The Miami Heat don’t resemble a team sitting atop the Eastern Conference. They’ve lost two straight to undermanned teams, dropped four of their last seven and their grip on the top spot is at risk of slipping away.
Based on last night’s confrontations during a third quarter timeout against the Warriors, the players are all too aware of their predicament.
Golden State opened the quarter with a 19-0 run so Erik Spoelstra called a timeout to settle his team down. The timeout only made matters worse with Spoelstra and Udonis Haslem getting into an argument with Jimmy Butler.
A fan was able to pick up the interaction on the bench where Spoelstra is seen taking exception to something said by Butler. He asks Butler “do you want me to fu**ing fight you?” before Haslem starts repeating “I’ll beat your ass”.
Bam Adebayo then corrals Haslem with a bear hug while Dewayne Dedmon walks Butler away from the huddle in an attempt to calm him down. Spoesltra however remains unrestrained and fired up, slamming his clipboard onto the court (props to PJ Tucker for picking it up) and getting into a shouting match with Butler.
The arguing continues with Kyle Lowry telling Butler to calm down and regular Heat hothead Markieff Morris forced to hold back his coach.
To their credit, the Heat bounced back after the timeout and reduced the Warriors lead to just one point by the end of the quarter. Golden State however outscored Miami 37-24 in the last quarter en route to a 118-104 win.
Spoelstra was quick to downplay the confrontation in his post-game interview.
The Heat are back in action on Friday at home to the New York Knicks.
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