NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT VS. CELTICS

May 29, 2023

Erik Spoelstra

Miami Heat

Game 7: Postgame

Miami Heat 103, Boston Celtics 84

Q. Sometimes it's about more than just a game or a series but sort of a way. And the way the season went with the close games, the Play-In game to the fourth quarter, the first round. Is it possible to encapsulate the run that has delivered you to the NBA Finals?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I'll get to that. Let me first say this about Boston. I mentioned it out there to Ernie, but we tip our hat to the Celtics organization. They are first class. Pat feels a certain way about Boston, so I make sure everybody feels a certain way about Boston. That's part of my job as the caretaker.

With that said, there's great respect for them as competitors. They are first class. You look across the way, just in terms of their ownership group and Brad and Joe and his coaching staff, they are good people and they are a class organization.

What happened last year, you know, obviously was on our mind and it drove us this year. That's what you always hope for with competition, that it can drive you to a higher level. I think that's what you saw in this series, this year, to be able to have to overcome a lot of stuff.

In terms of answering your question, look, I think probably people can relate to this team. Life is hard. Professional sports is just kind of a reflection sometimes of life, that things don't always go your way. The inevitable setbacks happen and it's how you deal with that collectively. There's a lot of different ways that it can go. It can sap your spirit. It can take a team down for whatever reason. With this group, it's steeled us and made us closer and made us tougher.

These are lessons that hopefully we can pass along to our children, that you can develop this fortitude. And sometimes you have to suffer for the things that you want. Game 6, the only thing that we can do is sometimes you have to laugh at the things that make you cry.

We did so many things right. I think from a metric standpoint, we did everything the best that we did all of the playoffs: our defensive activity numbers, our rotations, the extra efforts, the pursuits on the offensive glass, five turnovers. We felt like we did all the right things. We had our season-high numbers of attacks. Then to come up short, that could puncture a team's spirit. But instead that just drove to us, more resolve to try to get the job done.

I definitely noticed it after the Atlanta game the next day in the film session how badly this team wanted to keep the season going, and I felt the exact same way yesterday when we met after our flight. Everybody got to get everything out of their system from the night before, and we just focused on rallying around each other and focusing on the next task.

We have some incredible competitors in that locker room. They love the challenge. They love putting themselves out there in front of everybody. Open to criticism. Open to everything. But to compete for it, and that's a beautiful thing.

We know we have more work to do. But damn, is this hard. It is hard. It's a hard business, and it's hard to survive three rounds just to get to that final round. We're extremely grateful for that. We're not even going to think about this next round until we get to Denver.

I wanted everybody to acknowledge just how difficult it is, and to enjoy this moment. The longer you're around in this business, you realize the harder and harder it is to do something like this. It's a special group.

Yeah, so we'll definitely take this. It's poetic justice to be able to get it on this court, a tough environment. We'll celebrate a little bit tonight on that plane to Denver, and then we'll get on to that next challenge.

Q. Caleb came very, very close to winning the Conference Finals MVP, just a couple of votes. What did his offense mean to you in the series?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: It's been amazing. If you're a real competitor and it's in your soul, and that's what Caleb is, he's a competitor. Every bit the competitor that you talk about with Jimmy or Bam or whatever. Caleb is a competitor.

You get to the higher stakes, the further you get along, the more competitors are going to reveal themselves. Game 7s, or get to the Conference Finals, it's not for everybody in this association. Otherwise more players, more teams would do it. You have to be wired a little bit differently, and Caleb is. He's pure. He competes on both ends. Lays it all out there for everybody to see. He's accepted different roles.

But we needed him to be more of a player. With Tyler and Vic out, we've needed more offense. Quite frankly, we've needed more guys like Gabe and Caleb to show how much they have improved with their player development.

But yeah, he has so much respect in that locker room just because of how hard he competes. It's like his last breath on every single possession, and I love the guy for that.

Q. You obviously have a roster full of competitors, but specific to Jimmy, we see what he does on the floor. But off the floor, how would you describe the belief he's instilled within the rest of the group?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: You have to have a guy that you can hold on to, particularly in those moments of truth. I've said this before, there's no way to quantify the confidence that he can instill in everybody. And you know, Jimmy has never had to apologize. I don't want him to ever apologize for who he is and how he approaches competition.

It's intense. It's not for everybody, and we're not for everybody. That's why we think it's like an incredible marriage. We never judge him on that. He doesn't judge us for how crazy we get. It's the same language.

But the confidence level that he can create for everybody on the roster is incredible. I've almost never seen anything like it, but I have. But he's special because he does it on both ends of the court. He can play 48 if you need him to, and then he just has a way, also, that he has a hard edge. He's gnarly, but he knows how to have a soft touch to give somebody some confidence at the right time. That's the special gift that he has.

Q. In the moments after Game 6, how did you consider how to play it to your team, how to present what needed to happen to your team?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I didn't. Those are probably just raw emotions. I think when you have such an intimate relationship with a locker room and they have it with each other, the staff has it with them, they have it with the staff, sometimes it's just whatever's raw, whatever's real at that time. It wasn't scripted and it's not even the reason why.

We have a bunch of guys that just love competition. Just drop us off anywhere and compete for it. Put ourselves out there, open to all the criticism and everything. But hey, it's got to happen between these four lines. We don't care what the rest of the world is saying. We don't care who is criticizing who. You've got to line up between these four lines and let's figure this out.

I think that's the nature of this team that I think a lot of people respect, because we've had our fair share of setbacks and disappointments, frustration, but we just keep on picking ourselves up and getting on to the next fight.

Q. I know it's not all about scheme, but you guys were able to sprinkle in zone a good amount tonight. How important is just that defensive versatility and versatility in general been for this team along this path?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I think the versatility -- come on, Mr. Butler, come on -- the versatility and toughness and guys like this (Jimmy Butler) that drive it. If your best players aren't defenders, it's hard to create a good defense. We have Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, they care about defending and doing the tough things. It's pretty easy to figure out the rest of the stuff, and schematics are not it. It's committing to doing tough things.

All right. Appreciate you all.