As the Miami Heat now enter the All-Star break, they are in the midst of a four-game losing streak that culminated Thursday night when the team lost to the depleted Dallas Mavericks, 118-113. After the Heat collapsed against the Oklahoma City Thunder Wednesday night, the group was looking to bounce back the next day, but it resulted in another fourth-quarter disappointment.
While Miami didn't score eight points in the frame like they did against the Thunder, they would let go of another game-changing run, this one a 12-0 segment, against Dallas which put them in the lead. Head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke about that part of the game and made a promise that with the amount of times this has happened, they will “correct” it according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“It happened fast,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Dallas’ game-changing run. “By the time I called that time out, it was a minute and a half 8-0 run. We’re going to correct that. We’re going to get better. We have enough experience with it now.”
Heat's Tyler Herro on what led to the loss to Dallas
The Heat's lone All-Star Tyler Herro would have a masterful game with 40 points on making 15 of his 30 attempts from the field, though he was three of 14 from deep, He also had eight rebounds, three rebounds, and three steals and credited the team's “disposition” as off leading to the Mavericks taking advantage late.
“I think our disposition and the way we came out could have been better,” Herro said. “Just our energy and effort, I thought we could have given a little bit more on both sides of the ball, especially defensively.”
Miami's blunders in the fourth quarter have been a problem this season as while it doesn't apply for Thursday's game, they are second in the NBA behind the Utah Jazz in having double-digit leads heading into the final frame blown. Thursday was another display of the team losing their edge when the game matters most as Spoelstra believes the break will be the mental and physical rest they need.
“Everybody wants to be better in these situations when we’re up,” Spoelstra said. “We’ll take a few days off. I’ll get to work, the staff will get to work. We’ll do what we need to do. I promise we’re going to correct this.”
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Heat was missing crucial piece in loss to the Mavericks
Another disappointing outing in the loss to Dallas was they were virtually missing every crucial player as Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington, Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively, and more were absent. However, the Heat were missing newcomer Andrew Wiggins, Terry Rozier, Kevin Love, and their captain Bam Adebayo who was dealing with a left knee contusion, who finished the game Wednesday with the issue.
“He [Adebayo] was able to finish the game, the adrenaline,” Spoelstra said. “I thought he was really good last night. It stiffened up on him a little bit on the plane. Then this morning, it got worse. So, he’ll have time to rest it.”
New Miami player Kyle Anderson started in his place and had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
“Kyle gave us some good minutes, which it was good to see what he can do and what he can add,” Spoelstra said.
The Heat enter the break at 25-28 which puts them eighth in the Eastern Conference as they'll face the Toronto Raptors on Feb. 21.
