The Tyler Herro leap seems to be finally here. The Miami Heat guard scored 40 points against the Detroit Pistons, which included 10 three-pointers. He also had 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals to his name. But it was enough to get a win.
The Heat were seconds away from being a .500 team once again. But they just don’t make things easier for themselves.
With a little over a second left on the clock and the Heat leading by two points, they gave up an easy lob for the Pistons to level the scores up. And then to make things worse, Spoelstra called a timeout
The problem is, the Heat didn’t have any left. That sent the Pistons to the free-throw line and the game ended up 123-121.
It was a bizarre way to lose the game, especially for a coach of Spoelstra’s experience and reputation. The Heat legend was quick to hold his hand up after the loss and take responsibility for his mistake.
According to Andrew Peters on Bleacher Report, Spoelstra said: “I just made a serious mental error there at the end. That’s on me.
“I feel horrible about it. There’s really no excuse for that. I’m 17 years in, we had talked about it in the huddle, I knew that we didn’t have anything. I just got emotional and reactive on that and I just made a horrendous mistake there at the end… You don’t want it to come down to a mental error like that. You just would have liked to see this go double-overtime. That’s the kind of game it felt like.”
The result means that the Heat are now 4-6, leaving them sitting 9th in the Eastern Conference table.
They are not a million miles behind though. The Indiana Pacers, who are currently 4th, have a 5-5 record. So, the race in the East is very tight.
For the Heat, it is about taking the positives from this loss. Of course, Herro was exceptional and is finally playing like a superstar. Bam Adebayo had 20 points and 12 rebounds as well. There were positive contributions off the bench from Duncan Robinson and Jaime Jaquez Jr.
One also cannot simply overlook the absence of Jimmy Butler. On the other hand, Nikola Jovic’s injury gives them another thing to worry about.
