At home against Utah Jazz, it was a new loss, this time with the score 100–136. The result was remarkable for several reasons. The opponent Utah is this year one of the NBA league's absolutely weakest teams and the win was only Utah's eighth in 33 matches.
Despite this, they led for a while with a whole 43 points and were never close to being challenged by Miami. For the home team, the loss figures were the sixth largest since the club was founded in 1988 and the worst in almost exactly five years.
It's a disappointment when a player and an organization go up against each other in this way. We others must find a way to win matches, said team captain Bam Adebayo before the match.
He was referring to Miami's star Jimmy Butler, who is now suspended by the club for seven matches but will likely not play for Miami again. The club chose to suspend Butler after the star went out and said that he "lost the joy of playing for Miami" and now wants to switch clubs.
Butler, who was involved in the USA's OS gold in 2016 and led Miami to the NBA final in both 2020 and 2023, was intended to lead Miami this year as well and has so far this year averaged over 17 points. Before the season, Swedish basketball player Pelle Larsson's NBA dream also came true when he was selected and signed a contract with Miami after college play in the USA.
The Swede has, however, received less playing time in the last matches and in the loss against Utah, it was nine minutes of play and a total of one point for the Swede.
Corrected version: An incorrect year was previously stated at the end of the text.
