MIAMI, FL – The NBA announced today that Miami HEAT Head Coach Erik Spoelstra was named the NBA’s Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for February. This marks the fourth time Spoelstra has earned the monthly honor, the second-most in team history, and the 12th time a HEAT coach has won the award.
Spoelstra earned the accolades after guiding the HEAT to a league-best 12-1 (.923) record during February, winning nine of those games by double-figures, including seven-straight by double-digits from February 8 through February 23, marking the third-longest double-figure win streak in team history. Miami’s .923 winning percentage marks its highest February winning percentage in franchise history and its 12 wins tied for the fourth-most for any month in HEAT history. Their 12-1 February record marked their 19th consecutive winning month, the longest such streak in franchise history. Spoelstra led Miami to a perfect 6-0 record against the Western Conference, recording a +12.2 scoring margin over that span, and a perfect 7-0 at home. He led the HEAT to a 5-1 road record, winning each of those contests by double-figures, including wins at Oklahoma City, Chicago, Atlanta, Toronto and Philadelphia. Miami’s current 12-game winning streak is tied for the second-longest in franchise history and its 10-game home winning streak is the eight-best in team history.
Spoelstra, the 2013 NBA Eastern Conference All-Star head coach, led the HEAT to their 1,000th franchise victory on February 12 vs. Portland in their 1,969th game, becoming the ninth-fastest franchise to earn their 1,000th win. Then on February 14 at Oklahoma City, Miami never trailed in the contest as it captured a 110-100 win, sweeping the season-series against the Thunder and marking the seventh time this season the HEAT never trailed throughout an entire game.
Among league leaders, Miami currently ranks first in field goal percentage (.497), third in three-point field goal percentage (.391), third in margin of victory (+7.1), fifth in points per game (103.9), fifth in steals per game (8.65) and seventh in forced turnovers per game (15.5)