	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA FINALS: MAVERICKS v HEAT

June 4, 2011

Erik Spoelstra

DALLAS, TEXAS: Practice Day

COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: So we have had a couple of days to think about it now. Obviously we weren't happy about the way the game ended. We came back to work yesterday and today to fix some of these things. Most important thing to remember, and our team has great perspective with this. There is not a good win in the playoffs and there's not a bad win. It's black and white. It's either a win or it's a loss. And you have to move on.
We have a great opportunity tomorrow night. Our guys understand that. And we'll be better than we were down the stretch the other night. We're doing a lot of good things in this series. That's a dangerous team at the end of the day. They executed better than we did down the stretch, regardless of how it happened.

Q. Spo, there's the stat that in a 2-3-2, the team after a split, the team that wins Game 3 is ultimately successful, all 11 times it's happened.
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: That's not even a big enough sample.

Q. Is that a fancy way of overstating tomorrow --
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I think both teams have bucked a lot of those numbers and odds up to this point already. We're a non-traditional team.

Q. Erik, with almost the silliness made over the celebration and what happened there in front of the Dallas bench, is there anything that you would even consider to do to temper your players' enthusiasm? Or on the other hand do you appreciate your players enjoy and care that much that they get enthusiastic?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Another storyline. I'm not really concerned about that. I'm more concerned about how we executed or had a lack of execution going down the stretch. That's much more important to our team than any of the other storylines.
We're viewed in a different way than most teams. We have enthusiastic guys, excitable players. I would certainly rather have that than a bunch of zombies out there that care about winning. But the other thing is more of a concern. Our lack of execution and our defensive breakdowns going down the stretch. That really sealed the fate.
However it happened, you have to give Dallas a lot of credit. They were very opportunistic and they made shots and made plays when they needed to. That's a lot of times what it comes down to.
We've been in that situation the other way. So many times already in this playoff run, where we've taken advantage and been able to close as well as anybody. I don't think we took it for granted, but we got away from some of the things that have been a very successful formula.

Q. Erik, how many times would you say you've watched the last six or seven minutes of Game 2?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Quite a few. Quite a few.

Q. And "lack of execution" is such a broad term. When you look at the offensive end specifically, what kind of things did you see --
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: You know what, there's so many storylines there, there are a lot of misconstrued thoughts. There were 14 offensive possessions going down the stretch when we were up 15. 11 of them we would take. We executed well enough to get the opportunity to -- you have to give Dallas credit defensively, but we executed well enough. There were three very poor offensive possessions. I think those are the ones that stick out in everyone's mind. We missed some shots that might have changed it when we had decent opportunities to execute. We missed a lay-up, missed an open three, had the ball slapped out of our hands another time. We'll take those possessions again, and if you make one or two of those, it might change the complexion of the game.
The last possession of those 14, one of them -- you just have to give Dallas credit. They played a great defensive possession. Going down the other end, we had 11 defensive possessions, and they scored five straight times where we had mental breakdown that is uncharacteristic for us, particularly in the fourth quarter. That's where we've been able to seal games. 11 possessions going down the stretch, and they scored ten of those possessions for 22 points. That doesn't happen against us.
Again, you have to give credit where it's due. Dallas made shots when they needed to. Even if we broke down, that doesn't always necessarily guarantee that the other team is going to make up for that. Sometimes you miss open shots. They didn't. They made them when they needed to. Every mistake we made defensively we paid for it. That hasn't been a characteristic of ours in the last three or four months.
We've been closing teams out defensively and had enough good execution going down the other end to be able to seal it.
We have had a good run at the end of games. I'm not going to overreact to this one. We're much better going down the stretch doing a lot of good things. We'll be better tomorrow night.

Q. Erik, when you start to pinpoint maybe three or four offensive possessions of those 11, how easy was it for your players to spot those possessions? And how much did you have to rewind and show them again?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Everybody knew. Didn't stop me from rewinding. It's glaringly obvious, and our guys knew. They are upset about both ends of the court. First of all, being so uncharacteristic defensively to have so many breakdowns, mental lapse that we're not used to having to open up an open shot. They had some open, wide-open looks, and they made them at every opportunity.
Offensively, we've been much better going down the stretch, and some of the things we have had slippage, slight slippage in our execution and attention to detail that we need to be sharper with. You don't want to have a loss to get to that point, certainly, but some of these things have been happening the last two or three, four close games. But we were still able to make big shots to overcome that.
At the end of the day we do have big shot-makers at the end of games that can make big plays.

Q. What goes into a team's aptitude being able to correct things from game to game and also in a game?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I think we have high IQ teams. We have had to make a lot of adjustments during the course of the year that has helped us make adjustments during a series. And we've already been required to do that in each one of our series, as they changed the way we've played in the Boston series at the beginning of the series to how we played at the end to close them out. There were several adjustments. Same thing with Chicago. And that will happen again in this series.
A lot of that you have to have experienced players, you have to have high-IQ players that understand your system, the discipline to the system, but also to be able to make tweaks when necessary.
Q. Erik, you've talked a lot through the playoffs about playing your team's game more consistently than the other team. With that in mind, are you concerned about more three-point attempts than free-throw attempts in the first two games?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Our guys know. That hasn't been a successful formula. It was well documented obviously during the regular season when we settled and became a jump-shooting team. We could win a lot of games, but we also experienced a lot of pain. We're an attacking team. We're a free-throw shooting team. The three-point ball is a weapon for us. It's a necessary weapon. It has to happen within the context of establishing our game first.
Again, we started to have some slippage with that. We made some big threes, and we have some shot-makers that we don't want to take that away from them. They will make you pay if you do. But we do need to be aggressive. We do need to be an attack team. Our guys understand that. We will be better with that.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts by ASAP Sports

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297