Miami’s “uneven” performance against the Spurs leads to honest recognition from Erik Spoelstra

Doc The Miami Heat tried to stop Victor Vembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night, the team would end up losing 107-1o1, snapping a three-game winning streak. As the main one The heat story surrounded their new and fast offensethe team has slowed down as a head coach Erik Spoelstra gave his honest thoughts on their performance.

Entering the game, Miami was first in the NBA in pace, recording 107.30 possessions in 48 minutes and as many as 131.5 points per game, the most in the league through four games. There was no denying that San Antonio came in motivated to slow the team down, especially succeeding in the third quarter as the Heat scored just 14 points.

“The bottom line is that we were kind of uneven all night” Spoelstra said, per The Miami Herald. “But there were two key possessions going down the stretch where they got offensive rebounds, and then both of those possessions ended in open threes. If we had gotten those rebounds, my experience tells me the game would have felt a little different in the last two minutes.

“So no matter how you get there, it’s about winning back-to-back games,” Spoelstra continued. “And there were those couple of winning plays and one or two more possessions that we could have stopped with one more rotation, one more effort. And then you just grind it out and get the win when you’re not playing well.”

Heat’s Erik Spoelstra talks new offense against Spurs

Although Bam Adebayo has blossomed for the Heat in the new system with 31 points and 10 rebounds, and Andrew Wiggins with 24 points, the team was a struggle to overcome in the second half. Despite starting the fourth quarter with a run that cut into the deficit, Miami scored 43 points in the second half, its fewest so far this season, as Spoelstra admitted that when it comes to a new offense, “it’s not always going to be easy.”

“It’s not about how many points we can put on the board,” Spoelstra said. “You have to give credit to their defense, they played well. When we got into the game, they were there. We missed some shots that could have changed things during the game. But it didn’t matter, we were there at the end.”

Either way, the Heat look set to bounce back against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.