Erik Spoelstra’s Surprising Mistake in the Final Seconds Gifted the Pistons a Heat Win

The Emirates NBA Cup kicked off with fireworks on Tuesday thanks to a dazzling, uncharacteristic mistake from the sideline.

Erik Spoelstra and the Miami Heat found themselves in a dogfight in Detroit when they came back from a nine-point deficit in the final 1:32 of the game to head into overtime. The Pistons and Heat went back and forth in the overtime period where it felt like whoever had the ball last would win the game.

In the game tied with 1.8 seconds left, Pistons guard Cade Cunningham threw the ball towards the basket, while big man Jalen Duren jumped into the air and crashed into the alley. Spoelstra immediately ran onto the field and signaled a timeout in frustration.

The only problem was there were no breaks left in Miami.

“It was a really well-executed game and I made a serious mental mistake at the end,” Spoelstra told reporters as he struggled with emotions following Tuesday night’s tough defeat. “This is on me, I feel so bad about it. There’s really no excuse for this, I’ve been here 17 years. We talked about it during the meeting, I knew we didn’t have a break, I just got emotional and reacted to it and made a terrible mistake.”

Trailing by 18 points at one point, it’s miraculous that the Spoelstra Heat even managed to fight their way into overtime. But their impressive comeback was undone by an uncharacteristic error to end the game.

The Heat fall to 0-1 in NBA Cup play and have a chance to turn things around on Friday against the Indiana Pacers.