The Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons played a thriller to open up NBA Cup play on Wednesday night. Detroit led by 10 points with under four minutes left, but Tyler Herro hit three straight three-pointers to close the fourth quarter and help force overtime. In OT, Herro put the Heat up with a leaning bucket to give him 40 points on the night. That’s when things got weird.
The Pistons had 1.8 seconds left and trailed by two in OT after Herro’s make. Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff drew up a beautiful play out of the timeout, with Cade Cunningham throwing a backdoor lob to center Jalen Duren. It was executed perfectly to tie the game. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra ran onto the court to call timeout after the dunk, but there was only one problem: Miami didn’t have any timeouts left.
The Heat coach earned a technical foul, which gave the Pistons a free throw. Malik Beasley made it to win the game.
The Pistons beat the Heat, 123-121, in overtime thanks to Spoelstra’s brain fart. Watch the Pistons’ game-tying lob and Spoelstra’s phantom timeout here:
FULL SEQUENCE:
Cade Cunningham alley oops it to Jalen Duren with 1.1 seconds left to tie the game, Erik Spoelstra calls for a timeout but the Miami Heat has no timeout left. Technical foul, Pistons winpic.twitter.com/ym8tVM49lN
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod (@big_business_) November 13, 2024
Spoelstra is considered perhaps the best coach in the NBA. He’s led the Heat to two championships, and also reached the NBA Finals two more times with underdog teams. He’s brilliant in all aspects of coaching, but this is a mistake he’s not going to forget soon.
Spoelstra blamed himself for the loss after the game. This is about as dejected as you will ever see him.
Spoelstra holding in tears:
“No excuse for that. I’m 17 years in. We talked about it in the huddle I knew we didn’t have anything.
I got emotional & reactive on that. I made a horrendous mistake at the end. It’s a shame cause we really fought back.”
Heartbreaking ending pic.twitter.com/C9EmVGtzim
— Hot Hot Hoops (@hothothoops) November 13, 2024
When it comes to calling a timeout you don’t have in basketball, there’s only one person that comes to mind: Chris Webber. Webber famously called a phantom timeout in the 1993 national championship game between Michigan and North Carolina, and the Wolverines lost because of it. Oddly enough, Webber’s old college teammate Jalen Rose was in the building for the Pistons-Heat game.
His reaction to seeing Coach Spo call a phantom timeout was incredible. This man is seeing ghosts in real time:
Spoelstra triggered some deep-seeded PTSD in Rose. You hate to see it.
The Heat are still riding for Spoelstra after the loss. Herro — who finished with 40 points and 10 made threes on the night — gave his coach a vote of confidence after the loss:
The NBA Cup is fantastic.