Pat Riley’s 30th season with the Miami Heat began with a special honor, as he became only the second coach in NBA history to have an NBA court dedicated to him. But it appears that Riley’s 30th season with the franchise will end up among the worst since he joined the Heat in 1995.
Riley’s 80th birthday arrived Thursday with the Heat on a nine-game losing streak, which is the team’s longest skid since dropping 11 consecutive games from Jan. 29, 2008, through Feb. 23, 2008. It’s also only the fourth time that the Heat has lost at least nine straight games during the Riley era.
But the time for Riley and the Heat’s front office to make big moves and improve this season’s roster has passed. Instead, it falls on Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and the Heat’s current players to find a way out of this hole in an attempt to salvage whatever is left of their season.
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“I say this all the time and I said to the team, you always want to keep your team in a position where you feel worthy to win,” Spoelstra said following the Heat’s latest defeat, a painful 116-113 last-second loss to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center that dropped Miami to 29-40 for the season. “And that’s the tough thing that’s been going on for the last six weeks, we feel like we’ve been worthy to win and we just haven’t simply been able to get a win and that’s what’s tough.”
Spoelstra isn’t necessarily wrong, as five of the Heat’s nine losses during the skid have been decided by five points or less. The Heat has actually held fourth-quarter leads in six of the nine losses.
The Heat’s two most lopsided defeats during the losing streak came recently, though, falling to the Grizzlies by 34 points in Memphis on Saturday and losing to the Knicks by 21 points in New York on Monday before Wednesday’s competitive affair with the Pistons in Miami.
“We’ve laid two eggs in Memphis and New York,” Spoelstra added. “Everything else, laying it all out there. We may not be playing great, we may not be finishing great, we all might be making mistakes, including myself. But in terms of laying it out there and being worthy enough to have better chances to win, I truly feel that in my heart. All of my experiences have shown me that it’s a feel and that’s what’s tough about this right now.”
In the Heat’s last loss, it led the Pistons by eight points with 9:12 left in the fourth quarter during a competitive game that included 18 lead changes. The Heat even found itself ahead by one point with 1:16 to play.
But Pistons All-Star guard Cade Cunningham made a tough contested game-winning three-pointer over the outstretched arm of Heat center Bam Adebayo, with the ball hitting off the backboard and rattling in to break the tie with 2.9 seconds left in regulation.
“We had a chance to win at the end,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “Cade made a tough shot, banked it in. Great defense. You just got to tip your hat. Unfortunately, it’s another loss. But if it’s a regular game that’s without a losing streak, it’s a tough loss obviously, but you just try to take it on the chin, learn from it and move to the next one.”
The next one comes against the rolling Houston Rockets, which have won eight straight games and are in second place in the Western Conference at 45-25. The Heat, which is just 8-27 this season against teams currently with a winning record, hosts the Rockets on Friday (8 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun and NBA TV).
The Heat has finished the regular-season with a losing record in just five of Riley’s first 29 seasons with the organization. It appears the sixth losing season could come in his 30th season with the franchise.
“There’s not much to be said,” Herro said after Wednesday’s heartbreaking loss to the Pistons. “Obviously, it’s a tough loss. We’ve lost the last nine. There have been different losses throughout the whole losing streak. Tonight felt like one of those games where we were competing our [butts] off, playing hard and just came up short.”
INJURY REPORT
Heat starting forward Andrew Wiggins’ status is again in question for Friday’s matchup against the Rockets.
Wiggins, who has missed the last two games with a left lower leg contusion, is listed as questionable for Friday’s contest because of a right ankle impingement. The lower leg contusion has healed, but now Wiggins is dealing with the lingering effects of a sprained right ankle that he suffered on Feb. 26 and forced him to miss five straight games before returning earlier this month.
The Heat has already ruled out Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League), Nikola Jovic (broken right hand), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) for Friday’s game against the Rockets.