NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

June 4, 2023

Erik Spoelstra

Miami Heat

Game 2: Pregame

Q. The lineup report about Kevin starting in place of Caleb, can you confirm that?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I cannot confirm that, nor will I. I think that's Jared [Greenberg] and Charles [Barkley] coming up with this, but look, I'm still waiting to officially get word that Caleb and Gabe are going, although it'll take a lot to have them sit out.

Then I'll just figure out my official lineup in the next hour or so.

Q. Has Tyler returned to full contact work? Again, because there are reports, there was a report that he looked amazing at your practice yesterday. Contact work for Tyler? And if you can just roughly give us an idea how has he been looking in practices?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, I think it's okay to give you a little bit of that info.

Yes, he is progressing. We're really encouraged by the progress. He started doing contact work as soon as we got to Denver.

We have to maintain perspective. We want to be responsible about this. We're all excited and encouraged by his progress, but we'll get back to Miami. All we're doing is sticking to the process, trying to stack positive days, also understanding this is not trying to return to a game in December. This is the Finals. So, there is a little bit of context to this.

Q. You spoke previously during these Playoffs about an influence that Rick Adelman was, that you looked up to him. I don't know how active he was in working with you, but the fact that he's getting the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award today, any other thoughts in terms of his career, particularly as they pertain to you?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, I think I mentioned this the other day. When I grew up in the Portland Trail Blazer family, organizations were so much smaller, so it was the Adelman kids and the Spoelstras running around and there weren't a ton of other kids.

He's probably had as much of an impact and inspiration for me to get into coaching as anybody. I had never even thought about it before that. I feel like I grew up in the Adelmans' household. R.J. and I were very close. All the kids were very close. Kathy and I went to college together. I knew David since he was super small.

But that was the first time that I saw what NBA coaching was all about, even though I grew up and Jack Ramsay was our coach. I was younger at that time, and then when you're a teenager, all you're thinking about is you want to play. You're not thinking about being an old crusty coach.

When I saw his home office and then saw how he approached the game and saw that you could be very normal and humble and understated and still excel at coaching, I don't know, it just lit a spark in me, and I thought, wow, that's pretty cool. I never, ever thought about the coaching profession before.

So, he was the biggest inspiration, and even to this day, I've just always admired the teams that he's coached, the way they competed.

We all got texts from Rick in our previous series, myself, Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love, and that's how small this circle is, but Kyle still points to Rick as being one of the biggest influences he's had as a player because that allowed him to have the confidence to get to the next level as a starter, and Kevin felt the same way as a young player in Minnesota, that Rick gave him a platform and confidence to become an All-Star.

We were able to share for a half hour in our lunchroom just telling great stories about Rick and the Adelman family. They are an incredible family, and I think this is an amazing honor. I love that I was just able to bump into him and spend some time with him out here.

Q. Back to Kevin since you brought him up, he didn't play at all in the first game. What does he bring to your team, and what's he been able to do since you guys acquired him, and how would that skill set apply to a game like this, if he were able to get in the game?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, I had every intention to play him in Game 1, and things just kind of went a bunch of different ways. Nothing seemed to look right, including my decision making.

But yes, he brings that veteran decorated playoff championship-level experience, and you can't really quantify what that means except for that he's been here, he can infuse a bunch of confidence in the guys, and he just has a timeliness of his winning plays. He's a tough competitor, and he's had some really important moments in this playoff run.

I guess that kind of sums it up, especially when you play on a team like this.

Q. Both teams have put a heavy emphasis on transition defense throughout the Playoffs. How do you manage the reward of crashing the offensive glass or even hunting mismatches in the half court, knowing the risk that you're vulnerable in transition if you come up short on either of those things?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, I think that's the balance that everybody is trying to search for in the Playoffs. You start to face the better defenses in the league, in the Playoffs, and then you -- I feel like every team is trying to generate easier looks, so you get to a certain point in the series you're trying to find relief points in the open court, and you're weighing crashing the glass versus getting back.

I guess we've faced some of the better running teams in the East so far, so we have kind of that urgency with that, but Denver is unique. They also do it in a little bit of a different way. We managed that okay in Game 1, but it's a big part of their game.

Q. I just wanted to follow up on something you just said. You felt like nothing in Game 1 kind of looked right or felt right, including your own decision making. I'm wondering what your process is like for evaluating your decision making after a game like that? Do you apply the same scrutiny to yourself as you do looking at the game film?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Probably like any coach. We're masochistic, so yeah, it's not very unique to me.