HEAT OVERCOMES FIGHT, EJECTIONS FOR VICTORY
It took one sentence for Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra to sum up the team’s first game after the week-long All-Star break.
“It did not have the intensity of an All-Star Game, that’s for sure,” Spoelstra said with a smile.
It definitely did not, as the Heat’s first game after the break included a melee and ejections. It also included the Heat’s third straight win and seventh win in the past nine games to improve to 31-25 this season, coming away with a 106-95 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night at Smoothie King Center to kick off its post-All-Star break schedule and a four-game trip.
But the headlines from the game had more to do with what transpired between the two teams early in the fourth quarter than the actual result.
That’s because there was an altercation that led to four players being ejected. Two Heat players (Jimmy Butler and Thomas Bryant) and two Pelicans players (Naji Marshall and Jose Alvarado) were ejected.
It began when Heat center Kevin Love committed a foul by wrapping up Pelicans forward Zion Williamson to prevent an easy layup with the Heat ahead by four points and 11:19 left in the fourth quarter. Even as Love tried to keep Williamson on his feet, Williamson fell hard to the court after the foul.
“It was just, I think, a misunderstanding on the play,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat now entering a two-day break before continuing its trip Monday against the Kings in Sacramento. “I honestly think Zion slipped on the play when K-Love grabbed him. And it looked a lot worse than what it was.”
Even Williamson said after the game that “K-Love, he actually protected me on my fall.”
“I think they interpreted that K-Love threw him down, which I think on KLove’s best day, I don’t think he can throw him down,” Spoelstra added.