Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra Gave Brutally Honest Assessment After Sweep by Cavaliers

The longtime Miami coach was blunt in his postgame press conference after his team's season ended mercilessly on Monday night.
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra gave a brutally honest assessment following the season-ending blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra gave a brutally honest assessment following the season-ending blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Miami Heat's season ended mercilessly as the franchise lost by 55 points on its home floor at the hands of the No. 1 seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.

The four-game sweep featured 37 and 55-point losses at home in consecutive games to end the season, which will undoubtedly leave a bad taste in coach Erik Spoelstra's mouth heading into the offseason.

"Damn it was humbling," Spoelstra began. "This series was humbling. These last two games were embarrassing. But Cleveland is also a very good team. We won whatever we won. They won 65. We're as irrational as we usually are thinking that we have a chance to win this series and they showed us why we weren't ready for that."

The Heat will go back to the drawing board with an important offseason ahead. It was a tumultuous year for Miami, dealing with a disgruntled star in Jimmy Butler before ultimately trading him to the Golden State Warriors at the deadline. Miami lacked a true No. 1 star during the second half of the season, but made the play-in tournament anyway and ended up with the No. 8 seed in the East.

Now Pat Riley, Erik Spoelstra and the rest of the organization will go back to work to try to close the gap in the East. Two years removed from an NBA Finals appearance, Miami doesn't seem close to returning any time soon.


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Mike McDaniel
MIKE MCDANIEL

Mike McDaniel is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where he has worked since January 2022. His work has been featured at InsideTheACC.com, SB Nation, FanSided and more. McDaniel hosts the Hokie Hangover Podcast, covering Virginia Tech athletics, as well as Basketball Conference: The ACC Football Podcast. Outside of work, he is a husband and father, and an avid golfer.