NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT VS. CELTICS

May 17, 2023

Erik Spoelstra

Miami Heat

Game 1: Postgame

Miami Heat 123, Boston Celtics 116

Q. At halftime what did you see from your team? What sort of 180'ed the game at that moment?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Games are long, so it's not like, you know, there's any kind of speech or anything at halftime. There was actually not a whole lot to be said. Our guys knew. Playing against a very good basketball team, and in the first half, we had 11 turnovers and they had 40 in the paint. I can't say that that's just all us. That's what they are capable of doing, if we are not really on top of our game.

We were fortunate that we were only down nine. They were about to break it open to 15 or more a couple times in the second quarter and we were able to hang on and battle and keep that thing under 10. I think that was really important. At least we came into halftime feeling that we could play a lot better, and the game was still right there.

We've been in a lot of these situations where we've had to battle back from deficits, even on the road. So we just started to chip away at it, and finally got the lead and were able to take control from there.

Q. Just like Game 1 of the Knicks, it was 40 in the paint in the first half and 20 in the second half. What do you guys keep adjusting at halftime?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Just mentality. This is who we try to be. But when I say it's easier said than done, it's easier said than done. They have got offensive firepower. They have spacing. They have guys that will break down your defense and collapse the defense. The turnovers definitely didn't help. We just shored up a little bit of stuff on both ends of the court. You have to compete a full 48 minutes, and we were able to do that.

Q. How much did Jimmy take control of the game in the second half, not only with the scoring, the kick-outs, the steals?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: All of it. That's well said, right? As one of the premier, if not the premier, two-way basketball players in this association, that's what we needed. We needed him to make some plays defensively. We needed him to also just be ball containment defensively. On the ball, off the ball, all that stuff. Settled us offensively. That's a big part of us not turning the ball over, is just having a place where you can throw the ball and get a bit more settled.

I think even the 11 turnovers in the first half is a little bit uncharacteristic for us. We were a little bit disjointed offensively in the first half, but also you have to credit them. They got us out of our normal stuff, even though we were able to score 57. And then down the stretch, Jimmy was able to just do everything we needed as a scorer or as a facilitator. He's willing to do both.

Q. Having said that, Kyle, in the second quarter, his shooting and leadership, and then in the third quarter, you were down 71-59, you pushed the pace and they seemed to have Jimmy, if there such a thing, a little bit neutralized. Talk about the others, and I use that term respectfully.

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Thank you for saying respectfully, because it's a collective effort.

Jimmy is not just about being a scorer. You see these gaudy numbers that everybody is putting up in the playoffs. Jimmy is defined by other things. He can find a way to impact the game on either side of the floor, even if he's not scoring. Kyle's production in the first half was just super important. That could have been a 15-, 20-point lead if he didn't have that kind of second quarter.

But everybody's got to contribute, and guys stepped up and made big plays on both sides. Defensively in the second half, there was a lot of guys putting their imprints on the game. Max had some really good stuff in the second half. Caleb, that's just what he's been doing now for several months. He just makes these timely, big-time winning plays, and we needed all of those.

Q. Only one team in NBA history has made it to the Finals as an eight seed --

ERIK SPOELSTRA: You're getting way ahead of yourself -- whatever.

Q. But the journey so far to get to this point is making history and doing those kind of things, is that something you guys embrace?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: No.

Q. Talk about? Fuel you? Anything like that?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: No.

Q. What Bam did for you, Williams got going early, their power game was sort of overwhelming, and it's almost as if Bam read the game, this is what I need to do against this matchup. Can you talk about your power rotation sort of came around from what it was at halftime, second-chance points, and just how -- when it seemed they were going to out-power you, especially the rotation, Bam came back.

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, I just think, yeah, we can probably say it, I can say it this way, you can say it that way, tomato, tomato. We were just more intentional.

We were a little bit scattered in that first half. Like I said, it was a little bit uncharacteristic of us. We had a lot of empty possessions, and a lot of possessions, where, one, organized spacing wasn't right, ball wasn't going where we needed it to go. We were getting into our offense just kind of haphazardly, and they are too good. They are. Our guys know it, too.

We have great respect for that team in that other locker room. If you don't do things the right way, you pay the price for it. We were just much more intentional about that in the second half.

Bam is a major part of what we do. It wasn't like we reinvented an offense. We kind of got to what we do a little bit more consistently, and he was just really good on both ends of the court.

Again, whatever I said about Jimmy, you say that about Bam, because he does it on both ends and he's not defined by that final number on the box score.

Q. You have given so much praise to the entire group. But specific to Jimmy, when he is consistent at this level, what does it do for the rest of the guys that have the belief that he's out there and able to close?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: You can't quantify it. There's no analytic to it. Just the feeling of stability in the locker room. Even when you're down nine in the first half, we played poorly but you have to credit Boston, because they made us play poorly.

You know, there's just a settling effect that is impossible to quantify. Like, all right, we are in striking distance. Let's just settle into our game, and Jimmy will make a bunch of plays, Bam will make a bunch of plays and everybody will be all right and everybody will just fit into their roles. But what's that the great players do.

Q. The Celtics are a high-volume three-point shooting team and you guys were able to limit them to 29 attempts tonight. Was there anything behind that? Was it anything you guys were doing?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I don't know. It felt like they had a ton of them in the first half. I don't know, I'm not even prepared to answer that right now. I haven't looked at the box score. I felt like they had more, but we know that's a big part of what they do. We are trying to take some of those away, but it's tough.

Q. Boston is a team with a lot of great wing defenders, from Smart, Brown, White on down. Jimmy seems to consistently be able to get to his spot on the floor. How would you describe that ability, how he's able just to get where he want to go almost every possession?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: You know, it's an innate skill set, experience, talent. He just gets to his strength zones. That's a talent unto itself. He's also willing to make the right play over and over and over. If it happens to be a pass -- he's not playing for numbers. He's playing to try to help the offense get the best possible high-percentage shot. That's a different language. And he's doing it -- yeah, that's a very good defense. They do have a lot of capable individual defenders, so we have to be very intentional with what we do.