Spoelstra Laments 'Horrendous Mistake' After Calling Timeout Heat Didn't Have In OT Loss To Pistons

Erik Spoelstra blamed himself for a “horrendous mistake” after calling a timeout Miami Heat didn't have with 1.1 seconds left in overtime Tuesday night, a technical foul that gave Detroit Pistons tiebreaking free throw.

Malik Beasley me it and Pistons went on to beat Heat 123-121 on opening night of NBA Cup play.

“I me just a serious mental error re at end,” Spoelstra said . “That’s on me. I feel horrible about it.”

Heat h a 121-119 le after Tyler Herro's basket with 1.8 seconds remaining. But after a timeout, Pistons ran a well-executed inbounds play, with Ce Cunningham throwing a lob pass that Jalen Duren slammed down.

Spoelstra quickly and angrily stormed onto court and motioned for a timeout.

“re’s really excuse for that,” Spoelstra said. “I’m 17 years in. We h talked about it in huddle, I knew that we didn’t have anything. I just got emotional and reactive on that and I me just a horrendous mistake re at end. It’s a shame.”

Spoelstra has won two NBA championships, was an assistant coach on U.S. team that won an Olympic gold medal this summer, and was overwhelming choice of executives who responded in NBA.com GM Survey as NBA's best coach, earning 69% of vote.

But he me a rookie mistake Tuesday that negated a brilliant performance by Herro, who scored 40 points and me 10 3-pointers.

“You don’t want it to come down to a mental error like that,” Spoelstra said, before a lengthy pause. “Yeah, you would have just liked to see this go double overtime. That’s kind of game it felt like. It deserved to go double OT and t have somebody get in way of that, and unfortunately even as a veteran coach I got in way of that.”