NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

June 12, 2023

Erik Spoelstra

Miami Heat

Game 5: Postgame

Denver Nuggets 94, Miami Heat 89

Q. Not many shots went in, and it still was a grind and possession game there down the stretch.

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, our guys will be able to take that quality the rest of their careers; that grit, the perseverance, the toughness, the ability to compete and put yourself out there for everybody to judge and to be able to handle different things, adversity, all that.

I'll speak for everybody in our locker room and the organization. You know, congratulations to the Denver Nuggets organization. They are a class act and they are one hell of a basketball team. One hell of a basketball team that we couldn't really find obviously enough solutions to be able to get us over the top.

Q. Just that final two minutes, like you were mentioning just there, what stood out to you in terms of you guys holding them but the shots weren't falling?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I don't know, those last three or four minutes felt like a scene out of a movie. Two teams in the center of the ring throwing haymaker after haymaker, and it's not necessarily shot making. It's the efforts. Guys were staggering around because both teams were playing and competing so hard. That's what this league should be about.

There's no regrets on our end. There's just sometimes where you get beat, you know, and Denver was the better basketball team in this series. That's about as hard -- I don't know how long it would take me to go through the autopsy of this Final game, but I would say that it will probably rank as our hardest, competitive, most active defensive game of the season, and it still fell short.

And probably our second-highest rated game would have been Game 4, and we fell short by double-digits. That gives you a good indication of how good this Denver Nuggets team was in this series but also throughout the course of the season and all of the playoffs. They were the superior team in every series. They deserve this championship.

Q. Could you just speak about the entire journey of this playoffs, from almost not making it in through the Play-In game, being an eight seed going all the way through the Finals, what does that say about your team, you as a coach and what lessons do you think just regular people can take from your guys' journey from where you started to where you are now?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, we would have liked to be able to climb the mountaintop and be able to get that final win.

But I think this is a team that a lot of people can relate to. If you ever felt that you were dismissed or felt that you were made to feel less than. We had a lot of people in our locker room that probably have had that, and there's probably a lot of people out there, you know, that have felt that at some time or another.

But also the way this team handled setbacks and adversity, you know, to develop a collective grit and perseverance. I mentioned this before that hopefully these are lessons that will transcend this beautiful game; that hopefully these are lessons that we can pass along to our children; that even though it is sport, that you can learn lessons of life from this game; that you can persevere; that you can handle what people may view as mini-failures along the way and become stronger from it and to be able to overcome things and find beautiful things on the other side of that.

Now, obviously, we didn't get the final win, but sometimes that's true in sport and also in life; that you don't always get what you want. But there's no regret from our side. Everybody, staff, player alike in the locker room put themselves out there and put themselves into the team, whatever was best for the team. And the tough pill to swallow is it just wasn't good enough. We ran up against a team that was just better than us in this series.

You have to tip your hat to them. I said it, but they are one hell of a basketball team. They play the right way, they compete, they are well-coached and they have a strong culture. So for this season, they deserve this.

Q. What was the message that you just imparted to the group?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: A little bit of that. Sometimes it's just not your time. You know, some of the message that I gave the team is an intimate message just for the group.

But what I can tell you, we're all hard-wired to compete for the ultimate prize. But you also want to develop lifelong memories and a brotherhood and a bond that you'll be able to carry on from years from now that we've been able to go through something that's memorable.

I told each one of the guys, I love them. I love this team, and I'm just super grateful that we are able to go through all of the experiences, even the tough times during the year, to be able to have a season like this. This is one for the journal books, right. I don't know about all the guys journalling, but this is certainly one that I'll journal and remember this team forever.

Years from now, I'll bump into some of these guys and we'll have this bond, even though we didn't get that final prize.

Q. Were you close to playing Tyler today, or was it a matter of him being available in this moment?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: It's just a really tough call and I'll probably have to wrestle with that all summer. I've never been in an experience like this. I just know that the way this game was played is totally different than -- you can't even compare it. It's another sport in the regular season.

But first round, this is totally different, the way this game was played. Second round, totally different. Even the Conference Finals, the physicality and the way that they play, and I think they should have. This is what it should be about, is let the players decide.

But that's the hardest-played, most physical competition you can have, and that would be a tough thing for a guy that's been out for two months that hasn't had any kind of ramp up. But that won't save me from thinking about that for the next few weeks.

All right? Appreciate all of you sticking around and we'll see you down the road.