NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

May 31, 2023

Erik Spoelstra

Miami Heat

Media Day

Q. How much of an effect can the altitude issues that we hear about for teams coming in here, how much of an effect can that have, and if it's more than zero, what are the keys to getting through that?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: We're not getting into any of that stuff. Our guys are in great shape. They're ready to compete. If Denver wants to tip this thing off at the top of Everest, we'll do that.

This thing is going to be decided between the four lines. They've also got to come back to Miami. If you want to make it about that, we'll turn off the air conditioning and they've got to play in 90-degree humidity, sap the s--- out of their legs. This thing is going to be decided between those four lines, and we'll decide it then.

Q. So much has been made of Heat culture, this year especially because you're an 8 seed that's gotten this far. From your perspective how would you define Heat culture --

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I think it's been defined enough. I think you can just look at all the, whatever, thousand other articles about it. I don't think anybody wants to hear about it. It's something we believe in. It's for us. It's not for everybody.

I also think you do have to credit and acknowledge Denver's culture. They have a very strong culture. I don't think it's a coincidence that the two teams have been able to have sustained success, and they've done a great job of building their culture.

Mike and his staff have just done a tremendous job of building a system that fits perfectly around their two top players, and they do all the right things. You're not going to have any kind of weaknesses or glitches or cracks in a culture or professionalism or anything like that.

We feel the same way about our group. I just think it's set up for great competition.

Q. Given what your team has gone through for the last 12 months, starting with Game 7 last year and then the Play-In, and you know the history, obviously, is this one maybe a bit more rewarding in some respects for you, getting back here, just because of how difficult this path was?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: No, I probably think more than anything, it's just the more experience you have, just the more gratitude you have for any of these kind of opportunities. This league is so fragile. It is so tough to go through the gauntlet. Not only just a regular season, 82 games, five and a half months, but then to go through the gauntlet of three seven-game series just to get to this point. You're just really grateful for these kind of opportunities.

This is a special group. This group has been able to overcome a lot of different things, handle a lot of adversity, setbacks, things that have not gone the way we wanted it to go. Instead of having that collapse our spirit, it allowed us to develop some fortitude and grit collectively and give us something to rally around, which was each other.

Those are special qualities. I mentioned the other night, it's a reflection of life to be able to develop those kind of things that can get you through the tough times, and then when you overcome it, just makes things a lot more gratifying.

Q. You've had to coach against some pretty unique players, from Tim Duncan to Kevin Durant, Giannis. How unique of a challenge does Jokic present because of all the things he can do?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: He's very unique. He doesn't really have any noticeable weaknesses in terms of his size, his skill set. He's one of one in the myriad of ways that he can impact the game and impact winning.

We have great respect for the Denver Nuggets' organization, how they operate and the system that they run. That's the way it should be. You shouldn't be playing any ducks at this point when you get to the Finals.

I don't know why maybe the mainstream media have kind of slept on Denver, but when we saw them in the bubble, we thought, all right, this team is going to be doing basically what they're doing this year, then up until now. We thought this would be a run for a long time. If Murray didn't get hurt, they probably would have had a couple of Finals berths. That's how great of a duo they are and a system Mike and his staff have built that really fits.

I think, we all think they're legit, and in some ways, it's a mirror image series, not in terms of style, but teams that probably have been overlooked, underestimated, built a chip on their shoulder over that. It's lined up to be a great competition.

Q. We had a chance to see Tyler go through a pretty extensive workout in Boston. He said his hope is to come back for this series. What would you put the odds or percentages of Tyler Herro being able to see action in the Finals?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I'm not a math guy, so I'm not good with percentages. He will not play tomorrow.

We don't want to get ahead of ourselves right now. He's still just starting this process. We do have a few days here just to continuous work. I can't even make any kind of proclamation until he takes these next important steps, and that's with contact and doing things more on the court live.

We'll just see. We're all encouraged by his progress that he's made, but we want to continue to be responsible and make the best decisions. He's not there yet.

Q. As the last series wore on you had to go away from Kevin and Cody and go smaller. Do you reintroduce them in this series with a much different opponent?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, it's still going to be all hands on deck. However this thing starts tomorrow, it probably will be similar to the last series, and it's going to look different by the end of the series. You have to be open to all the different possibilities. Both K-Love and Cody are major pieces to what we do. When you're dealing with a guy like Jokic, you're probably going to need several bigs, and thankfully we do have that kind of roster depth at that position. They all bring something a little bit different.

Nobody is going to be a, quote-unquote, stopper in this series. This is about competing every single possession, finding different kind of advantages in the margins that only competitors can find. But thankfully we do have both of those guys, and we were able to pick them up late.

Q. You mentioned the duo in Jamal and Nikola. What is the pressure that they put on defenses?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, they're both dynamic. They both can do it on their own, but they also both really complement each other. That's hard to find in this league, when your two best players just absolutely complement each other. They both have scored 50 in a playoff game, and they both can be facilitators.

I don't think either one of them care how many points they score. It's just about getting the most efficient shot for the offense.

They play the right way. That's something that you have to do, try to get them out of that rhythm. There's no easy way to do that. You just have to find a way.

Q. I don't know exactly what year you moved to Portland. But you've been in so many NBA Finals in one way or another. If I can take you back to when you were a kid, a teenager, and they were just something that you watched on TV, what was the one that you remember, thinking, I want to be there, I want to be on that stage one day?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I didn't really think about it like that because back then, I was still thinking, hey, I'm going to play in the league. I definitely wasn't thinking, I want to be Jack Ramsay. I was scared of him.

The story has been told many times, but I probably had a little bit more awareness, I'm going nowhere as a player, and when Rick Adelman was the coach -- Jack Ramsay was the first image I had of a head coach. He was the coach of our team.

As I got older in high school and college, it was Rick. I just loved the way he operated. He's been a big mentor to me, so the Adelman kids, including David, and I've known David since he was probably 3, we were all running around the facility.

But that's probably when I followed them the most, was when they made those two Finals runs.

Q. Do you remember thinking, I could be there one day?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: No, that wasn't really a thought. It was more just celebrating that team and really trying to support all the families. The organizations were much smaller then, so it really felt like a family deal. You grew up with the organization, just trying to support them and figure out how they could knock off those Bulls teams.

Q. Jamal Murray just said the two teams with the best chemistry have made it to the Finals. You kind of talked about it when you talked about the mirror image thing. How has you guys' chemistry and you guys' trust in one another gotten you guys through your many obstacles this season?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, it's those moments when nobody else understands. Nobody else is in the locker room. Nobody else -- we say that all the time, our guys are the men in the arena. It's tough to explain it to people on the outside.

But when you have these privileges to be able to go through adversity or setbacks and learn from that, I think those are lessons that we all could benefit from. You develop a grit and a collective perseverance and fortitude. If you approach it the right way, which this group does, you can really grow. They can be incredible life experiences, to be able to come together like that.

But Denver has a very similar personality. We didn't necessarily hang out with them in the bubble, but competitors recognize competitors and we would acknowledge them. We didn't have to face them in the Playoffs, but we always just seemed to bump into them. The staffs would bump into each other out on the lake. For whatever reason we were all fishing out there, and those were the two organizations that were doing it. I have no idea why.

But they're good people, great competitors. We have respect for them. They have an edge. Mike has an edge. That edge is going to be there for both sides. It's going to be decided between those four lines. This is what you want. You want the greatest challenges in this league. You're not expecting anything to be easy, particularly when you get to this level.

We just want to get this started. We have great, great competitors that want to put themselves out there for everybody to see and judge and have no fear about it.