heat hopes the verbal altercation and the last two losses prove to be valuable lessons that help during its playoff run and not a sign of things to come.
“We’re brothers,” Adebayo said. “We’re going to get through this. This is us in practice. It just so happened that it boiled up like that in a game. But in practice, we get to that point where it looks like we want to fight each other and we get that mad. But it’s just the competitive nature we have on this team.”
