Heat prepare for Knicks ‘desperate to our souls’ to snap seven-game losing streak

NEW YORK – The Culture uniforms were packed away for the season before the turn of the calendar. The team’s touchstone motto of “Hardest-working” was scrubbed from the team’s City Edition court before the start of the season.

But Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra insists the ethos remains, even at times such as these, with his team carrying a seven-game losing streak and 29-38 record into Monday night’s game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

“Enough has been said in the locker room,” Spoelstra said after Saturday night’s 125-91 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies at the start of this two-game trip, the Heat’s most-lopsided road loss of the season. “But we have a certain standard of how we expect to play and compete and we did not meet that standard (Saturday). When we meet that standard, it doesn’t mean that we’re going to win. Obviously we’re struggling to figure out how to win games.”

During the losing streak there have been competitive losses to elite teams, as well as a home overtime loss to the Knicks two weeks ago before the start of the skid. But two of the past three losses have been lopsided defeats largely settled early, when also factoring in Wednesday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

That has had the locker room turning introspective.

“We’ve addressed it as a team,” forward Kyle Anderson said, “and we’ll figure it out.”

All with a ticking clock, now 15 games to play in the regular season and the struggle for seeding in the play-in round at stake.

“It can be tough sometimes, but you’ve got to be a competitor,” forward Andrew Wiggins said. “You just got to go out there and fight until you can’t fight no more.

“I think it’s the whole team doing it collectively and trying to figure it out together. We figure it out and once we get over the hump, we know we’re going to be right there.”

For Spoelstra, it is a delicate balance, trying to pick up these pieces after forward Jimmy Butler tossed a grenade in the locker room with his pouty play, suspensions and eventually forcing of his trade to the Golden State Warriors.

This in no way is the roster Pat Riley or the front office anticipated going into the season. This is not the lack of support envisioned for Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo.

So it’s not as if Spoelstra can demand more from a team that arguably features less than not only almost every recent opponent, but also every impending opponent.

“We focus on the process,” Spoelstra said. “It is said often, and it can be a cliche, but in these moments there’s no stronger truth than you have to stick to a process. We have a process that we’re trying to build the necessary habits. None of us are taking this for granted. The vets that have been in our locker room for a long period of time, this is humbling. And we’re left with this reality of how difficult it is to win one game.

“We’re desperate to our souls to collectively figure out how to win one game. And that’s where we are right now. Yeah, we have to balance all of it, and there’s a standard that we have to hold. There’s also our spirit that we have to keep staying the course, and also finding collective joy through this process. All of that. All if it matters right now.”

With perhaps nothing mattering more than a win, something the Heat have not had since defeating the league-worst Washington Wizards on March 3.

“A thing that would solve a lot of it would be getting just an incredible effort collectively to win one game,” Spoelstra said. That would put smiles on a lot of our faces.”

Something so elemental, and yet, at the moment, something so elusive.

“It’s not like the season’s over. We still got a lot more basketball to play and sometimes I think you’ve just got to take a step back and have a different perspective,” Anderson said.

“Come back Monday hungry,  ready to compete and be willing to play for each other. I think a different approach like that should go well.”

Or, as Wiggins said, “We all want the same thing, to win, to see something positive.”