The Heat entered Wednesday’s game against the Warriors having lost three of their past six games, which qualifies as a cold spell for the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed. Trailing at home against a Golden State squad missing Stephen Curry, tempers boiled over between coach Erik Spoelstra and guard Jimmy Butler—though Spoelstra’s version of events afterward suggested the incident was water under the bridge.
“Everybody was wondering where the dinner plans were tonight after the game,” Spoelstra joked when asked about what happened during the altercation. “It was pretty clear. We have a very competitive, gnarly group and we were getting our asses kicked. Two straight games, we’re not playing to the level we want to play, and I would say virtually every single person in that huddle was pretty animated about our disappointment in how we were playing.”
