NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

June 6, 2023

Haywood Highsmith

Miami Heat

Practice Day

Q. Do you remember as a kid when you learned to play zone defense, how old you were?

HAYWOOD HIGHSMITH: Yeah, I played a little as a kid, probably was like six or seven, five, something like that. I played 2-3, down the middle most the time. I was the tallest one. Pretty much so.

Q. Do you remember what they taught you to do?

HAYWOOD HIGHSMITH: I'm trying to think. Just guard your area, I guess. I was in the middle a lot, like I said. So I would just be guarding kind of the high post a little bit and just backing up and guarding the guys down low, and they told us a lot of times, box out in the zone because you don't have a man.

Q. Do the same principles apply to what you guys do here?

HAYWOOD HIGHSMITH: It's a little more complicated for sure once you get in the NBA, those different levels but definitely a little bit applies the same, kind of guarding your area and just talking and communicating as well. That's a big part of zone.

Zone defense gives a different look. It's definitely helpful for us.

Q. Seems like Denver's defense is trying to load up on Jimmy, just taking what they are giving, can you speak to that?

HAYWOOD HIGHSMITH: He's a great player and he's going to make the right play, ten times out of ten. Denver's defense loads up and tries to attack the paint.

Jimmy and Bam have a good two-man action as well, so they did a good job of playing off each other and that. So Jimmy has always been a good passer.

Q. Any differences between how Denver's defending him and how he's been guarded in earlier rounds?

HAYWOOD HIGHSMITH: Yeah, I mean, it's not really an answer to guard Jimmy. He's a superstar player. I think the Celtics, Boston was pretty much trying to do the same thing Denver is doing; put a bigger body on him, good defender.

Jimmy is going to be Jimmy. Jimmy is a good player, so he's going to do what he's got to do.

Q. I wanted to ask you about your role coming off the bench, you contributed 18 big points in Game 1. What's your mindset coming off the bench to contribute for this team?

HAYWOOD HIGHSMITH: My mindset is to bring energy and impact winning, whether that's scoring, whether that's defending, rebounding, play-making, doing whatever I have to do to make the hustle plays. Just try to bring energy to the game and affect the scoreboard in a positive way.

Q. You hustled a lot on defense and you've become a fan favorite to be honest, getting a lot of calls for more minutes for yourself. How frustrating is that to come off the bench or not get minutes?

HAYWOOD HIGHSMITH: It's a part of this game for a lot of good players. I've just got to be ready when I play. I'm always going to be ready.