Heat’s Erik Spoelstra drops ‘sobering’ take on defensive woes: ‘I’ve never been a part of something like this’

With the Miami Heat preparing for the play-in tournament, the team has two games before Friday night’s game against the Washington Wizards. While the Heat’s injury woes continue ahead of the postseason, the team is still reeling after another painful loss to the Toronto Raptors on Thursday, 128-114, garnering an honest reaction from head coach Erik Spoelstra.

This marks Miami’s 10th loss in its last 13 games, and back-to-back losses in Toronto, where they looked virtually outmatched in many aspects. The Raptors have swept the Heat in the season series, joining the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic to do so, making Miami 0-13 against the three teams.

At this point of the season, these types of outings are demoralizing as Spoelstra echoes the same sentiment, calling it a “sobering” loss where even he admits after the loss that he doesn’t “have the answers right now.” If there’s one aspect that continues to be surprising, it’s the team’s defense, which has been a top-10 unit all season until the last stretch of the season, which even has Spoelstra perplexed.

“I’ve never been a part of something like this,” Spoelstra said, via the team’s YouTube page. “It’s about committing to doing really tough things in this league. Each night is a great challenge, and it’s not easy to defend in this league. And I can’t explain it. We had way more months of good habits than what we’ve seen the last three weeks.”

The Heat’s defense has been trending downward for some time 

Looking at the Heat’s defensive downturn, the team was ranked fourth in the NBA in defensive rating, but these last 13 games have easily been the worst stretch of the season, as they’re now 12th.

Since March 14, Miami has been ranked 27th in defensive rating, further showing how disappointing they’ve been on that side of the ball, one where the team usually hangs its hat on and has been a top-10 unit for the last handful of years. At any rate, Miami has two games left in the regular season to end on a high note before the play-in tournament begins.

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