MIAMI — The breaking point came with the game there for the taking.
Within four points in hostile territory, having rallied from what had been a double-digit deficit, Erik Spoelstra’s team was positioned for a meaningful moment in Friday night’s fourth quarter at Madison Square Garden.
And then the Knicks, quite literally, snatched away the opportunity from the Heat, in what would result in a 140-132 Knicks victory.
A concern throughout what now stands as a 7-6 season, the inability to prevent offensive rebounds again proved costly. In that decisive final period, when 16 of the Knicks’ shots went up, New York secured half of the rebounds — eight defensive rebounds in the period for the Heat, eight offensive rebounds in the quarter for the Heat.
Game . . . with Spoelstra lamenting that enough is enough, as his team turned its attention to Monday night’s rematch at Kaseya Center.
“It’s costing us games now,” Spoelstra said of the game that included eight offensive rebounds, alone, by Knicks center Mitchell Robinson in his limited 14:08 of foul-filled action. “That’s where we are and we’ve said it enough, that we have to fix it. We’re being stubborn about it, the things that we need to do better. I think we’re fully — I feel like we’re fully — capable of doing it.
“Is it easy? Winning is not easy in this league. There were so many pop-up rebounds. Mitchell Robinson is phenomenal with what he does. But there were several, double-digit (distance) rebounds from 12 feet out that we could not secure. We were leaking out or not just going to get it. We were right next to it, probably a half-dozen bobbles, where we touch the ball, we don’t come up with it.”
This no longer was measured Spoelstra, at one point in his comments pounding the table he was speaking at.
“Look, we’ve said enough,” he said. “The staff, we’re going to get to work, we’ll find out what’s what. And we have to correct. But we feel that it’s fully in our ability to do it.
“And hopefully the pain of losing some of these games due to that will change our behavior. And I believe it will.”
This was not Spoelstra alone in a vent and a vow.
During Prime’s coverage of Friday night’s NBA games, former Heat captain Udonis Haslem, now a studio analyst, offered insight into the pains of the rebounding process for the Heat, including postgame contact with Heat center Kel’el Ware.
“Immediately after the game, I immediately texted Kel’el and I said, ‘Get all the film with Mitchell Robinson in the game, watch all the film, every offensive rebound he got on you, how he positioned himself early and pushed you under the basket,” Haslem said. “You can’t rebound if the ball is not in front of you. You have to have the ball in front of you if you want to rebound.
“And the first thing he said was, ‘You’re absolutely right. I’m going to get the film and it won’t happen again.’ I think he’ll be better the next game.”
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Ware, the lone center on a standard contract available Friday night, with Bam Adebayo missing a fourth consecutive game with a toe sprain, closed with 15 points and 10 rebounds, in a game Norman Powell led the Heat with 38 points.
But the loss wasn’t about the overall statistics, but rather the individual moments that turned the game, particularly the offensive rebounds.
“I think the game and our urgency defensively in the second half would have been good enough with better rebounding and taking care of the ball at key moments, at swing moments,” Spoelstra said.
With his players in agreement.
“If we get those 50-50 balls, like cut the (offensive) rebounds in half, then I think we win that game,” guard Davion Mitchell said.
Said forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., “We know what the problem is. It’s just accomplishing it is really the difficult part.”
Said Powell, “the second-chance opportunities, the 50-50 balls, those are hustle plays. That’s where they live, those relief points. Coach came in here after the game and was like, ‘We got to cut that in half.’ ”
And with that, a two-day break with the hope of a rebounding renaissance.
“We just kind of collectively have to do better,” Spoelstra said. “We understand what it is. So now we’re going to get to work. We just know what we have to correct. And it needs to be done.”
