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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT v BULLS

May 22, 2011

Erik Spoelstra

MIAMI, FLORIDA: Game Three

Chicago Bulls 85
Miami Heat 96

COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: There is absolutely nothing easy in this series, and it's still all about enduring, sustaining and finding a way to grind it out. And the last couple of games we've been able to do that at the end. But it is a battle, it is a scrap, it is a fight every single possession. And our focus has been about enduring and staying the course all the way until the end.
And the guys did a very good job of that tonight, particularly to find a way to break it open in the last four or five minutes. We feel that that's a residual of enduring and just continuing to keep on coming.

Q. Erik, was Chris Bosh's output by design or the way the game came about? How much was it Chris doing it? How much was it you going in that direction?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: A little bit of both. He came in with a very aggressive mindset. We tried to help him a little bit to give us a little bit more variety with our offense. But ultimately, it's about leading the game. Each game is different. We've had different guys step up each game. He put his imprint on the game right from the beginning. And that helped to give us some relief, and also keep them honest with some of their coverages.

Q. Erik, there were times, of course, this year where Chris expressed frustration and not really knowing how he fit in. You've talked about growth so many times with this team. What kind of growth did they show tonight in that there were times when Dwyane and LeBron continually kept looking for Chris with the game on the line?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It was encouraging to see that level of trust. They wanted the ball to go to him. He's a critical part of what we do. We run a lot of our offense through him regardless of whether he's getting shots or not. Tonight dictated something else. We needed him to be aggressive. Easy shots and opportunities in this series are hard to come by. And he was able to take a little bit of the pressure off of the other guys to get some baskets, which helped.
But it's taken a while for guys to feel comfortable and confident in their role, while at the same time being able to read a game. Because each game is different. The next game somebody else might be called upon to be aggressive based on how it's going.

Q. Do you have to make a concerted effort with every game to make sure that Chris gets his touches and that Chris doesn't feel like the third wheel, as he has often displayed?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: No. He doesn't care; he wants to win. He wants to be something special. Two, regardless of whether he's shooting or scoring, we run a lot of our offense through him. So the touches he'll get, and then based on the game, whether he'll get opportunities at the basket to score. Tonight it called for that. They were really loading up, as they normally do. And he was aggressive. And I thought he gave us some good relief.

Q. People talk about the pressure of coaching a team with all this talent loaded on it. Do you ever allow yourself to enjoy the fact that you do have all these players at your disposal and there's a lot of options you can have with these guys on the court?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Sure. I don't reflect very much. I know it can be a lot worse than this. Come on, I was part of a team that won 15 games. We've been through a lot as a staff. The majority of our staff has been together for 16 years. That's highly unusual in this league. We have incredible stability with our owner Mickey Arison and obviously with Pat. We've been all the way to the mountaintop, 2006 championship, and yet two years later we won 15 games. So I have a little bit of a perspective of where we are. But the most important thing is to stay in the moment at the task at hand, which is quite big for me.

Q. You've been pushing Chalmers all season, and tonight in the fourth quarter you rode him the entire fourth quarter. Can you talk about how much work you've done with Mario over the years, and now he's your point guard in crunchtime, or just for tonight.
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Tonight. He's got guts. We all know that. He's not afraid of the moment. Certainly not at the end. And he'll do big things on both sides of the court. He got that key deflection and steal. He's still a young player. So of course I'll continue to push him and drive him, because he's got a very high ceiling for a player. And he earned his opportunity tonight. That's been his nature.
When he struggled at any time during the last couple of years with the Heat, he's a tough kid. He's bounced back. He's got some resiliency to him, and he showed that tonight.

Q. You said that Chris doesn't care about the accolades and all that, but based on where it came from and how he was a star, are you surprised that there is no ego involved in that, or that was what was offered to him to come here?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We did our research. He's a high-character guy. That had been the franchise face before, and he wanted something different, to be part of something that -- a team that has a chance to do something special. He was willing to sacrifice. We met with him for a long time, did our research, talked to a lot of people, and we felt that he was a very good fit for the direction we wanted to go. And he was our number one target for a reason.

Q. Mike Bibby only got the six points, but they were all in the third. Your thoughts on how he played, especially in that third quarter?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: He arguably has the toughest fight of anybody, and that's trying to get his chest in front of that tornado. Even when we have other people to help and bodies in front and try to shrink the court, there's so many explosive unpredictable movements, it's a challenge. And when you're expending that much energy on that side of the floor and then organizing us, getting us into offense, doing that for 25-plus minutes and then all of a sudden, boom, you get an open shot, it's a lot easier than it looks.
But he's been in a lot of these pressure situations. So he loves the big shot. He hit two big ones for us. We have not lost confidence in him. He stretches the floor. He's such a heady player. He almost had an opportunity to knock down that other one. It was inside-out. It's a matter of time before the shooting comes around. We look like a different team when we're able to spread the floor and knock down some threes.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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