Still up, still upset. This will be the last and then I’ll force shutdown. U.D., another Recent Asshole, clearly said to Jimmy Butler when they started getting into it, “I’ll beat your ass, I’ll beat your ass” and did that U.D. point-at-the-eyes thing with his long sharp fingers, the same as he did to Dwight Howard a year or so ago.

Spoelstra and the, it’s important to note, non-involved players (Butler and Haslem didn’t speak to one another in the players-only huddle after the blow-up and neither addressed the media post-game.), Kyle, PJ, I think Bam although he was so masked and skullied I can’t be sure, all mouthed the lines they learned in “Keeping It In House” class, “gnarly bunch,” “competitive guys on this team,” “We’re brothers. We love each other,” “It’s sports. I’ve seen it everyplace I’ve been” (you haven’t seen it in Miami PJ! It has NEVER happened in the 305) is that enough? I think that’s a fair sampling of the curriculum. There are even those who argue that Pat Riley loves this, loves the fighting, the competitive fire, that it reminds him of Oakley, Mason and Starks. No he doesn't love it. That New York team didn't win and winning is all Riley cares about. Players get into a knife fight with each other and win, that's good; get into a knife fight and lose, unacceptable. When Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson had their bitch-slap fight during a game and Zo was ejected, as Zo walked past Riley to the locker room Riley said, "You just cost me a championship." Second, 601 Biscayne is as tight-lipped as the Kremlin. You do not air your dirty linen in public. Especially, you do not go after the head coach in public! Ask Hassan Whiteside about that part of the In House class curriculum. "I don't know my role; I don't like my minutes." Fined. They FINED him. If you get that question wrong on the In House class quiz you're kicked out of class. Butler flunked it tonight as no player ever has with the "Heat".   

 

This was a big deal.  

 

I don’t know what triggered it. The run, 13-0 at that point, but this quickly became a Spo-Jimmy mano a mano. It appeared to me in one angle that Butler something to the effect that it was Spoelstra’s fault whatever it was, because Spo placed both hands on his own chest and with a smile said something like “Me?”. But this wasn’t just about one incident or one sequence or one bad half quarter. This doesn’t happen over an isolated incident, not ALL that happened last night. There are things that clearly have been building over time. Last season Butler gave an interview and was asked about Spo and said “Things are not always great.” Spoelstra had not heard it before a reporter told him what Butler had said, he was clearly taken aback, and humbly responded that Butler had so much knowledge of the game and he learns so much from him.

This cannot be made palatable with the pablum of In House class, not at this time of year, not with nine games remaining, not with the “Nets” as an increasingly plausible first-round opponent, not with NYC Mayor Eric Adams exempting athletes and entertainers from the city’s vaccine mandate today, freeing Kyrie Irving. Here’s what a CBS writer wrote tonight:

The Miami Heat have gone from a near-lock to claim the East's No. 1 seed to being just one game up in the loss column on both the Bucks and Sixers, and just two on the Celtics, with nine games to play.

Miami has taken two disastrous losses over the past three days, first falling to the Sixers, who were playing without Joel Embiid and James Harden, before completely melting down against the Warriors -- who were without, among others, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.

…

However it works out, Miami has to get its act together.

When the act seems to be in danger of falling apart completely. This season has been a stellar one for the “Heat” but I type with much confidence: If the “Heat” go one-and-done in the playoffs this yearwill go down in Pat Riley’s “Heat” history as the most humiliating end to any season he has had. He wanted one last ride at building a roster that could win another title. And I think he thought he had it this season. The first 73 games reinforced his view. I have never bought that rosy view of this roster but who cares what I think. It’s probably what Riley thinks. And if this team implodes and goes out in the first round, what’s he going to do, try to flip Jimmy Butler and Duncan Robinson for a “whale”? Such a humiliating end may be the end of Riley’s ride in Miami. So finally, good night.