Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Answers elude Spoelstra
Coach frustrated by team’s effort, inconsistency
MIAMI — Erik Spoelstra was in no mood for conversation, just as the Miami Heat apparently were in no mood for competition in Sunday’s 120-95 loss to the Indiana Pacers at AmericanAirlines Arena.
So two days after relishing his team’s road victory over the Washington Wizards, the Heat coach was blunt, curt and defiant in his postgame comments.
“Look,” he said, after arriving to his media session quicker than usual, “I don’t have an answer to our unreliability right now. We had our most inspiring effort — not perfect game, but inspiring effort — in Washington, and then this is the other side of us. I don’t have an answer for it.
“One way or another, we’re going to get down to the bottom of it. Because that’s pretty much my comment right now — everything else I need to look at the film, assess, and find some solutions — I don’t have answers right now for why we give up 120 points and have an uninspiring play. I don’t.”
For a team lacking in star appeal, with no former AllStar and quite likely no AllStar this season, the expectation was that there at least would be constant effort.
“There was some points in the game where our guys competed,” Spoelstra said. “There’s some guys that did.
“So that’s it. We’ll find a solution. We’ll find a way to play Miami Heat basketball one way or another.”
Spoelstra was not appreciative of a question about whether there was sufficient sustained effort.
“They scored 120 points and shot 60 percent,” Spoelstra said, with Pacers not only at exactly 60 percent from the field, but also 11 of 23 on 3-pointers. “That’s a rhetorical question with a rhetorical answer.”
One final effort was made to discern if the concerns were with specific players.
“We will find a solution one way or another to get this team playing Miami Heat basketball,” Spoelstra said.
He ended with, “OK? Thank you.”
This certainly felt like two steps back after Friday’s step forward.
Because for as much as the victory over the Wizards created hope, Sunday was numbing.
“I don’t know,” guard Goran Dragic said. “That’s the thing — we don’t know. How we play in the Washington game and then the next game, nobody recognizes us. That’s the thing we need to figure out.
“Tonight was a terrible game from the first minutes to the last. We couldn’t defend. They were what, shooting 60 percent? It was just everything. Defense and offense, there was no clicking.”
This wasn’t just about falling to 3-5 at home, it was about falling to 7-9 on a night when it could have been back to .500.
“They came in here and hit us in the chin,” center Hassan Whiteside said, with Indiana center Myles Turner closing 11 of 14 from the field for 25 points.
And it certainly doesn’t get an easier, with the Boston Celtics up next on Wednesday night, then a four-game trip that includes matchups with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers, and games to follow shortly thereafter against the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs.
How passive of an effort was it?
So passive that through three quarters the Heat had attempted 26 3-pointers and two free throws.
So passive that Whiteside was lifted in the third period for the energy of the first appearance of the night of rookie center Bam Adebayo.
So passive that Dion Waiters closed 0 for 10, his first scoreless game as a member of the Heat.
And then came the ultimate white flag, with Udonis Haslem inserted for the first time this season with 3:26 to play.
“I think it’s hustle,” Dragic said of what is most lacking. “It’s not the system, because you had the same system last year. If you play with a lot of energy you can correct even some mistakes you usually do.
“We’ve already proven we can play against good teams as long as we bring our game, hustling, right approach.”