Heat's Erik Spoelstra Takes Blame for Loss to Pistons After 'Serious Mental Error'

Erik Spoelstra made a drastic mistake in the waning moments of the Miami Heat's loss to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday.

Up two points with just over one second to play, the Heat gave up an easy lob that allowed the Pistons to even things up at 121 apiece. After the basket, Spoelstra called a timeout without realizing he didn't have any left, sending Detroit to the free-throw line where it won the game.

After the loss, Spoelstra took ownership of the mistake, claiming his emotions got the best of him after a disappointing sequence on defense.

"I just made a serious mental error there at the end. That's on me," he said. "I feel horrible about it. There's really no excuse for that. I'm 17 years in, we had talked about it in the huddle, I knew that we didn't have anything. I just got emotional and reactive on that and I just made a horrendous mistake there at the end... You don't want it to come down to a mental error like that. You just would have liked to see this go double-overtime. That's the kind of game it felt like.

The ending of the game took away from what was otherwise an exciting matchup as Miami's Tyler Herro dropped 40 points in the overtime loss. Spoelstra described the game as one that felt like "it deserved to go to double OT."

The Heat dropped to 4-6 with the loss, simultaneously dropping their first game in the NBA Cup. Miami will get the chance to bounce back in another NBA Cup matchup against the Indiana Pacers on Friday.