The Miami Heat suffered a 111-92 loss to the Dallas Mavericks at home on Wednesday, and Jimmy Butler did not make as much of an impact on the game as fans or head coach Erik Spoelstra would have liked, scoring 12 points on eight shots with four rebounds and three assists.
“We all understand how important it is to get Jimmy going. Our team understands it, Jimmy understands it, head coach understands it,” Erik Spoelstra said, via Zach Weinberger of ClutchPoints. “Some nights like this you’re just going to have to figure out a way to get it done and he’ll muster up what he needs to do down the stretch, but we can never get it to that point.”
Spoelstra went into the gameplan for the Heat to try to get a win against the Mavericks, saying that they tried to muck it up and make it a close game for Jimmy Butler to take over and win the game in the last few minutes. However, the Mavericks just got off to too big of a lead in the first half, and the game got away in the second half.
“I wasn’t expecting this to be a 140-point game from us, it was going to have to be in the mud,” Spoelstra said, via Weinberger. “Somehow keep this thing back and forth through three-and-a-half quarters and then our guys would find a way to will it. But they jumped out on such an early lead in that first half, the rest of the game we just spent fighting back to get it closer. We got it to eight, then all of a sudden boom it was 13 before you blink.”
It is tough to keep a Mavericks team that features Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving in check. Luka Doncic was the leading scorer with 29 points, while Kyrie Irving scored 25. Dallas outscored Miami 33-24 in the first quarter, then 36-23 in the second quarter to take a 69-47 lead at halftime. As Spoelstra mentioned, the Heat cut the Mavericks’ lead to eight at one point, but never could get close enough.
Heat’s outlook heading into postseason
With the Heat losing to the Mavericks, it seems likely that Miami will be in the NBA Play-In Tournament. The Heat currently sit at 44-36, which is good for eighth in the Eastern Conference. They are one game back of the Philadelphia 76ers for seventh place, and two games back of the Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic for fifth and sixth place, which are the final spots to bypass the play-in tournament.
Miami has two games left this season, both at home against the Toronto Raptors. The Heat will need to win the remaining two games and get some help from others to make the top six and avoid the play-in tournament.
More must-reads: