Assistant Chris Quinn Filling In For Miami Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra

Erik Spoelstra is out Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets for personal reasons

The Miami Heat will be without coach Erik Spoelstra for Saturday's game against the Brooklyn Nets at FTX Arena. 

The team announced it shortly before the game. Assistant Chris Quinn will replace Spoelstra on the bench. 

“Obviously it’s only been a few hours since I found out," Quinn said. "I’m not re-writing the book by any means. We have a system and culture in place. Moving over a seat is just keeping that moving in the right direction.”

Quinn said he will do his best to stand in place of Spoelstra. The Heat are on a three-game losing streak, falling to the Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors and New York Knicks. It was perhaps the Heat's worst stretch of the season because of all the losses came against teams playing without their best players. 

On Friday, they blew a 17-point, fourth-quarter lead against the Knicks. 

“Spo is a top 15 coach of all time," Quinn said. "Any time you have a mentor of that level, also with coach Riley around so much, mentors of that level. I’ve learned in my seven or eight years of coaching tremendously from Spo. It only makes sense that my voice sounds like him at this point.” 

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here