Is Heat's Erik Spoelstra on hot seat?

MIAMI -- With the Heat looking to eliminate the Knicks from the first round of the playoffs Wednesday night, some are asking whether the team will eliminate Erik Spoelstra from his head-coaching job if it doesn't win the NBA title this season.

Miami fans are annoyed the Heat couldn't sweep the injury-riddled Knicks and will be hosting them for a Game 5. The way some see it, the Heat has so much talent with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh that a paper plate should be able to coach them to a championship.

James doesn't think that is the case, and Tuesday he gave his coach a ringing public endorsement. "Spol is a great coach, man," James said. "He puts us in a position to win games every night. He has us prepared every single night. We're never blindsided by anything when we go out on the floor."

Among the coaches of the top six seeds in each conference, only Spoelstra didn't get a single vote in the Coach of the Year voting. Spoelstra, however, said he doesn't pay much attention to what those outside the organization think about what he is doing.

"I really don't care, and that's not a throwaway statement," Spoelstra said. "I've been here for 17 years and I'm very grateful for this opportunity to coach this team and the opportunity we have with this group now in our second year. That's all I'm thinking about is hopefully this journey for the next six weeks. But there's so much to possibly distract you."

Wade said Tuesday, however, there are people out there who wouldn't be happy unless the Heat finished the regular season undefeated.

"With everything that happened last summer, Spol is expected to win," Wade said. "It's actually tougher to coach all us guys together than it is apart. Give him a lot of credit. Give the guys a lot of credit to put their egos aside. It's not the easiest thing to do in sports, but from the outside looking in, it looks easy."

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It didn't look that easy in the final seconds of the Game 4 loss to the Knicks. Spoelstra's decision to give Wade the final shot, while leaving James alone in the corner, remained a big topic of conversation among the media here.

Spoelstra said it's not only the last play that lost the Heat the game.

"We understand the decibel level will increase anytime you lose, but we have to stay true to our own reality," he said. "We had an open play on that drive. We've seen Dwyane Wade make those plays time and time again over the years. It was a pretty good opportunity."

Now, the Heat has another opportunity to put the Knicks away. And one gets the feeling that the Heat is looking to do more than win: It's looking to make a statement.

Said Spoelstra: "We're concentrating on us and making sure we have the best performance of the series tomorrow."