The Miami Heat suffered a tough loss to the Toronto Raptors 106-92 at Scotiabank Arena as they had to take on the Raptors without their superstar Jimmy Butler, who was ruled out leading to the game.
Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra sounded off following the loss in Toronto.
“We just did not respond well with their energy and a lot of it was just cuts, offensive rebounds, things at the basket. They were doing things with great force and we just did not meet them with the necessary force,” Spoelstra said, according to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.
The Heat have struggled following this season, dropping from one of the powerhouse teams in the Eastern Conference the last few seasons to now potentially having to play in a play-in tournament to reach to postseason.
“We just have to do a better job of it. We work at it, we drill it, we watch film on it, we talk about it. We just have to do it better and that’s the bottom line. It’s costing us opportunities to win. That’s painful enough. We’re capable of doing it. We’re one of the better rebounding teams in the league and we just have to get back to that,” Spoelstra said.
Miami is hopeful Butler can return quickly as they look to put themselves in a better position as the regular season comes to a close.
