Spoelstra praises ‘resilient’ Heat after enduring long skid. Also, Herro shines and injury update
After Tuesday night’s emotional victory over the Golden State Warriors in Jimmy Butler’s return to Kaseya Center, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was asked about the team’s first multi-game winning streak since late February.
“Judas Priest. It’s two games,” Spoelstra said with a laugh.
Tuesday’s 112-86 blowout win over Butler and the Warriors marked the Heat’s second straight victory after snapping a long 10-game losing streak.
As satisfying as spoiling Butler’s first game back in Miami may have been for the Heat, the bottom line is it’s still just 6-17 since the Butler trade was finalized on Feb. 6.
The Heat also finds itself battling for play-in tournament positioning, sitting in 10th place in the Eastern Conference at 31-41 with only 10 regular-season games left on its schedule. Miami entered Wednesday one game behind the ninth-place Chicago Bulls, 3.5 games behind the eighth-place Orlando Magic and four games behind the seventh-place Atlanta Hawks.
But Spoelstra is encouraged by how the Heat has responded to its 10-game skid, persevering to earn two straight double-digit wins after enduring its longest losing streak since 2008.
“I really commend the group, I admire the group,” Spoelstra said following Tuesday’s win over the Warriors. “They inspire me to make sure I’m preparing and that we’re doing our part. And it’s a very resilient group to be able to continue to get up off the mat and tackle the next challenge.
“When you go through adversity, you have an opportunity. When you’re going through something really challenging and tough collectively and not just totally fall apart, I do believe that there’s an opportunity for exponential growth from the tough times. And hopefully we’re getting there.”
The challenge now for the Heat is trying to find some consistency and building on the last two wins in an effort to extend its season past the NBA’s play-in tournament.
The positive news for the Heat is it’s very unlikely to fall out of play-in/playoff contention, entering Wednesday six games ahead of the 11th-place Toronto Raptors.
But according to Basketball Reference’s playoff probabilities report, the Heat’s most likely regular-season finish is listed at 62.3 percent for 10th place in the East. As the 10th-place team, the Heat would need to win two straight road games in the play-in tournament just to qualify for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed.
Regardless of the standings, Spoelstra has been noticing encouraging trends in the Heat’s play for weeks — even amid its recent 10-game skid. Spoelstra just wants those trends to continue moving in the right direction.
“Look, three weeks ago, I felt like we were really worthy to win,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat set to close its five-game homestand Thursday against the Hawks (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). “I thought we were playing great. This league can just be totally unforgiving. But that’s what you want, you want to build a team that you feel like is worthy to win. You’re doing the right things more consistently. Without a doubt, we’re doing that. Even in some of these losses that we’ve had, we’re playing way more good basketball and borderline really good basketball than not. So, I believe there’s something there. But we got to prove it.”
CREDIT FOR TYLER
Spoelstra went out of his way after Tuesday’s win over the Warriors to praise Heat guard Tyler Herro and his willingness to play off the ball to help open up other parts of the Heat’s offense.
“Tyler had a really good defender on him,” Spoelstra said, referring to Warriors guard Gary Payton II. “I told Tyler after the game, it showed really good maturity. He played off the ball, he played as a screener, allowing everybody else to make plays. And because they were playing him so aggressively, that opened everything else up. And I don’t know if he, because of his competitiveness, he wasn’t doing that in previous years. He would have wanted to have the pick and roll to try to prove it. And he ended up being a plus 33 in a game that he typically doesn’t do. That was great growth.”
Along with finishing with a game-best plus/minus of plus 33, Herro closed Tuesday’s victory with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, 4-of-4 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, three rebounds and seven assists to just two turnovers.
“Just trying to play the game the right way,” Herro said. “Not every night, I’m going to be able to score 30 or whatever it is. Just trying to impact the game in different ways with the ways I’m being guarded and trying to learn new ways to be effective.”
INJURY REPORT
The Heat listed forward Duncan Robinson as questionable for Thursday’s matchup against the Hawks because of lingering lower back pain.
This comes after Robinson missed Tuesday’s win over the Warriors because of lower back pain. It marked the first game Robinson has missed because of the back injury and just the fourth game he has missed this season.
What’s concerning about Robinson’s ailment is the fact that a back injury also limited him toward the end of last season, missing nine of the Heat’s final 14 regular-season games last season because of what the team listed as left facet syndrome.
When asked if there’s any concern that Robinson could be dealing with a similar back issue late this season, Spoelstra said Tuesday: “He feels better today. I’m not going to go there mentally and I’m sure he doesn’t want to.”
The Heat also listed guard Alec Burks as questionable for Thursday’s contest because of lower back discomfort.
Burks started in Robinson’s place Tuesday against the Warriors, finishing the win with 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting on threes in 24 minutes. He missed seven straight games earlier this month because of a lower back issue.
On a positive note, the Heat announced Tuesday that Nikola Jovic’s broken right hand was re-evaluated and he has been cleared to begin court work. But with Jovic set to miss his 18th straight game when the Heat hosts the Hawks on Thursday, there’s still no timetable for his return.
Along with missing Jovic, the Heat has already ruled out Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) against the Hawks.
