Tempers Flare In Miami Heat's Loss To Golden State

Erik Spoelstra, Jimmy Butler and Udonis Haslem involved in heated exchange

Frustration finally got the best of the Miami Heat. 

In the third quarter of their 118-104 loss to Golden State Warriors, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and forwards Udonis Haslem and Jimmy Butler were involved in a heated verbal exchange during a timeout. 

Center Bam Adebayo had to hold back Haslem from Butler. Spoelstra was disappointed by Butler, pointing his finger at him. 

“We have a very competitive, gnarly group and we were getting our [butts] kicked in two straight games where we were not playing to the level we wanted to play," Spoelstra said. "Virtually every single person in that huddle was pretty animated in our disappointment in how we were playing.”

The Heat have now lost two straight games against teams playing without their superstars. The Warriors sat Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. 

Here's what other Heat players had to say about the incident: 

Heat guard Kyle Lowry: “It was crazy, but it was passion. We’re in a situation where we have a lot of competitive guys and one being our biggest competitor is our head coach. Jimmy and UD are tough, competitive guys. It’s good to sometimes get some anger and frustration out, and just talk about it. We’re going to have situations that make people uncomfortable. At the end of the day as long as we’re comfortable and we figure it out, that’s all that really matters. As long as we’re still together, and we are.”

Center Bam Adebayo: “We’ve got passionate players on this team, coaches included. We are going to have those moments where things aren’t going right and we get frustrated and explode because we are so passionate and want to win that bad.”

“At the end of the day, we’re brothers. We’re going to get through this. This is us in practice. It just so happened it boiled up in the game. At practice we get to that point where it looks like we want to fight each other and get that bad, but it’s just the competitive nature that we have on this team.” 

Forward P.J. Tucker: “You put that [cameras] in the locker room, any NBA team, football team, any team. No. 1 in the East, finally got our team back. We got our butts handed to us two games in a row by teams that didn’t even have their starting players. That’s us figuring it out. Everybody. Emotions were hot. I said, ‘come on, let’s play’. We’re grown men, man. This is a part of the game. I haven’t been on any team that emotions didn’t run over some times. Get back together, everybody loves each other.”

“That’s what it is, it’s over. You said what you had to say, I said what I had to say. Alright, cool. Let’s play basketball. Play basketball.”