Miami Heat Looking To Move Past Sideline Incident

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says everything is in the past

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is just ready to move on. 

After Wednesday's blowup during a loss to the Golden State Warriors, Spoelstra said it won't have a lingering effect. Spoelstra, Jimmy Butler and Udonis Haslem got into a heated argument while on the sideline. 

“It won’t (linger)," Spoelstra said. "We have bigger things to accomplish, but we do want to play better. Everything has to be better across the board. It starts with our leadership. Our veteran players have to lead. We just have to play better.”

The incident began with Haslem and Butler having words. Spoelstra intervened, siding with Haslem. 

“I know how it can probably look to the outside, but as I’ve mentioned before, that is more our language than playing without passion or toughness," Spoelstra said. "Everything that happened in that huddle, from then on when we cut the 19-point lead, that’s way more to our personality.”

Spoelstra has been here before and handled it well. In 2010, he was involved in "Bumpgate" when LeBron James bumped into him while walking to the sideline. At the time, the Heat were struggling but regrouped and advanced to the NBA Finals. 

“You can use moments during a season to catapult you," Spoelstra said. "You can galvanize together over frustration and disappointment. Teams can also go the other way, but I don’t see that with our group and our locker room. We have needed a kick in the butt from these two games. We had been playing very well before that. These two games were disappointing to everybody and that’s what you see. You see a competitive group that is not playing to the level or standards that we want to play at. Even with all the circumstances, it’s not like we come in here and say ‘whatever, we’ll get the next one’. That’s not how anybody in this building is wired.” 

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