The Miami Heat’s worst stretch in nearly two decades continues.
The Heat (29-41) blew another double-digit lead and fourth-quarter lead in a 102-98 loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday night at Kaseya Center to drop its 10th straight game and fall 12 games under the .500 mark this season.
“We’re being tested and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It makes everybody uncomfortable. This is not the first time our organization has gone through adversity and we lean into adversity. We think that there’s great benefits when you can power through and have breakthroughs.”
The Heat continues to wait for that breakthrough, losing 10 straight games for just the eighth time in the franchise’s 37 seasons. This 10-game skid is the Heat’s longest losing streak since dropping 11 consecutive games from Jan. 29, 2008 through Feb. 23, 2008.
The Heat has lost seven straight home games for the first time since March 2008. This is tied for the third longest home losing streak in franchise history.
The Heat also stands 12 games below the .500 mark for the first time since Jan. 30, 2017, when it was 18-30 during the 2016-17 season.
“It’s a resilient team, tough minded team to be able to keep on coming back and competing at a high level,” Spoelstra continued, with the Heat hoping to end its long skid when its homestand continues Sunday against the Charlotte Hornets (6 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). “We all understand that we need to do more, particularly in these moments of truth. But it’s not from a lack of competition or spirit, and that’s not going to change with this group.”
But that resilience and spirit are certainly being tested, with the Heat’s last win coming nearly three weeks ago on March 3 in a home victory over the Washington Wizards. Unless the Heat surprisingly wins every one of its remaining 12 games this regular season, it will finish the regular season with a losing record for the first time since the 2018-19 season and just the sixth time in Pat Riley’s 30 seasons with the organization.
“We got 12 games left in the regular season. You can’t let go of the rope now,” Heat captain and three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo said after the team’s latest defeat. “To me, I just think why quit? That’s unreasonable. To me, that’s something that’s in your character to be a quitter. And, obviously, I’m not a quitter, so I’m not going to let my teammates quit.”
Here are 10 of the ugliest facts from the Heat’s 10-game slide ...
▪ The Heat has blown a double-digit lead in an NBA-high 20 losses this season. The Heat has also blown 18 fourth-quarter leads in losses this season, which is tied for the most such collapses in the league.
A chunk of those meltdowns have come during this skid, as the Heat has wasted a double-digit lead in five losses and a fourth-quarter lead in seven losses over the last 10 games.
▪ Since the Heat’s 10-game skid began on March 5, it has been outscored by an NBA-worst 27.9 points per 100 possessions in the fourth quarter. The Heat has lost nine of the 10 fourth quarters during its losing streak.
▪ Just how bad has it been for the Heat in the fourth quarter? The Heat has scored an NBA-low 22.1 points per fourth quarter while shooting an NBA-worst 22 of 86 (25.6 percent) from three-point range during its 10-game skid.
▪ After posting an impressive 77-57 record in clutch games (one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter) during the previous three seasons, the Heat is 0-7 in clutch games during the last 10 games.
▪ While the Heat’s defense has been far from great during its losing streak, the offense has been its biggest issue. Miami has posted the NBA’s worst overall offensive rating (scoring 104.8 points per 100 possessions), 19th-ranked overall defensive rating (allowing 115.9 points per 100 possessions) and 29th-ranked overall net rating (opponents outscoring Heat by 11.1 points per 100 possessions) during its 10-game skid.
▪ The Heat is shooting the second-worst percentage on catch-and-shoot threes (34.5 percent) in the NBA during its losing streak.
▪ The Heat is struggling to generate relief points at the free-throw line, posting the NBA’s second-lowest free-throw attempt rate (the number of free throw attempts a team shoots in comparison to the number of field goal attempts that team shoots) during its skid.
This is part of the Jimmy Butler effect, as the Heat had the league’s eight-highest free-throw attempt rate this season through the end of 2024 when Butler was still on the roster. Butler averaged a team-high 6.4 free-throw attempts per game while with the Heat before being traded to the Golden State Warriors last month.
▪ The Heat has been outscored by 9.4 points per 100 possessions in the 247 minutes that its leading duo of Adebayo and Tyler Herro have been on the court together during its losing streak. They have both been available for nine of the 10 games.
For perspective, that’s a net rating that would rank 29th out of 30 NBA teams for the season.
▪ The Heat appears to be running out of answers, rotating through eight different starting lineups during its 10-game losing streak.
No Heat lineup has played more than 48 minutes during this skid because of the team’s injury issues and poor play.
▪ At the start of the skid, the Heat sat in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. After 10 straight losses, the Heat finds itself in 10th place in the East.
Both spots put the Heat in the NBA’s play-in tournament, which features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference. But there’s a big difference between the seventh and 10th seeds, as the seventh seed just has to win one of two home games in the play-in tournament to make the playoffs and the 10th seed has to win two straight road games in the play-in tournament to qualify for the playoffs.
Also, the Heat held the NBA’s 14th-worst record at the start of the skid and now has the league’s eighth-worst record this season. If the Heat doesn’t make the playoffs this season and stays with the eighth-worst record in the league, it would keep its first-round pick this year and enter the May 12 draft lottery with a 26.3 percent chance of moving into the fop four and a six percent chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick in the June 25 draft.
FAMILY FESTIVAL
The Heat tried to forget about its recent struggles for a few hours on Saturday afternoon, holding its 25th annual Family Festival at Kaseya Center. Heat players, coaches and executives were in attendance, giving fans an opportunity to meet and mingle with them during the event.
Heat president Pat Riley spoke to the media at the event, but did not take any basketball questions.
“In spite of the cynicism at times in sports, in general, that whole family context is real,” Riley said Saturday before enjoying the festival “It goes through adversity, it goes through the great times we celebrate. We see people come and go, we see players grow, we see children grow up, we see grandchildren come in. But that’s what we really firmly believe in. We’re part of this and we have been for a long time, and I’m proud of it. We have that here. Just because we’re having a little tough stretch right now, it doesn’t mean it’s still not that.”
Adebayo added: “I feel like everybody is due for a light day. We’ve had a lot of down days consistently, so one of these days just for us to not think basketball, bring our families out, let the community be a part of it. I feel like that’s going to be what we really need.”
This year’s Family Festival helped raise $321,900 for the Miami Heat Charitable Fund.
This story was originally published March 22, 2025 at 10:59 AM.
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.