Heat's Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo 'ride with Spo' after mind-blogging mistake

It was a heartbreaking Tuesday night for the Miami Heat as head coach Erik Spoelstra made a brutal mistake leading to a 123-121 loss in the opening of group play in the Emirates NBA Cup. While Spoelstra admitted it was a “horrendous” mistake and showed accountability in his post-game press conference, players such as Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo came to the defense of their head coach.

The game was a frantic one as a slow start by Miami led to a contest of runs later in the game, it was highlighted by a fury from Herro, who scored a whopping 40 points, which included making 10 shots from deep out of 16 attempts, six of them in the fourth. He would give the team a lead in overtime with 1.8 seconds left, but Detroit easily tied it back up with an in-bounds lob from Cade Cunningham to Jalen Duren.

Spoelstra, being vividly frustrated at the defensive lapse, called a timeout accidentally when the team did not have one in their pocket. The officials would give him a technical foul that led to the g0-ahead points scored for the Pistons to come away with a win at home and be 1-0 in group play.

The Pistons win it after head coach Erik Spoelstra is called for a technical foul for attempting to call a timeout with none remaining 💔 https://t.co/kCjq7fUU5f pic.twitter.com/hiDgtBH0ap

— HEAT on FanDuel Sports Network (@FanDuelSN_Heat) November 13, 2024

Heat's Tyler Herro on Erik Spoelstra being “one of the best coaches ever”

According to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, there is no doubt that people are talking about Spoelstra's shocking mistake, but Herro would downplay the moment, saying, “It happens.” He would also emphasize how great of a head coach he is and that whatever happens, the team will “ride with Spo no matter what.”

“Spo is one of the best coaches ever. It happens,” Herro said. “Great players make bad plays. Great coaches sometimes, he made a tough decision. It was an intense moment. Sometimes, you get caught up in that. He won us the game last game. We ride with Spo no matter what.”

While fans were speculating about Herro's role with the Heat, he no doubt had a mature attitude after the disappointing loss, even with having one of the greatest games of his NBA career as he continues on his impressive start to the season. Along with the 40 points (one point short of his career-high), he racked in eight assists, five rebounds, and four steals.

Heat's Bam Adebayo said Erik Spoelstra had a “glitch”

Also, as for who is perceived as the cornerstone of the Heat in Adebayo, he also had a solid game, finishing with 20 points on eight for 13 shooting, 12 rebounds, and three assists. He also spoke about Spoelstra's mistake and expressed how people do not realize how much is going on inside the head of a head coach, and throughout all his time, it's the only time he has had a “mental glitch” and for sure does not see that happening again.

“There’s a lot going through our head coach’s mind,” Adebayo said. “Time out we didn’t have. You learn from this at the end of the day… It’s one of those things where he had a glitch, he had a mental mistake. That’s the first time he’s ever done it in my eight years. I don’t plan on him doing it again. He feels truly bad about his decision.”

Heat's Erik Spoelstra holds himself accountable

Spoelstra is widely regarded as one of, if not the best, coach in the entire NBA that has been to six NBA Finals and won two championships, leading the Heat to sign him to a massive extension last season. Describing Spoelstra's reaction after the loss as disappointed is under-selling how he truly felt as he was candid to the media, saying that he felt “horrible about it.”

“I made just a serious mental error at the end,” Spoelstra said. “That’s on me. I feel horrible about it. There’s really no excuse for that. I’m 17 years in. We had talked about it in the huddle. I knew we didn’t have [a timeout]. I just got emotional and reactive on that and I just made a horrendous mistake there at the end. It’s a shame because we really fought back.”

“You don’t want to come down to a mental error like that, you would have liked to have seen it go double overtime. It deserved to go double OT and not have someone get in the way of that. Unfortunately, even as a veteran coach, I got in the way of that.”

Heat's Erik Spoelstra on the shots Tyler Herro was making

Above all, if there was an aspect about this game to come away positively from, it was Herro who has become a more complete player this season compared to the past. The focus this season was to focus on shots from deep and in the paint, and that was put on display Tuesday with the 10 made three-pointers, six of them happening in the fourth quarter that cut down an 11-point deficit.

“Those were not easy threes,” Spoelstra said. “His release has gotten so much quicker. If he’s not knocking down all those shots, we’re not in position for him to have that last possession.”

Subsequently, while he is leading the team with 24.9 points per game, he saw even extended usage as Heat star Jimmy Butler is still out with an ankle injury. Even with the idea that Herro would play a complementary part with everybody else, he was tasked to bring the team back into range to win the game, which he did.

“Just trying to impact the game as much as I can,” Herro said. “At the end, I felt my scoring was needed. We were in position to win. Things will learn from going forward… I’m happy the fight we have. We could have laid down with six minutes left, down 10.”

Heat's Bam Adebayo starting to get out of funk

Further, Miami started the game in a slog as Detroit had a 10-0 run out of the gate that extended to an early 18-point lead as the visiting team scored a game-high 21 points in the frame. They would bounce back with a 21-2 run of their own in the first half, which then led to the Pistons taking back the lead in the second half before Herro's outburst late in the game.

Compared to Adebayo, he has been having early struggles with the usage being sporadic, as he even started the first seven minutes of the outing without taking a shot. However, he would close the game with a solid statistic line that he could go off of going into Thursday and the rest of the road trip.

“He’ll be just fine,” Spoelstra said. “We’ll get through this stretch that’s a little bit noisy. I like the shots that he’s generating for us. it’s just one of those stretches. He’ll get it right. We’ll help him. He’ll be just fine.”

At any rate, the Heat are now 4-6 and 0-1 in NBA Cup group play as they prepare for Thursday night's game against the Indiana Pacers.