Erik Spoelstra reveals ‘great opportunity’ that’s ahead of Heat after dreadful road trip

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Erik Spoelstra reveals ‘great opportunity’ that’s ahead of Heat after dreadful road trip

Zachary Weinberger, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Tue, Jan 13, 2026 ·

4 min read

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Rewind to the Miami Heat 's 125-106 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Jan. 4, where star Norman Powell said how crucial the upcoming Midwest road trip would be. With the Heat working through its process , what would result in the road trip was three straight losses, having ended with a 124-112 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder , but head coach Erik Spoelstra provides some hope for the immediate future.

Looking back at the past week, Miami dropped the first game to the Minnesota Timberwolves , despite Tyler Herro 's return, scoring the second-lowest total of the season with 94 points. Then, the game against the Chicago Bulls on Thursday would get postponed, leading to Saturday's dreadful blowout loss to the lowly Indiana Pacers , and while they played better against the Thunder, they still took the loss.

With a three-game homestand starting Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns , Spoelstra calls it a "great opportunity." Point guard Davion Mitchell would also emphasize not taking certain teams "for granted."

"We know we have a very important week," Spoelstra said. "This road trip didn't go the way we wanted to, for a lot of different factors, but we have a great opportunity this week at home, three good competitive opponents. We'll rest up tomorrow and get ready for a big game on Tuesday versus Phoenix."

"If we would have played the same way we did tonight against Indiana, we would have come up with a win," Mitchell said after recording 13 points and 10 assists against Oklahoma City , via video from Heat Culture on X, formerly Twitter. "I think that we took them for granted, even starting with shootaround…We wasn't ready, so I think that we got to take every team like, OKC, play really hard and get to our rules."

The Heat need to be more mentally tough, per Erik Spoelstra

With the Heat continuing to deal with injury woes, despite Herro being back, now Powell has appeared on the injury report; the team is still going through growing pains in its lineup. It has been an adjustment when Miami has been fully healthy, especially in terms of Herro, but it was a more positive outing in Oklahoma City, taking a 59-55 lead at halftime.

However, it would be the second half that the Thunder took control, led by a 39-point third period to Miami's 26 as the team didn't recover. Spoelstra would also emphasize the need for the Heat to be more mentally tough.

"We just have to be overall tougher with everything, like, it's not just physical toughness," Spoelstra said. "I felt like we brought a physical toughness, but the mental toughness when…the momentum starts to swing the other way.

"And we just really had some tough turnovers as they started making a run, and that just absolutely fueled their energy, fueled the crowd," Spoelstra continued. "We didn't respond well to that, which we will get better. We will get better at that, hopefully we'll be in a lot more of these kind of close games where we can feel that emotion collectively and respond in a better way."

The Heat are now 20-19, which puts them eighth in the Eastern Conference, entering the homestand that starts Tuesday night against the Suns. It continues Thursday as they host the Boston Celtics and Saturday against the Thunder once again.

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