Associated Press — MIAMI The Phoenix Suns added to Miami’s difficulties with a 118-105 victory on Monday night, handing the Heat their sixth consecutive loss. Eric Gordon scored 23 points off the bench, and Devin Booker scored 22 points. The Suns also added to what Miami was already experiencing.
The Suns, who are 8-2 in their last 10 games and have swept the Heat for only the second time in the last 17 seasons, had Kevin Durant score 20 points and Bradley Beal score 19 points for the Suns when they defeated the Heat. A second time was in the 2020-21 season, when Phoenix advanced to the NBA Finals.
Phoenix, which led by as many as 28 points and entered the final quarter with a 100-74 lead, had seven assists from Booker, seven assists from Durant, and seven assists from Beal. With one minute and thirty-three seconds remaining, the Suns, who are the poorest club in the NBA in terms of point difference in the fourth quarter, saw their lead slip to 115-105, but Miami did not score again.
Just two weeks ago, Miami was 24-16 and ranked sixth in the Eastern Conference. Jimmy Butler led the team in scoring with 26 points, which was a game-high for the team. After three games, the Heat are currently three games behind Indiana in the loss column for the sixth and final assured playoff berth. The Heat are currently 24-23 and are stuck in the play-in tournament zone.
Two of Miami’s players, Terry Rozier and Tyler Herro, each scored 21 points.
A seven-game losing skid is the longest for the Heat since a seven-game slide that occurred during the end of the 2007-2008 season. This is the first seven-game losing streak for Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. This particular squad, which concluded the season with a record of 15-67 and, to put it charitably, wasn’t exactly trying to win a lot of games, experienced four streaks of seven or more losses during that particular season.
Prior to that, the previous time a Miami team had a string of seven consecutive losses was at the beginning of the 2003–2004 season, when both Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem were just starting out in their careers. This particular club went on to advance to the semifinals of the Eastern Conference.
Despite losing seven games in a row or more, there have been a number of teams that have nevertheless managed to qualify for the playoffs. However, since Portland in 2016, none of those teams have gone on to win a series in the playoff standings. And no team has ever lost seven consecutive games in a season that went on to become a championship season; four teams that ended up winning the championship lost six games in a row on their road to winning the championship, with Dallas’s most recent loss coming in 2011 when they defeated Miami.