Worst loss of the season? Heat falls to woeful Wizards — and Nuggets are up next
Losses happen during an 82-game season, but the Heat’s home loss to the struggling Washington Wizards is one that shouldn’t have happened.
“It’s a tough loss,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’re well aware of that.”
Sunday night’s 110-108 defeat at Kaseya Center is arguably the club’s worst loss of the season.
“This one is painful,” Spoelstra said. “We have a bunch of competitors in our locker room. Nobody feels great about this.”
The Wizards entered the game tied with Detroit for the NBA’s worst record at 10-53 and snapped a 16game skid just a few days ago. Untl Sunday, the Wizards had not won a road game since Jan. 29.
But instead of taking care of business Sunday, the Heat became just the second team currently with a winning record that the Wizards have defeated this season. Washington’s other such win was Dec. 15 against Indiana.
The Heat led by four points with 8:55 left in the fourth quarter before the Wizards went on a 24-10 run to take a 10-point lead with 2:45 play.
In the final quarter, the
Heat shot just 3 of 14 (21.4 percent) from three-point range and the Wizards got hot to shoot 6 of 9 (66.7 percent) from behind the arc.
“This game is just very humbling,” Miami’s Jimmy Butler said as he sat in front of his locker after the game. “If you don’t come out with the right mind-set, this is what will happen. This is what will continue to happen.”
Suddenly facing a threegame skid after winning 11 of its previous 14 games, the Heat (35-29) can’t afford this kind of play with five weeks left in the regular season if the club is to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament. And now the Heat has to prepare to host the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. (ESPN, BSFL) in a rematch of last season’s NBA Finals.
Sunday’s loss dropped the Heat from sixth to eighth place in the Eastern Conference with 18 games left on Miami’s schedule. The teams seeded seventh through 10th land in the play-in tournament, as Miami did last season.
Entering Monday’s games, the Heat was a half game behind seventh-place Indiana, one game behind sixth-place Philadelphia,
11⁄2 games behind fifthplace Orlando and two games behind fourth-place New York. That’s the pocket the Heat finds itself in, as it holds a comfortable lead over ninth-place Chicago and has too much ground to make up to realistically catch third-place Cleveland.
“This is why I love this time of the year, because every team is going through it and you feel
Bam Adebayo will try to shoot his way out of shooting slump,
like it’s only you that is going through something like this,” Spoelstra said. “Everybody is going to have the context and pressure and expectations on the games down the stretch. And they have meaning.
“It’s not as if we don’t talk about the standings. Everybody is well aware of the standings, especially with the competitive nature of the group that we have. But you also cannot be overwhelmed with anything.”
With Sunday’s game marking the Heat’s fourth in six nights, the team took Monday off before returning to practice Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s home game against Denver.
Beyond the compressed schedule, Spoelstra said, the team had “a crazy travel day and getting in late. That’s not an excuse, that’s not why we lost at all. Washington made some plays down the stretch. But we can get some rest and get ready for practice on Tuesday and prepare for a big game on Wednesday.”
To avoid a four-game losing streak, the Heat will need to do something Wednesday against the Nuggets that it hasn’t done enough this season: Get a win over a quality opponent.
The Heat is just 14-20 this season against teams currently with a winning record and is 0-10against the teams with the NBA’s top five records. The Nuggets, who defeated the Heat in the teams’ first matchup of the season in Denver on Feb. 29, entered Monday with the league’s third-best record.
“Just got to sustain the right level of play, man ...” Heat guard Terry Rozier said. “We understand that this league has the best players in the world. But when we got a plan and we execute it, we’re tough to beat. But in these last couple games, it’s kind of like we get away from our identity and who we are.”
The Heat needs to get back to its identity — built around a top-10 defense — before it finds itself in the play-in tournament again.
Spoelstra referred to the recent losses at Dallas on Thursday, at Oklahoma City on Friday and against the Wizards on Sunday.
“We didn’t handle our business in these three games, but I know there will be teams in the East that don’t, as well,” Spoelstra said. “And we’re not leaving it up to them; we’re just going to have to focus on ourselves. But
Washington 25 23 33 29 — 110 Miami 27 27 28 26 — 108 Att.—19,730 (19,600).T—2:13. Officials—Natalie Sago, Danielle Scott, Brian Forte. this is a harrowing ride and our group has the right intentions.”
Sunday’s ugly loss didn’t make the Heat’s ride any smoother.