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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATMay 30, 2012Erik SpoelstraMIAMI, FLORIDA: Game Two Boston Celtics - 111 Miami Heat - 115 COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: There just can't be any other way with this team, and it has to be the hard way. And it always seems to be that competitive when we play against this team, and tonight didn't let us down from that. One of the biggest keys we said coming into this series was to embrace the difficult, because it will be difficult. Tonight was tough. It was ugly at times. We couldn't get into a great rhythm. Particularly in the first half. We were caught executing off their makes almost the entire half. They were very good. Obviously, Rondo was sensational tonight. But we were able to stay with it with our minds and keep on grinding, even after Ray Allen's three. I was probably thinking the same thing everybody else was thinking for a split‑second when he banged home that three, okay, here we go again, but we were able to stay in it mentally. I think that's where we've been different now. And we focused on grinding that overtime, and had to do it the tough way. A lot of contributions from different guys, particularly off the bench. UD gave us a warrior game, and he seems to thrive one way or another. These games he rises to the occasion. Q. The Rondo thing, you've been going under on him, do you pretty much have to? Is that a no‑choice thing? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I have no idea, I'll be honest. We've tried almost everything with him, and the conventional wisdom of saying he's got to beat you with the score, beat you with the jumpshot, beat you by not getting all the other guys going. They only had 15 assists, and you would never think that he would have that kind of monster game. What it speaks to is his competitiveness; he's a competitor. He's a basketball player. Whatever that team needs, he's going to do. And so somehow we were able to withstand his incredible game. Q. Two‑parter here: Dwyane had sort of an uneven game, and it seemed especially early they were showing the help a lot and trapping him, whatever, making him a passer. Then he got free in the third, and then kind of in the fourth, and didn't show up again, and then in the overtime did. What do you attribute that to mostly? And in the second part, if you can replay what happened on that play where Ray got the open three and tied the game? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I would rather not, but that's Dwyane's mental toughness. And you have to give them credit. They really came out and defended the heck out of us, particularly in the first half. They were getting us a step out of everything. They're really aggressive on our pick‑and‑rolls. We couldn't get separation. Couldn't get into the paint the way we wanted to. So he made some adjustments on that. We made some adjustments with different actions to create a little bit more space for him. Different guys setting the screen and a different look. He was able to stay in it mentally through all of that. That's the way it's going to be the rest of the series. It's going to be tough, and you have to find different ways to impact the game. Once it became go‑to time in the overtime, that's when Dwyane's mentally toughest. And he made some big plays down the stretch. Aggressive, even through all the fatigue, he was able to do that. The other play was a little bit in rotation. It was a little bit unforced why we got into rotation. We don't necessarily need to get into that. But once he got into the paint, I saw the ball go bing, bang, boom. My eyes saw one guy open and I said, oh, boy, here we go again. They have an uncanny way of finding him when it counts. Q. Could you talk about LeBron's game down the stretch. First of all, the look he had on the last‑second shot of regulation. Then he missed a couple of free throws. Then he kept battling, hit the free throws. COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I loved it. Q. The tip. Talk about the whole scenario. COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: For a split‑second once we got the offensive rebound I was about to call a timeout. No way, I'm not giving Doc a chance to scheme something. And he wanted the ball. I could see the look in his eyes. And what I liked about is he made winning plays. He missed a couple of free throws, and yet still had an impact. That loose ball down in our end, okay? A couple of plays keeping the ball alive on the offensive end, drawing fouls, the 24 free‑throw attempts. But he made winning plays down the stretch guarding a guy who had an incredible night. That's what it's about. It's not always going to be about the shot. It's about finding a different way to win, especially against a team like this. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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