Erik Spoelstra, very hard on himself after Miami Heat's last defeat: "I made a very serious mental mistake at the end"

Erik Spoelstra blamed himself for a "horrible mistake" after calling a timeout that the Miami Heat didn't have, with only 1.1 seconds left in overtime. This decision resulted in a technical foul, giving the Detroit Pistons the free throw that broke the tie. Malik Beasley made the shot, and the Pistons won 123-121 on the opening night of the NBA Cup.

“I made a very serious mental error at the end,” confessed Spoelstra. “It's my fault. I feel terrible about it.” The Heat held a 121-119 lead after Tyler Herro's basket with 1.8 seconds left. However, after a timeout, the Pistons flawlessly executed an inbound play, where Cade Cunningham lobbed a pass that Jalen Duren dunked.

Immediately after, Spoelstra walked onto the court visibly upset and called for another timeout, although the team had none left. “There really is no excuse for that,” Spoelstra said. “I've been in this for 17 years. We had discussed it during the timeout, I knew we had none left. I just emotionally reacted and made a horrendous mistake at the end. It’s a shame.”

Spoelstra, a two-time NBA champion, was an assistant on the USA team that won Olympic gold this summer and was selected in the NBA.com GM survey as the league's best coach with 69% of the votes. However, on Tuesday, he made a rookie mistake that overshadowed Herro's brilliant performance, scoring 40 points, including 10 three-pointers.

“You don’t want it to end on a mental mistake like that,” Spoelstra said, pausing for a long moment. “Yes, I would have loved to see this go into double overtime. It was that kind of game. It deserved to go into a second overtime, without anyone interrupting it, and unfortunately, even being a veteran coach, I was the one who interrupted it.”

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Erik Spoelstra, durísimo consigo mismo tras la última derrota de Miami Heat: "Cometí un error mental muy grave al final"