Heat drop eighth in a row, 116-95 loss in New York giving Spoelstra longest skid of his career

NEW YORK – It might get worse for the Miami Heat, but it hasn’t ever been worse for Erik Spoelstra, with the Heat’s eighth-consecutive loss now the longest losing streak of his 17-season coaching career.

How bad has it gotten with Monday night’s 116-95 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden?

This is the longest Heat losing streak since they went 15-67 in 2007-08.

It is only the second time the New York Knicks have swept the season series in the Heat’s 37 seasons and the first time since 1992-93.

And it came after blowing yet another double-digit lead, albeit this one almost immediately frittered away after it was built early.

Spoelstra opened his postgame media session with, “I’m not going to go on a rant, my message will be to the team.”

But he nonetheless had a message for the microphones.

“We’re all getting tested, including myself,” he said, “There’s no one absolved from this. I have not come up with answers for my team. I have to do a better.

“We have to put our feet in the dirt and hold our ground. We have to take strides.”

At 29-39, the Heat not only stand three losses from a losing season with a month left in the regular season, but also with the looming reality of not only having to start the play-in round from the bottom of that sordid subset of the standings, but having to take on that challenge solely as a road team.

By design or not, the lottery looms.

“We have not come up with solutions and we have pretty much tried everything,” Spoelstra said. “This has been one of the biggest challenges of a regular season that I’ve been part of.”

Yes, Duncan Robinson scored 22 and Tyler Herro 20, and yes Jaime Jaquez Jr. grabbed 12 rebounds . . . and none of it mattered, with the Knicks the latest playoff-level opponent to swat aside the Heat.

For their part, the Knicks got a triple-double from Josh Hart as well as 28 points from Mikal Bridges and 23 from Karl-Anthony Towns, with hardly even those numbers required.

Five Degrees of Heat from Monday night’s game:

1. Game flow: The Heat led 29-18 after the first quarter and 49-47 at halftime.

And then the Heat reverted to the worst of the Heat, outscored 41-15 in the third period, down 88-64 going into the fourth.

That left the Heat outscored 70-35 over the middle two periods.

“Once the game turned, I think the history of some of the last three weeks started to seep in,” Spoelstra said.

Combined with Saturday night’s 125-91 loss in Memphis and last week’s 119-104 home loss to the Clippers, it left the Heat with their third no-show in their last four games, with even Friday night’s mostly competitive home game against the Boston Celtics turning into a 103-91 loss.

“We’re letting people score,” center Bam Adebayo said. “That should never be a Miami Heat team.”

2. Another spin: Spoelstra again realigned his lineup, this time partly out of necessity, partly out of the matchups.

With Andrew Wiggins out due to a leg contusion,  Jaquez was back in the starting lineup.

And with the Knicks opening small, Haywood Highsmith opened in the power rotation in place of Kel’el Ware.

The lineup did its job early, moving to a 13-point lead. But it was the rest of the rotation that fell flat, the Heat losing all of that lead by the midpoint of the second period after opening that quarter with a lineup of Kel’el Ware, Kyle Anderson, Terry Rozier, Donovan Mitchell and Robinson.

Not even rushing back Adebayo was enough to stop the Knicks’ surge, with Adebayo eventually closing with 12 points and seven rebounds.

From there? An avalanche.

“It’s frustrating,” Jaquez said. “We’re going through the dark days right now.”

3. Back at it: A game after his streak of regular-season games scoring in double figures was snapped at 88 in Saturday night’s loss in Memphis, Herro bounced back with 10 points in Monday night’s first quarter.

Herro was up to 16 points at halftime, including a second-period dunk.

He then stood at his 20 points through three quarters, watching from there.

“We’ve just got to figure out how to sustain,” Herro said. “We have to dig ourselves out of this hole. It all starts in this locker room.”

4. Outside story: Well beyond making a case for any type of over-the-top success, the Heat were one for all and all for nothing with their 3-point shooting.

After a Robinson third-quarter 3-pointer moved him to 4 of 7 from beyond the arc, the rest of the roster stood 0 for 8, with no teammates with more than two attempts to that stage.

The rest of the roster then moved to 0 for 13 from beyond the arc through three quarters.

The Heat’s first non-Robinson 3-pointer came from Pelle Larsson with 3:22 to play.

The Heat closed 6 of 23 on 3-pointers, with Robinson 5 of 9. The Knicks shot 16 of 34 from beyond the arc.

5. Up next: The Heat now return home for their second five-game homestand of the month.  Whether that matters remains to be seen, with the Heat 0-5 on their previous such homestand, which ended with Friday night’s loss to the Celtics.

The Heat are 15-17 at home this season.

“We want the fans to get something out of this,” Adebayo said.

The upcoming homestand features the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night, the Houston Rockets on Friday night, followed by games against the Charlotte Hornets, Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks.

The Warriors game will mark Jimmy Butler’s return after his Feb. 6 trade.