The Miami Heat are coming off a four-game losing streak and on the immediate back of finally being able to make it back to .500. Beating the Phoenix Suns several games ago, a win that seems like it came ages ago and has the slightest of merit at the moment, they were able to get a quality win and to even themelsevs out in the standings—resetting, if you will.
However, after quite a bit of core minutes missed due to injury and a four-game skid later, here they are. And after their latest defeat, a tough one to the Timberwolves in Minnesota where the Heat had control of the game earlier and every chance to win late, the Miami Heat’s head coach had remarks about his guys, his team, and his philosophy when it comes to it all.
"We will get better from it. I promise Heat Nation...we'll rest up and get ready for Wednesday."
— Bally Sports Sun: HEAT (@BallyHEAT) November 22, 2022
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra speaks after the Heat's 4th straight loss to close their road trip@MiamiHEAT | #HEATCulture pic.twitter.com/AiUYbjHATu
And with a certain part of those remarks making the rounds on social media in the aftermath of Monday’s defeat, a lot of his thoughts are, not only, fair but spot on. The excerpt that is going viral among Heat supporters is a part of a larger response to a specific question about Kyle Lowry.
It also happens to be the most telling part of the whole above spew. Here is Coach Spoelstra’s full response, in total, when asked about Lowry.
"I can’t say enough about Kyle Lowry. That’s why has that reputation that he does as a winner. He’s dealing with his stuff too and he’s just “I’m available coach, whatever you need from me. If you need me to play 48, I’ll play 48.”And he’s basically been doing that every single game on this road trip. It’s not something I’d like to do, sitting in this head coaching chair. That’s where we are right now. At some point, hopefully, we’ll be getting some guys back.Even if they are not fully 100 percent, you know, as long as they are “close enough”, maybe they can give us a little bit of reinforcements."
The Miami Heat have dropped four in a row after getting back to .500. By no fault of Kyle Lowry, his coach agrees there and wants some help for him.
"Even if it just short minutes, that’s where we are right now. Just give us whatever you have. Whatever you have, just give us—even if you’re used to playing 30 minutes, give us 15.If you’re used to playing 20 minutes, give us eight. You know, so we can, kind of, manage things right now. But, Kyle’s a warrior and he’s a competitor. He likes these big kind of challenges and he understands that this was a really important road trip. We had three really crushing close losses. That’s not easy to handle but we will get better from it.I promise Heat Nation for that. It was this close on this road trip to being something special with all the guys out. We just weren’t able to do it, so we’ll rest up and, get ready for Wednesday."
While this was simply Coach Spo going out of his way to compliment Kyle Lowry for what he did for this Miami Heat team on the road trip, giving them a chance to win three out of the four games over the span, this was something else too.
Coach Spo took the opportunity to send a message. Though you can’t be certain to who, there are several candidates, with some seeming more likely than others.
Overall though and again, this was Coach Spo’s ode to Kyle Lowry, for the most part. It was just a good opportunity for a coach to do some coaching as well though on the other stuff.
And that’s what you love about Spo—he never misses an opportunity. You also trust his words, those that the Heat will get much better, as you have no other reason across his tenure not to.