MY ACCOUNT
Jimmy Butler criticised the Miami Heat’s complacency after they blew a 16-point lead in Saturday’s defeat to the Washington Wizards.
The Heat had won four straight games coming into Saturday’s trip to the capital, but that run has now been bookended by collapses.
Against both the Los Angeles Clippers (17 points) and the Wizards, Miami have led by double digits only to lose. Earlier this season, the Heat let leads of 12 and 11 slip to the Utah Jazz and the Brooklyn Nets respectively, although they rallied again to win on both occasions.
Of those four games, only the Utah victory was at home.
This latest setback was particularly painful due to the late nature of the collapse; the Heat had a 10-point lead with just over four minutes remaining but went down 103-100.
Miami were the victim of three fourth-quarter double-digit comebacks last season, and Butler is concerned the Heat – now 11-6 and behind the 11-5 Wizards in their division – are not dealing well with praise following a strong start.
“[The collapses are] probably because we stopped doing what we were doing to get those leads,” he said.
“We tend to get comfortable, and that’s a bad thing when you’re comfortable. You get complacent and you just think the games going to keep going that way.
“For us, at least, it doesn’t.”
Butler, who led Miami with 29 points, added: “When everybody’s giving you this praise all the time, you think you deserve it. You think you’re supposed to be talked about like that – and that’s not the case.
“This league is very humbling. It’s fragile, and just as soon as you think you’re good and you’re high on yourself, you get hit like this.
“I don’t think we should have lost this game. We did. You can say we’ll learn from it, we’ll go back to the drawing board. I’m hoping this is the last time that this happens, but I can’t guarantee that.”
