Winderman’s view: Heat’s Spoelstra vents prior to loss in Atlanta about Kings coaching move

ATLANTA — Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday’s 120-110 loss to the Atlanta Hawks:

– Typically emotion can be difficult to muster for an afternoon game.

– Prior to Saturday’s tipoff, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra joked about the potential need for another cup of coffee.

– But he was plenty caffeinated when asked about the Kings’ Friday decision to dismiss coach Mike Brown less than two years after Brown led Sacramento to the playoffs and was named NBA Coach of the Year.

– For Spoelstra, this was personal.

– “I texted with him last night,” Spoelstra said. “It’s just a really sad state of our profession. It seems like I’m making comments about coaches far too often. Somebody on our staff mentioned that it was almost 15 coaches in Sacramento since I’ve been head coach.”

– Spoelstra is in his 17th season as Heat coach.

– “They’ve had some really good head coaches come through there,” Spoelstra continued. “Mike and I go all the way back to the beginning. We were both video coordinators. He’s a great coach. What they did there is really hard to do. If you’ve been losing for 15, 20 years since Rick Adelman was there, and to change the culture and make the playoffs – you stick with it.”

– With that, Spoelstra again offered appreciation for his coaching longevity, as well as disdain for organizations that don’t allow such allowances.

– “Some of our best moments have been when we’ve lost or we struggled with things and you all get in a room, and basically the organization says,  ‘Figure it the F out. There are no changes,’” Spoelstra said. “So I feel for Mike having to go through that. He was the same guy who was Coach of the Year less than 24 months ago. This league is hard. You have to go through adversity together as an entire organization, if you’re going to break through and get to the other side. But, yeah, that sucks.”

– Spoelstra stayed with the opening lineup of Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo, Haywood Highsmith, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Duncan Robinson for the third consecutive game, with Jimmy Butler missing his fourth consecutive game.

– The appearance was the 100th of Jaquez’s regular-season career.

– Lacking Dyson Daniels, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Onyeka Okongwu among others, the Hawks opened with a lineup of Zaccharie Risacher, Jalen Johnson, Clint Capela, Vit Krejci and Trae Young.

– Spoelstra then went for youthful size in his first substitution, with Nikola Jovic and Kel’el Ware entering together as the first two off the Heat bench.

– Terry Rozier followed shortly thereafter.

– With Alec Burks making it nine deep.

– And Pelle Larsson in the second period making it 10 deep for the Heat.

– Saturday’s game presented an ultimate contrast in style, with the Heat coming off an 89-point performance in Thursday’s victory in Orlando and the Hawks coming off a 50-point fourth quarter in their Thursday victory over the Bulls.

– “Our game isn’t necessarily – it’s definitely not – playing in the 80s,” Spoelstra said. “But sometimes you just have to do whatever you have to do. And on the road, it really just becomes about that, rallying around each other and figuring it out.”

– He added pregame, “Atlanta’s playing better lately. We know they can put points on the board. You have to respect that. But we have some things that we do well, as well.”

– Herro extended his career-best streak of games scoring in double figures to 59. His previous high was 38 in a row.

– Adebayo recorded the 207th double-double of his career, now past Alonzo Mourning (205) for second on the Heat all-time list. Only Rony Seikaly (221) has more.

– The game opened the Heat’s sixth of the Heat’s 15 back-to-back sets this season, to conclude Sunday in Houston. The Heat go into Sunday 3-2 on the second nights of such pairings.

– Asked about the Heat pregame, Hawks coach Quin Snyder said, “They’re tough. They defend. They really, offensively, within the execution, they’re great at making reads and finding each other. I think for us you’re always cautious of preparing against them.”