LOS ANGELES — The Miami Heat have surprisingly struggled out of the gate to start the 2026-27 regular season. Erik Spoelstra's club had lost five of their seven games coming into Wednesday night's contest against the LA Clippers, and desperately needed a win on what was the first night of a back-to-back set.
Spoelstra's team was able to come out victorious, but needed overtime and a Klay Thomson game-winner to seal the deal. A roster led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bam Adebayo, and Klay Thompson was expected to start their season off in better fashion, and their struggles have drawn parallels to another situation Erik Spoelstra found himself in 16 years ago.
Back in 2010, when the Miami Heat signed LeBron James and Chris Bosh to form the Big Three with Dwyane Wade, the team struggled out of the game by winning just nine of their first 17 games and facing a three game losing streak one month into the season.
Back then, Spoelstra was in his third year as head coach of the Heat after being promoted within the organization. So are there any similarities to that Heatles team that also struggled out of the gate? Spoelstra said that Heat legend Dwyane Wade was actually present at Heat shootaround this morning to discuss it with the team's stars.
“Dwyane came by today and he was talking about it with Bam, Giannis and I,” Spoelstra revealed to ClutchPoints ahead of Wednesday night's game. “That year, we started 9-8, but it was different. Different challenges. That team was a spectacular defensive team from day one and we had to go through a lot of really tough, uncomfortable things offensively to get everybody on the same page and to unlock that season.
“And that wasn't the only time we struggled. After we went 9-8, then we won 21 out of 22, but then I reminded Dwyane that I was way more uncomfortable heading into the playoffs because we were playing great basketball, we had a home-stand about a month before the playoffs started. And we lost five straight home games heading into that playoff stretch. So each season is different, you have to manage whatever comes your way, stick to your process, quiet the noise, and get to work to try to improve regardless of the team or whatever's happening with them.”
That Heat team was ultimately able to figure things out en route to an NBA Finals appearance and a loss in six games against Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks.
The following offseason featured even more changes, as Miami fully shifted into LeBron James running the offense, which was a key to the Heat winning back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013.
Article Continues Below“It's different,” Spoelstra reiterated after the Heat's 117-116 win over the Clippers. “And I know people would love to compare the teams. That team was a great defensive team from day one. We were electrifyingly fast and playmakers and put pressure on teams. We were winning games with our defense and it was clunky offensively. And we had to really work at that. Like I said, some of the offensive things, even if our guys don't necessarily feel like it's really smooth, we've put up some big numbers in some of the games. There's some things that have gone a lot better early offensively for us than maybe we anticipated.
“But this is a different feel. But it is what it is. This is how our season started. Our defense has been poor and we've paid the price for it and now we have to dig ourselves out of this hole and build this defense. And do it day after day after day. It's not like the challenge automatically becomes easy tomorrow.”
Having won three of their last four games now, the Heat will travel to San Francisco to take on the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night. It'll be the return of Klay Thompson to his old stomping grounds and a chance for Miami to create a two-game winning streak.