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NBA FINALS: MAVERICKS v HEAT

June 11, 2011

Erik Spoelstra

MIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day

COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: So we're back at home, and yet the keys before the season started are still the same concepts, now that we've gotten back here and we're five games into this. It's still about our mental stability and mental and physical endurance, and to be able to stay the course. This is an extremely competitive series. They've had more home games than us. We worked extremely hard to get the home-court advantage and now we have to stay the course.
We're doing a lot of good things that we have to just focus on playing our game, sustaining that game, and then obviously closing out the way we're capable of.

Q. Erik, would you have an update on Dwyane? Did he practice full today? Is there extra padding, extra treatment? And what percentage would you judge him at based on practice today?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I'm definitely not giving a percentage. I would have no idea. He's out there right now shooting. He went through the walk-through part of our practice. He's doing extra all the above that you mentioned. And he'll be ready to go tomorrow.

Q. Erik, what's the difference between how you guys defended Dirk in '06 and how you're defending him in this series?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: He's a much better player. Some of the schemes we used back then he's seen so often now that he picks those apart. He has much better poise now versus double-teams. In terms of creating a shot, even in traffic, he's able to do that much more efficiently. He's better in the post than he was then.
So some of the concepts are similar and some of them are different.

Q. Erik, the first thing you said today was mental stability as opposed to physical. Is that more important than the physical at this point?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Both are. Our game is to be aggressive, to be physical, to attack on both ends of the court. Mentally, this is as close a series as you can be. I think they have 463 points, we have 459 points. There has been 50 lead changes, 44 ties. No one knows. This is about as close as you can possibly have a series. And you have to stay the course. We're doing a lot of things well. It's a possession game, possession series. It goes down to the end. We're a very good closing team on both ends of the court. They've been able to do it better than us in three of the games, but we feel very confident coming home and being able to do the things that we've been successful at, particularly closing, but also playing with that activity.

Q. Erik, you pointed out how close everything is statistically. Nobody knows. Could you put a finger on why -- what do you expect from LeBron in the fourth? Can you put a finger on why he's only taken 11 shots in the last three minutes of games?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: He will be more aggressive, and we will work to get him aggressive. The important thing that he needs from us is to remind him he doesn't have to play a game that everybody else is expecting. He does not have to answer to other people's opinions or the critics or the expectations, whatever the storylines may be. He has to help us win. That's the most important thing. And he is the most versatile player in the league. So he can do it in a lot of different ways.
Of course we want him to be aggressive, want him to have an attack mentality, want him to be involved in the fourth quarter. We'll look to do all of these things tomorrow. But we're confident, he's confident, and he knows how to help us win. I don't care about anybody else's thought. You could go crazy, and he could go crazy, if he was trying to assimilate all the different opinions on how he can help us win.

Q. After a year unlike any other, even for him, do you get a sense now on the stage that the weight of the world is on him, even heavier than at any point since July?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Two things: One, we wouldn't expect anything different. For our group this year, nothing that we've done or experienced together has been easy, starting from the very first day of training camp going up to an Air Force base and then experiencing all the trials and tribulations of the regular season, and so much of it was grossly exaggerated. But it has been a year that has had a lot of difficult roads. The same goes true for LeBron. He wouldn't have it any other way than to have his back against the wall where everyone is counting him out, being on a team that has an incredible opportunity.
If I told my team, and I did tell them this the other night after the game, but if I told them on the first meeting up at the Air Force base that if we would have been able to play six months of a season and to fight hard to get a home-court advantage and to be in a position to go home in Game 6 to play two games on your home court to win a world championship, would we take it, yes or no, back in October 1st. Every single one of us would have said, I don't care what happened during the regular season, what ups and downs, what tribulations we had to go through, we'll take that. And that's the way our mentality is right now.
We feel very confident coming back here. That does not guarantee you a thing. Particularly in a series that is so competitive as this. But we're playing well enough and doing a lot of good things to feel confident about -- you just have to stay the course. There's going to be a lot of ups and downs in a seven-game series. And that's what it's all about. And we're just moving forward.

Q. There may not be much consolation, but you guys had your most offensively efficient game since really Game 3 of the Philly series. Over the first 42 minutes of the game what breakthroughs did you see? What kind of stuff were you able to accomplish offensively that really you hadn't --
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: The problem is they did, too. That's the give and the take. I think both teams played well. That sometimes will happen in a long series, particularly two defensive-minded teams. Sometimes you just get into a rhythm where you're figuring the other team out. We were able to be aggressive. Guys were stepping in confidently to make shots. We were able to get some opportunities at the rim, at the free-throw line. These are all things that are consistent with our game and that set the tone.
We're doing enough good things to put ourselves in a position to win. I think the bigger issue for us is we have to close. And that's something we have a great deal of confidence in. And we've been through a lot of different type of scenarios where we've had to win games defensively, we've been able to close out games with great execution. We've been able to close out some games with great home run plays with talent. And so now we're looking for any one of those combinations in the next two games.

Q. Since you've been able to do that and you know you guys have the tools to do that, what have you been able to identify to the players to get them to make the difference between these couple of games when they weren't able to apply those tools and when it matters?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Mental stability. Stay the course. We're doing enough good things to put ourselves in a position. And you play a competitive series like this where it's possession-based, you have no reason not to be confident when you come home. We've had a lot of success closing out games.
The key for us is stay the course. There's so many different opinions and storylines out there. The reality is no one really knows. This is a great series, and both teams feel very confident in the positions they're in.

Q. What I'm asking more is, when you're on the court the last five or seven minutes, whatever it turns out to be, how do you get them to use those tools that you know that they have as opposed to the games they haven't?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We've been in a lot of different circumstances. And we've been confident and we've been successful in those. There's a couple of adjustments we're working on making. But a lot of it is things that we're capable of, if we just stay the course and not panic. We've had a lot of success going down the stretch, particularly defensively. And there's been make or miss, a stop or no stop here, things that we've been able to do along the way. But our mental stability is we've got to just continue to work and stay the course.

Q. Erik, could you address Chalmers' emergence, consistent emergence here, and what he's given to your team at a time when it counts the most. And when they've needed it to keep them in games a couple of times, his points have been very important.
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: That's sometimes happens with the moment, the opportunity and the fearlessness of a player that all connect at the same time. And I think that's probably what you're seeing right now with Mario. The operative word is consistent. It's always been with Mario. He is not afraid of anything. He's as fearless a player as I've ever been around. And so the bigger the stage, the bigger the moment, he's been able to help us in the team context and not really step out of and overstep his role. We need him to be aggressive. We need him to get us organized to take big shots. And now we need him to do it again for two more games.
But he's got a lot of fight in him.

Q. Erik, can you talk about the decision to use Eddie House in the last game? And maybe what went into your thinking of House instead of James Jones in that situation?
COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: The speed, quickness. I probably could have gone either way. But they play small a lot of times with Barea and Kidd in there at the same time, or Kidd and Jason Terry. So the speed and quickness of the game. I have no reservations throwing James in there either. At that point we were playing without Dwyane, so I went with Eddie.
I feel fully confident about Eddie, too. I like the way he stepped in there and made some things happen defensively, but also took his open shots without any hesitation. It's a tough position to be in, to not have played, but he's another guy that is absolutely fearless.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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