NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

June 11, 2023

Kyle Lowry

Miami Heat

Practice Day

Q. Having just come off a series in which a team was down 3-0 and got itself off the mat to force a Game 7, beyond just your belief in yourselves and what you do, does that make it seem more tangible or more possible that you just saw this?

KYLE LOWRY: Yeah, honestly, even if we didn't have that team come back from down 3-0, I think we still believe. The one thing about it I'm sure you see the spirit around our guys, we believe in ourselves. We believe in what we can do.

Yeah, we know we're down. Unfortunately, we're down 3-1. But all we've got to do is take it one possession at a time, one minute at a time, one second at a time, and just continue to do what we do, believe in that game plan, understand what the game plan is, and just be positive.

At the end of the day, we've got a chance to go out there and play basketball. You've still got to go out there and put the ball in the hole and go out there and have fun.

Q. The offensive efficiency kind of hasn't been quite where you guys wanted it three out of the four games here, but wondering how you feel about process. Do you feel like you're getting to the kind of looks you want? And if you're not there quite where you need to be, do you feel like you need to force that, early pull-up three, things like that? How do you balance out staying the course versus feeling like you need to jack it up a little bit?

KYLE LOWRY: I think as a group, I think we've found ways that we've gotten great looks. I think we've found a little bit of a rhythm offensively. We haven't made all the shots.

I think the turnovers hurt us last game a lot. I think getting shots on goal is always big for us as a group, and that's been throughout the whole year for our team is getting shots on goal.

I think we've just got to stay confident, and I think we are very confident in what we do and how we've gotten here and are each other's -- you know, all our teammates.

Yeah, I think we know what we can do offensively. We just haven't done it. We feel like we know we can do it.

Q. What's the key to staying power in this league when your teammates are telling you that they played with you in 2K and -- the culture has changed in the league and you've been able to maintain. What's the key to that?

KYLE LOWRY: How long have you been doing this?

Q. More than 15, 20 years.

KYLE LOWRY: Kind of the same thing, right? You've got to always adapt, always adjust. It's always about understanding what's going on in the world. But at the same time, staying true to yourself.

We always say you stay true to yourself, how you write your articles, how you write your papers or whatever you write, how I play, how I work on my game.

I know it's a funny thing to say I'm 37 years old and 17 years and the guys joke with me and they be like, oh, you listen to Gladys Knight, and stuff like that. They don't know who Gladys Knight is.

But they keep me young. I know that my mind, I can pass along the knowledge to them as much as I can. Udonis is up there with me, Kevin is up there with me. These guys keep me young, and the staying power is just believing in what you do and continuing to work, never being satisfied with, oh, yeah, I had a great career, da, da, da, but I still feel like I can do more, I can give more.

I'm playing in my second NBA Finals, a chance to win another ring. That just motivates me more. That motivates me more, and it continues to keep me young and it continues to have me -- like, yo, I need to do something to get better. I need to do this, I need to do that.

Also, yeah, I want to continue to help our league. Our league is important. We create generational wealth for our families, all the guys that come through this league. We have an opportunity to make a lot of money and provide for our families and do a game that we love, give back to our communities.

For me, I just like to continue to pass along the information, but I'm still motivated to compete at the highest level.

Q. What do you remember most from 2019, trying to close out the Warriors in Game 6? Great group of champions; obviously Denver is going to try and do the same thing. Your team is obviously a team with so much championship experience, as well. What do you remember most from that night and the mindset of the team trying to close that out?

KYLE LOWRY: I'm not going to give Denver no type of tips, but I think from that 2019 thing, I think my team was just completely focused on the task at hand. I mean, it's different. We were on the road, so we knew what it was. We understood the situation. We understood the type of firepower those guys had. We knew exactly, hey, this could be a seven-game series, but we've got to stay focused on the task at hand.

For us, going into tomorrow, we know the task at hand and we know what we can do and we know what we're capable of, so we've got to stay focused on that and being with each other no matter what.

Q. This is considered a star-driven league. How essential is it that Jimmy and/or Bam has one of those great climb-on-my-back kind of performances from here on out?

KYLE LOWRY: Yeah, we would love to have that. We would love to have one of those games where they both do 50 points and we climb on their back. We understand it's all about them. We got to support them. At the end of the day, we got to give them as much help as we possibly can. Get them good looks. Get them the ball in situations that they can be successful.

The one thing about those two guys, they're going to be ready to play tomorrow. They're going to be ready to go tomorrow. For us, we've got to find a way to make sure we help them be successful. That's what it's about.

We can help them, they can get 50 and all that stuff, but we've still got to help them get 50 and be in the right spots and get them the ball in a successful place.

Q. Is the grind and the journey just as enjoyable now, or is it a different kind of enjoyable?

KYLE LOWRY: It's enjoyable, period. Honestly, yeah, like after games you're a little bit more sore or this or that, but the grind is so enjoyable. Like I said, I've got a great locker room. We've got a great locker room, great group of guys, great coaching staff, a group of guys that like being around each other.

That's part of it. You build a bond of brotherhood for each other. You build a bond that is kind of unbreakable. You go back and say, oh, man, in 2000 whatever, we got this, and you've got a group of guys that have earned the opportunity to be here and have fought and clawed to have the opportunity to be here.

That's why the grind is so enjoyable for me is because I didn't have the best year health-wise and numbers-wise, but we're here with the opportunity to play basketball and I'm here with the opportunity to see these guys be successful and make shots and be on the biggest stage and help them want to get here again.

The grind is very much enjoyable. It's a little bit different some days, but it's always love.