Hornets at Heat
most favorable of whistles with two-tenths of a second to play Saturday night in Charlotte, the Heat would be entering Saturday’s rematch with the visiting Hornets on a fourgame losing streak.
Not only did the Heat nearly blow an 11-point lead in that loss in Charlotte, but they blew a 16-point lead a night earlier in a loss in Brooklyn and then couldn’t maximize an early 14-point lead Monday in Houston and a 12-point lead with 6:33 left Thursday against the Kings.
“We just were not executing like we should have been,” forward Josh Richardson said of the latest collapse, “and we just were not giving enough effort.”
It was a loss that left the Heat humbled.
“We’re a better team than we showed,” guard Wayne Ellington said, “and we’ve got to be able to do that consistently no matter who’s out there in front of us.”
It was as if the constant lineup shuffling in the face of injuries finally caught up to the Heat, this time with Dragic back from his knee issue but Tyler Johnson still out with his ankle When/where: Tickets: TV:
Scouting report: Radio: sprain.
It reached the point where Spoelstra yanked four of his five starters 3 minutes, 20 seconds into Thursday’s second half.
“The first unit, we didn’t look right,” Dragic said. “Our defense was not good and you see Spo take us out early in the third quarter. The second unit came — Ira Winderman
back, took a lead then. We just were not ourselves.
“It was the whole first unit. We were off.”
Including center Hassan Whiteside, whose uneven night included going the first three quarters without a basket and then committing a decisive offensive foul with the Heat up one with 21.9 seconds to play.
“Sometimes you have one of those nights, and try to encourage him, tomorrow is a new day,” Dragic said. “Hopefully he’s going to pick himself up and play well. But it’s not only him. Don’t get me wrong.”
Of the overall lack of energy, Whiteside said, “I don’t know, man. I don’t know. I don’t want to try to get into guys. Every guy feels a different way. So I don’t know.”
This time, Spoelstra opted to try to make it work late with Whiteside, who played all but 21 seconds of the final period, with Bam Adebayo playing 13 seconds in the fourth quarter, Kelly Olynyk three seconds. Whiteside closed with six points and seven rebounds in the fourth, but also had four fouls in the period.
“He started to do some good things defensively, certainly in the fourth quarter,” Spoelstra said. “He was much more active at that point and clearly different than how he looked in the first quarter and start of the third. He had some opportunities in the paint that we just weren’t able to follow them up.”
iwinderman@sunsentinel .com, Twitter @iraheatbeat or facebook.com/ ira.winderman