Story byIra Winderman, South Florida Sun-SentinelSun, December 7, 2025 at 2:43 PM UTC·4 min readMIAMI — Shunned when it came to scheduled national-television appearances and derided as no more than another iteration of the play-in Miami Heat, Erik Spoelstra’s team spent the early portion of the season demanding the NBA take notice. The scoring was off the charts. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe pace was at a heretofore unseen level. Most teams in the Eastern Conference were looking up in the standings. Now the league has taken notice. And now it has gotten real, all too real. In falling for the fourth time in five games on Saturday night against the Sacramento Kings, the Heat again found an opponent determined to put a pause on their pace.“If you develop an identity after 20 games, the league scouts you. So they’ll put together a game plan,” Spoelstra said, with his team exiting the loss to the Kings at 14-10 and back in the play-in portion of the East standings. “But if you’re doing something well, then you have to put more effort, more intention, more detail in doing it. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“And that’s what the really good teams figure out.
