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Heat’s Erik Spoelstra reveals upside of ‘painful’ loss to Celtics
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- Heat’s Erik Spoelstra reveals upside of ‘painful’ loss to Celtics
Heat's Erik Spoelstra reveals upside of 'painful' loss to Celtics appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
With the Miami Heat 's recent collapse coming on a 98-96 loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday night, there is some positive upside that the team has taken away from the disappointing result. As the Heat and Celtics clash mostly saw Miami in control , Boston would come back in the second half to win the game, leading to head coach Erik Spoelstra 's interesting thoughts on the game.
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For Miami fans, the result feels all too familiar as the team built up a double-digit lead, with a 21-point lead going into halftime, but the third quarter was once again a weak point. The team came out flat, leading to the Heat scoring 15 points the entire period and allowing the Celtics to score 36 as Spoelstra expressed how "painful" the loss is, but that the result will "drive" them.
"Guys really competed hard," Spoelstra said, via video from Heat Central on X, formerly Twitter, from the team's YouTube page. "We're not looking for a moral victory. It's disappointing, but we're going to get better from it. As painful as this is, it's going to drive us. And I feel we're going to get there."
The third-quarter issues have been a problem all season as the point differential ranks them 27th in the entire NBA , via Team Rankings. When Spoelstra was asked to theorize why the problems are happening in the period, he expressed searching for answers.
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"I don't know, we've tried everything," Spoelstra said, as he spoke more about blocking out in the free-throw line being a deflator in the frame.
Norman Powell on the Heat's "Achilles heel"
Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
While the Heat are looking to achieve their "high ceiling" aspirations, as Spoelstra said after Friday's shootaround before the loss to the Celtics, the one issue they need to fix is the third quarter. Miami's leading scorer on the season, Norman Powell , would speak about the team's "Achilles heel."
"It's very frustrating," Powell said, who recorded 24 points on Friday night, via HeatCulture on X. "We have to put a full 48-minute game together…The Achilles heel is the third quarter coming out at a pace of how we need to play in the same mentality when we start the games and then sustaining it through the second half."
The Heat are now 27-26, putting them eighth in the Eastern Conference ahead of Sunday afternoon's contest against the Washington Wizards .
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