Heat’s Spoelstra angry after Ball’s trip of Adebayo leads to injury in season-ending loss: ‘I don’t think it’s cute’
The Miami Heat was angry after Tuesday’s season-ending loss.
Not just because the season is over, but because of the way Heat captain and three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo sustained an injury that forced him to miss most of Tuesday night’s heartbreaking 127-126 season-ending overtime loss to the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center.
Adebayo exited Tuesday’s win-or-go-home play-in tournament game with 10:58 left in the second quarter and never returned after sustaining a lower back injury on a hard fall. A replay showed Hornets guard LaMelo Ball, while on his back on the court, taking a swipe at Adebayo’s sneaker and tripping him.
“I don’t think it’s cute. I don’t think it’s funny,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Tuesday’s defeat. “I think it’s a stupid play. It’s a dangerous play. Obviously, our best player was out. I’m not making an excuse. The Hornets played great, and they made those plays down the stretch. We had our opportunities to win. That’s a shame.”
Spoelstra continued to express his anger and frustration over Ball’s trip of Adebayo throughout his postgame news conference.
“He should be penalized for that,” Spoelstra said of Ball. “I don’t think that belongs in the game, tripping guys, shenanigans. [Official Curtis Blair] was there. It’s his responsibility to see that. And if it’s not his responsibility, then [official Zach Zarba] has got to see it. Somebody has got to see that. He should have been thrown out of the game for that. I don’t know him from anyone. There’s no place in the game for that.”
After the game, Ball used his postgame news conference to apologize to Adebayo and claim it wasn’t intentional.
“I apologize on that one,” said Ball, who scored a game-high 30 points to lead the Hornets to Tuesday’s play-in tournament win against the Heat. “I got hit in the head, didn’t really know where I was. But I’m going to check on him and see if he’s OK and everything.”
Adebayo declined to speak to the media following Tuesday’s season-ending loss.
“It was crazy,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “I’ve played with Bam for a long time now and I usually never really seen him like limp like that. He’s usually a guy who just stays in. So that tells you how much pain he was in. He can still barely walk back there. I saw the video. He fell really hard, and I hope he gets right.”
When asked for his thoughts on the video of Ball’s trip of Adebayo, Herro said: “I mean, we all know. It was not the right play.”
Spoelstra said he didn’t see the replay of Adebayo’s hard fall during Tuesday’s game, but “the bench was telling me.” Adebayo fell while trying to save a loose ball from going out of bounds after Heat forward Simone Fontecchio blocked Ball’s five-foot shot.
Adebayo stayed down on the court writhing in pain, forcing the Heat to call a timeout. During the timeout, the entire Heat team went over to check on Adebayo before he eventually stood up and walked slowly back to the locker room.
“I had no idea,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat missing the playoffs this season for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign. “All of us were looking at the play down the court. I knew something was up because I saw Bam standing and the ball going the other way. I didn’t see how he would fall hard enough. I didn’t see a jump at the backboard. Sometimes you get undercut when you’re making a play at the rim. I didn’t see any of that. I just saw him kind of stepping out of bounds while we were going the other way. It didn’t seem like anything like that. ... The bench had told me. I alerted Zach about it. But again, there’s no place in the game for those kinds of shenanigans. It wasn’t needed. And he was frustrated. I think he felt like he got fouled. So he takes the liberty of yanking somebody. That should be penalized.”
In a pool report conducted with Zarba following Tuesday’s game in Charlotte, he explained why the play wasn’t reviewed.
“The play wasn’t whistled in real time,” Zarba said to a pool reporter. “Play continued with a fast break. And because play wasn’t stopped immediately, and there was no whistle on the play, the window to review the play was closed. Play was stopped, after a change of possession, and then a timeout. So, by rule, our window to review that play then is closed.”
When asked if Ball’s trip of Adebayo would have been upgraded to a flagrant foul if it was reviewed, Zarba told the pool reporter: “At this point, that goes to league operations, and they’ll make a determination on that in the coming days. So, they will make that determination and go from there.”
The NBA announced Ball’s punishment on Wednesday night, but that punishment did not include a suspension. Ball will be available to play for the Hornets on Friday, when they take on the Magic in Orlando for the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 playoff seed.
According to the NBA, “Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball has been fined $35,000 and assessed a Flagrant Foul 2 upon league office review for making unnecessary and reckless contact with Miami Heat center-forward Bam Adebayo that created a significant injury risk.
“Ball has been fined an additional $25,000 for using profane language during a live postgame television interview.”
Adebayo recorded six points, three rebounds and one assist in 12 minutes before exiting Tuesday’s game. Jaime Jaquez Jr. started the second half in Adebayo’s place.
“No. You can’t go back,” Spoelstra said when asked if he received an explanation from the officials on why the play wasn’t reviewed. “I think they saw it. I think I read it on his face that it was like, ‘Oh s---, we missed that.” That’s the responsibility of somebody to see that. I get it. You might not see all the action of somebody falling, but you saw a frustrated player. A frustrated player now can do something frustrating actions, and that led to taking our best player out of the game, which was unfortunate.
“Now, I repeat again, that had nothing to do with the end. I don’t want to take anything away from the Hornets. They’ve had a fantastic second half to this season. This was just a great dogfight. It was a great dogfight.”
Missing Adebayo was a big blow to the Heat, considering Miami outscored teams by 6.1 points per 100 possessions when he was on the court and was outscored by teams by 3.5 points per 100 possessions when he wasn’t on the court this regular season.
But the Heat was still in position to win Tuesday’s game to keep its season alive despite missing Adebayo for most of the night. Miami led by four points with 28 seconds left in the fourth quarter and held a one-point lead with 8.7 seconds left in overtime, but could not close the deal and lost.
“Obviously, it took Bam out of the game, but that did not deter us,” Spoelstra continued. “If there’s anything about our locker room, the guys just got into the competition. Like I said, we had our opportunities to win this game. It felt like we were going to win the game going down the stretch in regulation. Like I said, one stop by those last three possessions would have sealed it.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 12:08 AM.
