The Heat are likely to ruminate on this defeat for some time. Not in a better position since the start of the season and accustomed to last-minute setbacks in recent days, the Miami franchise offered victory to the Pistons on Tuesday for the first day of the “NBA Cup”. Bad defensive management, and huge mistake by Erik Spoelstra, the Floridians showed almost everything they should not do at the end of the game, while they led by two points less than two seconds from the buzzer of the first extension.
The match should “logically” have gone to five additional additional minutes after Detroit equalized on a very well done alley-oop from Cade Cunningham for Jalen Duren, on a throw-in with 1.1 seconds remaining. Moment chosen by Erik Spoelstra to call a time-out and propose a final system.
Except the Heat had already exhausted them all. Consequences: the Pistons recover a free throw for a technical foul, and the ball to follow. Game over. “ I just made a serious mental error at the end » assumed Erik Spoelstra. “ This defeat is for me. I feel really bad about that. »
A “rookie mistake”
The Heat coach is all the more frustrated by his blunder, as it comes just after a time-out, where the different possible scenarios had been swept away by his staff.
A rookie mistake in short for one of the most experienced coaches in the league. “ There really is no excuse for what I did. I've been here for 17 years. We had just talked about it during the timeout, I knew we didn't have any more. I just got carried away by my emotions and my reaction. It's so stupid. »
This technical fault will definitely have weighed down Miami's chances, but will not have been the only error in a very missed end to the game by the Heat.
Coming out of the Pistons' timeout preceding Jalen Duren's dunk, the visitors seemed completely lost, arriving with six on the floor for several seconds. While the rookie Kel'el Ware and his 2m13 initially hinder Cade Cunningham's throw-in, his teammates order him to come out to leave Terry Rozier in play. Tyler Herro is too small to contest Cade Cunningham's pass, then Terry Rozier and Bam Adebayo do not communicate and are fooled on a “mundane” screen by Malik Beasley to free Duren.
“ We did not protect access to the circle behind our backs, it was a really well done action » greeted Erik Spoelstra, who still couldn't believe his blunder. “ You all would have liked to see this game go into double overtime. It was the kind of match that seemed made for that. He deserved to go to the second overtime and let no one stop him. Unfortunately, even being an experienced trainer, that's what I did. »
1.8 seconds of playing time, but a series of errors
The chalice to the dregs, especially since possession then returned to Detroit, to the general surprise of the Heat, but completely logically. Rule 12 on fouls and penalties of the NBA regulations clearly indicates that possession must go to the team that just took the free throw for the technical foul in this type of situation.
Kevin Love, who had just been called to come on and attempt a pass towards the other end of the field as he likes to do so much, had to return to his bench amid general incomprehension.
The illustration of this very sluggish start to the season for the Heat, which falls to 9th place in the East, ahead of its evening tormentor in particular, and is already seriously complicating life in this “NBA Cup” before facing the Pacers, the Bucks then the Raptors.
