The theme over the weekend has been constant with the Miami Heat and around the Miami Heat: Winning is not easy.

Prior to his team’s upset victory over the Heat on Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, as he still was accepting congratulations on his 1,000th career victory two nights before, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle reflected on words shared by late Hall of Fame coach Chuck Daly, about all the forces that needed to be overcome to produce a single NBA win.

Hours later, after his team’s 123-99 loss to the team with the NBA’s worst record, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra amplified the theme.

“Every team goes through it,” Spoelstra said of his team’s struggles in Indiana and the loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves to open the trip on Tuesday night, with neither game particularly competitive. “You know, look what’s going on at both conferences, except for the teams, the handful of teams at the top.

“Everybody else is trying to figure out the consistency. And we’re in that boat, too. You know, we’re trying to figure it out.”

And, with that, it was off to Oklahoma City, for Sunday night’s game against the defending-champion Thunder at Paycom Center.

And even there stood the league-leading Thunder, a team coming off a 6-6 stretch after a start to the season that had them on a record-win pace — with no less than Thunder coach Mark Daigneault the past week stressing about having to meet moments of adversity over the 82-game schedule.

“There’s times in the NBA season where the wind’s in your face, and there’s times when the wind’s at your back,” he said. “When the wind’s in your face, you’ve got to endure.”

Despite standing at far different places in the standings, with the Thunder at the top and the Heat again in the play-in bracket entering the night, Daigneault in many ways sounded like Spoelstra.

“We’ve gained strength,” Daigneault said, “by taking those punches at other points in the season, and we’ve got to gain strength from how we respond to this.”

Jaquez back

Saturday’s loss marked the return of sixth man Jaime Jaquez Jr. from a two-game absence due to an ankle sprain. Jaquez scored 16 in the loss to the Pacers, the only Heat reserve with more than eight points.

Spoelstra noted the spark provided by Jaquez.

“Yeah, not just for the second unit, but particularly how we play right now,” Spoelstra said. “We really do need his attacking nature, his ability to get into the paint. When he’s not there, our paint numbers went way down. And that’s not a coincidence. But he’s really improved a lot of the aspects of his game.

“But more so than just like the specifics of the game, it’s his competitive spirit and nature and toughness that just fits right in with us.”

Jaquez had been listed as questionable with a stomach illness before being cleared just prior to Saturday night’s game.

Coaching hierarchy

With Carlisle stepping down as president of the National Basketball Coaches Association, Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff has taken over that role, with Spoelstra standing as the organization’s lead vice president.

“That is a monumental task,” Spoelstra said of Bickerstaff stepping forward. “J.B. is a great choice for that position.

“I do want to serve and give back. I would never be the right guy to be at the head of it.

That’s a big time commitment, but in any other way that I can help.”

Spoelstra, the next Team USA coach in the Olympic cycle, said he is appreciative of how he has endured in his profession’s hierarchy.

“Now I’m one of the older heads,” he said with a smile. “It’s strange to think of myself that way. The game has been really great to me and I want to give back in a way that makes sense.”