Getty Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat.
This season has not been kind to the Miami Heat. Injuries have kept them at bay all year long, and every time they seem to be turning things around, they’re met with an ugly loss. On Wednesday night, that came in the form of a defeat against a depleted Los Angeles Lakers team.
Both LeBron James and Anthony Davis were out for LA’s game against the Heat. Despite that, guys like Dennis Schroder and Thomas Bryant stepped up to the plate, leading the Lakers to a win. After the contest, head coach Erik Spoelstra sounded off on how disappointing the loss was for Miami.
“It’s just been extremely disappointing,” Spoelstra said. “Every time we get a little bit of footing on the season and then we have a disappointing loss. That’s what this was tonight.”
Miami’s longest win streak this season has been four games, and they’ve only won three games or more in a row three different times. As Spoelstra noted, each time they start to get on a roll, they take a step backward, and it’s not always against a good team.
Their loss column this year includes defeats against an injured Lakers team, a rebuilding Detroit Pistons team, and the subpar San Antonio Spurs. No team is perfect, but losses like that hurt a team trying to climb the standings. With all of their inconsistencies, Miami sits at 20-19 on the season, which is good for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
Against the Lakers, Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler came to play, scoring 30 and 27 points, respectively. However, Tyler Herro struggled in a big way. He ended the night with nine points, four rebounds, and three assists and shot just 4-of-14 from the field and 1-of-5 from three-point range.
Jimmy Butler Reveals New Injury Update
While some of Miami’s inconsistent play has been their own fault, injuries have certainly hampered them. Butler, Victor Oladipo, Gabe Vincent, and others have all missed significant time this year, forcing Miami to play with vastly different rotations than they likely want to.
And unfortunately for the Heat, Butler recently revealed that he’s still not 100 percent healthy and likely won’t be for a while.
“It is,” Butler said when asked if his knee was trending in the right direction. “Because I can go out there and compete. I can’t say that I’m fully healthy. But there are a lot of people that are not. So, I think that’s good on a lot of levels. The more rest that I have and able to get that recovery that I need is always going to be better. So, hell, whenever I’m not playing, I’m doing something to try to get it right.”
‘There Could Come to a Point’ for Heat to Blow It Up
Right now, injuries aside, the Heat are in a solid spot. They have a very talented team and have remained at the top of the East for the past three to five years. However, according to sources who spoke to Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports, there could come a point where they decide to blow things up at some point in the near future.
“They could come to a point where they want to blow it up,” an Eastern Conference GM told Deveney, addressing the team’s direction. “They are not there at this point, obviously, but you can imagine it.”
