Erik Spoelstra gives Kel’el Ware a harsh reality check after the game in the 2nd half
The Miami Heat have fallen off their torrid start to the 2025-26 season, dropping their 20th game of the 41-game campaign in a 119-114 loss to the Boston Celtics on Thursday night. It’s pretty concerning that the Heat are struggling more now that Tyler Hero is playing more regularly, and part of this may have to do with dropping out in the game with Kel’el Ware.
Ware appears to have hit a low of his 2025-26 season on Thursday night; he played in just nine minutes, all in the first half, and recorded just three points and one board. Warming up the head coach Erik Spoelstra hasn’t been very impressed with Ware’s play of late, and the second-year big man has landed in the doghouse.
After the game, Spoelstra explained his reasons for benching Ware entirely for the second half of their loss to the Celtics, which can be summarized because more Heat matches up better with their opponent.
“It’s a tough matchup for him. In Boston, with all the coverage. He’s just got to stay ready. With Kel’el, I know it’s a lightning rod thing. He’s got to get back to where he was, seven, eight weeks ago, where I and everybody in the building felt like he was putting his days together,” Spoelstra said, via Zachary Beintchatberger, reporter He.
“Now he stacks the days in the wrong direction.”
Erik Spoelstra talked about not playing Kel’el Ware a minute in the second half, credits the matchup and talked about wanting him to be where he was 7, 8 weeks ago when he had his good days.
He says he’s going the other way. #HeatNation pic.twitter.com/EKrdKSIf09o
— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) January 16, 2026
Is the heat unnecessarily hard on Kel’el Vare?
What makes coaching in the NBA so difficult is that there can be no winning in terms of how they handle certain situations. It’s certain that Spoelstra wants Ware to thrive; when he was posting dominant double-doubles and the Heat were winning, he must have been pleased with what he saw.
But Ware’s effort comes and goes, and as a 21-year-old big man, that motor has to stay on throughout the game, something that Spoelstra seems to want to drill into his mind.
2026-01-16 05:46:00
