Monday night, the Heat were up by 11 points over the Hornets with only 6:47 left on the clock until the final buzzer. Same story happened against the Bulls heading into the fourth quarter this weekend, and then again with a 10-point lead over the Knicks with minutes left on March 2.
Miami suffered the same fate in these three games, which were all at home, and all ended in last-second losses. “We went through too much this season to let go of the rope now,” said team captain Bam Adebayo, as the South Beach club is 29-35 sitting 9th in the Eastern Conference.
For the Heat club, blowing leads are starting to become a tradition during this month of March, as the squad ended up losing 105-102 against Charlotte last night. The Florida squad are not 9-18 in their past 27 matches, a negative stretch that began ever since they suspended Jimmy Butler III.
Then, after training their main star off to Golden State in exchange for Andrew Wiggins and company, Miami have lost a league-high 11 times this campaign after leading during three quarters of the game. This record already stands for the third most in franchise history.
The South Beach squad have lost nine times after leading by at least 15 points, with three of these games occurring in a nine-day span. “In terms of our spirit, we’ll be fine,” Erik Spoelstra explained postgame. “We just have to forge ahead. You have to forge.
The Heat coach then added: “Sometimes you get tested. Sometimes you get tested in a way that you don’t want to be tested in this league. And you can fold the tent, or you just keep on forging and forging and forging. And that’s what our group is going to do.”
The Heat are now the first team to lose seven contests after holding double-digit fourth-quarter leads since the Grizzlies did seven years ago. “We’ve just got to find a way to get ourselves out of this hole,” shared guard Tyler Herro. “This isn’t fun for anybody. It’s a tough time right now. But we’re staying with it. We’ll figure this out.”
