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NBA FINALS: MAVERICKS v HEAT

June 2, 2011

Erik Spoelstra

MIAMI, FLORIDA: Game Two

Dallas Mavericks 95
Miami Heat 93

COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: No question about it, that's about as tough a fourth quarter you can have. When it started to slide, it just kept on going. But we've been a very resilient group all season long. We've been tested. We've had our moments where we feel uncomfortable and feel like our backs are against the wall. That's when we've responded and been our best. We have a lot of guys who have some character and toughness to be able to respond to a game like this. We're not happy about this. Certainly the way we closed the game is so uncharacteristic for us on both ends of the court.
Really, I think offensively if we could have executed and moved the ball, we might have been able to stem the tide a little bit, even as poor as we were defensively down the stretch. It was highly uncharacteristic for us on both ends of the court.
But we're a resilient group. By the time we get on that plane tomorrow, we'll get our minds and body and spirit ready for Game 3. This is a long series, okay? So we're not happy about what happened, but we got an opportunity in Game 3.

Q. Erik, how much was this about maybe some bad habits resurfacing? Did you see something like that coming in this game at any point?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, offensively, that's so uncharacteristic for us. One, to shoot 30 threes in a game is not our style of basketball, and then at the end of the game to not be able to execute and move the ball and find an open shot. We were running the clock down to the end. That's not been a successful formula now for us for the last three months.
So we'll regroup. Like I said, we have a tough group in there. We haven't had it easy at times, so we know how to respond when our back is against the wall.

Q. Coach, before that big 17-2 run that tied the game, do you think your guys relaxed? Or was that Dallas getting hot?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: You have to give them credit. They're a great shot-making team. Our offense, I think, was inefficient enough to spark them and give them some easy baskets. They got a couple in transition where we didn't even get anybody back for court balance maybe to force them into some kind of half-court execution.
And so they probably scored eight to ten of those points on relief where our defense wasn't even set. And then we compounded that with a lack of execution. We will be much better in Game 3, and we found ways to respond under tough times, especially when we feel a great deal of pain, which are we are right now.

Q. How shellshocked were you guys when the game was tied and just the reaction after that?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It happened, so you have to deal with it. We tried to respond in a way to finish up the game. We were unable to do it on both ends of the court. You have to give them credit. We will bounce back.

Q. Erik, Rick Carlisle said he thought when you got up 15, the first four points they got kind of easily, like you said one of them was a breakaway, were the big ones. Does it feel the same way to you?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah. Again, we didn't have the proper floor balance where they ended up getting a one-on-zero fast break. They get it to 11 before we have to call a timeout. That put them at least in striking distance.

Q. Erik, Dirk's last basket, I think you guys had a foul to give. Was that a mistake?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It's easy to say it right now. You know, we're aware of it.
We talked about it. We've been in that situation before. We didn't use the foul. Obviously, it looks like right now you could second-guess that, but we didn't take it.

Q. No double on Dirk?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: At that time, they had carved us up enough on that, we left open some shooters, and they made us pay. We tried to do it with our normal defense. He made a heck of a drive. We cut him off one time, he spun, our help defense came, and he made a high-arcing lay-up, I believe with his left hand.

Q. Coach, did you feel like the last three or four minutes Dwyane had the ball in his hands enough considering the type of game he had?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I'll have to look. We went to our normal package of late-game sets. We just didn't have the necessary execution.

Q. Erik, the decision to have Bosh cover Dirk at the end as opposed to Udonis, who covered him most of the game?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, that's a tough one, also. I know UD probably is really wishing he had that opportunity to defend him. He had gotten a couple over the top, and the end of the game running it all the way down to the clock, could have gone with either guy. Both guys are good defenders.

Q. Did you have a sense that Dwyane really got back to normal early, and were you encouraged to see that? And are you sorry you couldn't get him the ball more late?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Again, we got to our normal package of late-game offense. The execution just wasn't there. And the ball movement certainly wasn't there. The ball was sticking, and we were running down the clock and hardly anybody else was involved in our normal actions.

Q. Were you encouraged in general with his play early?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I didn't overanalyze Dwyane's play of recent time. The most important thing is he's been making big game-saving plays on both ends of the court to help us win at the end. But we weren't able to do it tonight.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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