{"id":232749,"date":"2026-04-15T14:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T14:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/232749\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T14:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T14:09:14","slug":"spoelstra-says-hornets-ball-should-have-been-ejected-before-ending-miami-heats-season-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/232749\/","title":{"rendered":"Spoelstra says Hornets\u2019 Ball should have been ejected before ending Miami Heat\u2019s season | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said LaMelo Ball should have been ejected for tripping Bam Adebayo, leading to an injury that knocked the Heat\u2019s star center<\/a> out of Tuesday night\u2019s 127-126 play-in tournament loss to the Charlotte Hornets.<\/p>\n

Ball fell to the floor after missing a shot on a drive to the basket early in the second quarter, and appeared to reach out and grab Adebayo\u2019s left leg<\/a>, causing the center to fall on his back. Ball was not called for a foul, and Adebayo remained on the floor as play continued. He eventually walked to the locker room under his own power but did not return.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should have been thrown out of the game for that,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cThere is no place in the game for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adebayo did not speak to reporters after the game.<\/p>\n

Ball, who scored 30 points and made the go-ahead layup<\/a> with 4.7 seconds left in overtime, apologized for his role in Adebayo\u2019s injury but said he was disoriented because he had been hit in the head on the drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologize on that one,\u201d Ball said. \u201cI got hit in the head and didn\u2019t really know where I was. But I\u2019m going to check on him and see if he is OK and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he intentionally grabbed Adebayo\u2019s leg, Ball said he hadn\u2019t seen a replay and added, \u201cLike I said, I got hit in the head and didn\u2019t know where I was and was just playing basketball. But like I said, sorry, and I\u2019m going to check on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ball remained in the game and was not immediately checked for a concussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s cute, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s funny,\u201d Spoelstra said after the loss, which ended Miami\u2019s season. \u201cI think it\u2019s a stupid play. It\u2019s a dangerous play and obviously our best player was out. I\u2019m not making an excuse. The Hornets played great and made those plays down the stretch. We had opportunities to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a shame. He should be penalized for that. I don\u2019t think that belongs in the game, you know, tripping guys, shenanigans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Official Zach Zarba explained after the game why the play was not reviewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe play wasn\u2019t whistled in real time. Play continued with a fast break. And because play wasn\u2019t stopped immediately, and there was no whistle on the play, the window to review the play was closed,\u201d Zarba said. \u201cPlay was stopped, after a change of possession, and then a timeout. So, by rule, our window to review that play then is closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if Ball should have been assessed a flagrant foul, Zarba said, \u201cAt this point, that goes to league operations, and they\u2019ll make a determination on that in the coming days. So, they will make that determination and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Wiggins said seeing Adebayo go down was a \u201cgut punch\u201d for the Heat. \u201cTo lose the leader of the team, the captain of the team, seeing him go down was definitely tough and guys had to rally around that,\u201d Wiggins said.<\/p>\n

Despite the loss of Adebayo, who scored 83 points in a game last month<\/a>, Miami had a chance to win at the end of regulation, but Tyler Herro missed a three-pointer from the top of the key.<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s Davion Mitchell said he hadn\u2019t seen video of the play where Adebayo was hurt, but called it a \u201chigh-intensity game\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t grab nobody\u2019s ankle, but I grabbed somebody\u2019s shirt,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cI just think it was just a physical game because we were both fighting for our lives just to stay in. Obviously you don\u2019t want to see Bam get hurt, especially like that, but it was a physical game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said LaMelo Ball should have been ejected for tripping Bam Adebayo, leading to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-232749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}