Miami is now 35-30, ranked ninth in the East.
The Miami Heat’s losing streak now stands at four games after losing 100-88 to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night. The club was on the verge of a significant turnaround after a seven-game losing streak earlier this year, but they have now dropped in the standings after another dismal performance, as Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra discussed what went wrong in the game.
Obviously, defeating the reigning, defending NBA champions, who are led by talents such as Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and a solid supporting cast, was never going to be simple, but the game was competitive the entire way.
Especially in the third quarter, where the Heat made things interesting and briefly seized the lead.
Spoelstra talks the Nuggets gaining back control over the Heat
However, when the fourth quarter began, Miami slowed down, while Denver remained on the gas pedal. As Spoelstra stated, there have been numerous instances where the Nuggets have been able to dominate a game and play much better in the fourth quarter, and the Heat have done the opposite throughout the season.
“Then they do what they’ve done a lot this year,” Spoelstra explained. “They’ve had quite a number of these games where they’ve been in the balance, and when they want to put on the Jets, they’ve been able to leave opponents in their wake, and that’s how it felt tonight.
“It felt like they just flipped the switch in those last four minutes, Jackson was a big part of it, Murray was on the
bench, and they’re basically running those those typical two main actions that they run with Murray and Jokic, but
they didn’t know what Jackson you know, he was doing his best facsimile of Murray,” Spoelstra said. “Then, at that
point, it simply provided enough juice and separation that they had an additional kick down the stretch, and it was
plainly difficult for us to score. We have moments, which is OK as long as we keep it in the mud. But they had their
burst, and we stayed where we were, and that was pretty much it.”
Spoelstra on Heat’s struggles from the three-point line
Part of the loss might be attributed to the Heat’s three-point shooting, which has traditionally been a strength of the team in recent years. Against the Nuggets, however, they only made five shots from deep out of 21 tries.
Spoelstra discusses how Denver keeps teams away from the three-point line, saying that “we passed up open ones and then drove it in to their size.”
“That’s what they do.” To me, it felt like we passed up some open threes; I doubt it would have been 43 attempts,” Spoelstra said. “But it should have been 10-12 more. We passed on open ones and instead drove in to their size.
If you pass up some open ones, you will not get a better one, and there were probably a half dozen of those where we ended up with the worse shot by passing up one.
If you pass up some open ones, you will not get a better one, and there were probably a half dozen of those where we ended up with the worse shot by passing up one.
“And that also keeps the defense honest, you have to work on different aspects of your offense and we weren’t necessarily able to do that tonight and that’s a credit to Denver,” Spoelstra said. “They’re one of the more underrated defensive teams, and since the All-Star break, they’ve really turned it on on that end of the court. So we couldn’t get into our usual groove, but we definitely needed to take a couple more.
No room for error for the Heat going forward
The Heat have come close against the Nuggets, including games in the NBA Finals in June, but have lost, as they have done twice this season. While beating the Nuggets was always going to be difficult, the Heat have no margin for error at this juncture in the season, with 17 games remaining.
Miami is currently 35-30, ranked ninth in the Eastern Conference. They now embark on a four-game road trip, beginning with two consecutive games against the Detroit Pistons on Friday.
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