There is also no shame whatsoever in Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s strong denial that his team has been yo-yoing recently because of fatigue. This is true, even his own players admit it, but it is part of a coach’s responsibility to push his team and not give them excuses to fall on. Not overreacting, positively or negatively, to bad games is usually a trait that works well for coaches.

Whether Spoelstra needed to go on another bizarre rant following the game — he’s been doing this more and more over the past couple of weeks, first becoming very demonstrative on the sideline during games and then attacking conspiracy theories, even ones that don’t seem to be known, in various news conferences — is another matter.

On this night, Spoelstra complained about the “storyline” that his team was fatigued and then went on a tirade about how the media was bored and predicted that in six or seven years reporters would be suggesting teams “shut it down after the All-Star break.” A story on ESPN.com on Friday suggested that with the Heat’s players showing some fatigue, perhaps the team should start giving their players some days off before the playoffs.

via Brian Windhorst of ESPN