While the Miami Heat had uneven play against the San Antonio Spurs in the 107-101 loss, there were two players who had relatively frustrating games in Kel’el Ware and Nikola Jovic. As the Heat tried to maintain Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, there’s no denying that the two young stars had off nights, leading to head coach Erik Spoelstra coming to their defense.

Both Ware and Jovic were held scoreless on Thursday night as each even had a -20 and -13 on the floor, which were the two lowest recorded on the court. Spoelstra would go on to say that having these types of performances is “part of the evolution for young players” and that whatever the box score says, does the outing impact winning?

“That’s part of the evolution for young players,” Spoelstra said, according to The Miami Herald. “It’s all about, can you make your final box score number a positive and a positive in a big way. I just want everybody at least to be a neutral or positive. And you don’t want to be deep in the negative, whatever that may be on the plus/minus.”

Looking at Ware, who made his fifth straight start, missed all four shots from the field to go along with seven rebounds, three assists, a steal, and a block. He also had the difficult task of going up against the superstar in Wembanyama.

“It’s like OK, this is this type of game. This game is a little bit less fluid,” Spoelstra said. “Alright, how else can we make an impact on the game? For Kel’el, it might be 12 rebounds and three changed shots at the rim, playing with energy or whatever. Just whatever, just impact that unit where it’s a positive.”

Heat’s Erik Spoelstra on Nikola Jovic’s frustrating game 

With the Heat’s new and improved offense being one of the main storylines for the team this season, it doesn’t work without the players, especially the bench, which currently features Jovic. The 22-year-old only played 10 minutes the entire game and missed all five of his shots, along with one rebound and an assist.

“Niko, he had a great transition layup, and he missed his first layup,” Spoelstra said on Jovic. “And then that kind of changed his energy now for the rest of the game. It’s going to happen. That’s competition. It’s tough on the road. But now can you come away with 10 rebounds, three deflections, a couple great offensive ball movement plays where you help somebody else or drive, and then you just feel great about it because you contribute to a win.”

At any rate, Ware and Jovic look to bounce back on Sunday when the Heat take on the Los Angeles Lakers.