Spoelstra on getting to end of Butler saga at .500: ‘It could have been a whole lot worse.’ Also, Heat short-handed vs. Celtics
It has been an eventful start to 2025 for the Miami Heat. It has also been a challenging start to the year for the Heat.
As the Heat and Jimmy Butler butted heads, the Heat ended up suspending Butler three times in January before eventually trading him to the Golden State Warriors last week as part of a five-team deal. In return for Butler, the Heat acquired Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and a top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick from the Warriors and Davion Mitchell from the Toronto Raptors.
“It was six, eight weeks of not having full clarity,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said ahead of Monday night’s matchup against the defending NBA championship Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center. “But I think that helped our team develop some grit. Even though our record isn’t where we want it to be, it could have been a lot worse. You go through a lot of circumstances like that, I’ve seen a lot of teams just fall apart. So we were able to develop some grit that I really like when you have those opportunities during a regular season.”
But the Heat also would have liked to develop some more consistency along the way, entering Monday’s game against the Celtics with a subpar 9-11 record in 2025. Miami also posted the NBA’s 26th-ranked offensive rating, 14th-ranked defensive rating and 21st-ranked net rating during its first 20 games of the year.
The now Butlerless Heat enters Monday in seventh place in the Eastern Conference — just one-half game behind the sixth-place Detroit Pistons but also just 1.5 games ahead of the ninth-place Atlanta Hawks. After Monday’s matchup against the Celtics, the Heat has two games left to play (Wednesday at Oklahoma City Thunder and Thursday at Dallas Mavericks) before entering the All-Star break.
“We have some work to do,,” Heat veteran center Kevin Love said. “We look at the standings, we know that we’re a few games back from home court. But we just need to start — we have 32 games left — we’ll start putting in the work now. Three games before the break, kind of recalibrate and we’ll see how it goes from there.”
Love added that “it feels nice to turn the page” following the Butler trade, with Anderson, Mitchell and Wiggins expected to be available to make their Heat debuts in Monday’s game against the Celtics.
“Myself being close to Jimmy, obviously, I wish him the best,” Love said after the Heat went through its first practice with Anderson, Mitchell and Wiggins on Sunday. “But it’s nice just to have levity here. Guys are coming in refreshed. Even with Golden State, they get that new blood in there, us as well. It was palpable today. It felt good to get these guys in and see different lineups, see them out there putting in work. It brings another great layer to the locker room.”
The Butler saga challenged the Heat. Spoelstra even admits that the Butler ordeal challenged him.
“In general with this team, I love the challenge. I love the challenge of even the last six weeks,” Spoelstra said. “I really, really enjoyed that. I haven’t been in a circumstance like that as a head coach. And it doesn’t show with the record, but it could have been a whole lot worse. So I really enjoyed that.
“I enjoy coaching this team. It’s an ambitious group. This group has the right intentions, they have big thoughts. So I want to honor that and prepare this team to play at its highest level, certainly higher levels than we’re playing right now. And that’s not only the young players, I want to drive them to a higher level. I think we’re seeing that with the young guys. Now it’s about consistency with them. But also the vets, can we get our vets to be at a 2x, 3x, 4x better level than where they are right now. We want to pour into our guys as a coaching staff and see if we can help drive improvement.”
A DISAPPOINTING SUPER BOWL
With Heat president Pat Riley owning several trademarks to varying versions of the phrase “Three-Peat,” Heat coaches and players found themselves rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
With a win Sunday, the Chiefs would have become the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls, allowing Riley to cash in.
Riley struck a deal with the Chiefs that would have compensated him and his foundation if the Chiefs had defeated the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
“I want a big party,” Spoelstra joked Sunday afternoon hours before the Super Bowl. “If the Chiefs win, see if we can get some of those kickbacks from Pat. I know he’ll bring out the best wine and hopefully have a great organizational party on behalf of the great Pat Riley. That would be fun.”
Love added: “I’d love to see coach Riley get paid, so he can take us out and buy us some fine wine and he can relax his shoulders a little bit. He deserves it.”
Instead, the Eagles routed the Chiefs 40-22 on Sunday to end Kansas City’s push to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls.
HEAT SHORT-HANDED VS. CELTICS
The Heat ruled out Josh Christopher (G League), Tyler Herro (stomach illness), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (stomach illness), Keshad Johnson (G League), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) for Monday’s game against the Celtics.
Herro practiced Sunday, but was added to the Heat’s injury report on Monday afternoon. He was initially listed as questionable before being ruled out for the contest. It marks just the second game that he has missed this season.
The Celtics ruled out Jaylen Brown (right knee swelling), Torrey Craig (return to competition reconditioning), JD Davison (G League), Jrue Holiday (right shoulder impingement), Drew Peterson (G League) and Anton Watson (G League) for Monday’s game in Miami.
This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 10:47 AM.
