Erik Spoelstra costs Heat game with brutal timeout moment
Erik Spoelstra made a series of mistakes in a matter of seconds that proved costly for the Heat in their overtime loss to the Pistons.
The boneheaded moments saw the Heat blow a two-point lead with just under two seconds left in overtime and then an even bigger error came on the part of Spoelstra, who tried to call a timeout — even though Miami didn’t have any left.
That earned the Heat a technical foul and led to the Pistons’ Malik Beasley knocking down one free throw to give the Pistons a lead with 1.1 seconds left.
Spoelstra then subbed in Kevin Love in an attempt for a full-court pass, only to realize it was the Pistons’ ball still.
Beasley ended up getting fouled once more, hitting one more free throw.
“I just made a serious mental error there at the end,” Spoelstra told reporters after the game. “That’s on me. I feel horrible about it. There’s really no excuse for that. I’m 17 years in and we’d talked about it in the huddle. I knew we didn’t have [any timeouts]. I just got emotional and reactive on that and I just made a horrendous mistake there at the end.”
Ironically, Jalen Rose was on hand for the game, and the broadcast panned to him for his reaction after the Miami head coach made the critical timeout mistake.
Rose looked in utter shock when the camera panned to him.
He was likely having flashbacks of a timeout mistake from 1993 while he was playing for the University of Michigan in the national title game.
The ESPN personality was a member of the “Fab Five” squad that lost the championship game that year to North Carolina because Chris Webber called a timeout, one that the Wolverines did not have.
The Heat players seemed more than willing to forgive Spoelstra for the error after the game, though, with Tyler Herro calling him “one of the best coaches ever.”
“It happens. Great players make bad plays,” Herro said. “He made a tough decision. It was an intense moment and high emotions on both ends going back and forth all game.
“Sometimes you get caught up in that, but he won us the game last game. We’ll take it, we’re riding with Spo no matter what.”
