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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATJune 2, 2012Erik SpoelstraBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Practice Day COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We are reviewing (Indiscernible) yesterday, and we have to move on very quickly and get prepared for tomorrow. And basically the summation of yesterday was they played like a more desperate team, all right? We probably did enough things offensively. Even though it wasn't smooth all the way through, I think we played well enough to give ourselves a chance to win on that end. But defensively we were as poor as we've been all the playoffs. They were able to get probably the easiest buckets they were able to get all the playoffs. And particularly in the paint, at the rim, I think we had playoff highs in lay‑up attempts and points in the paint. So we have to be much tougher in those areas, the effort areas, the big muscle areas, which we were in the first two games. And we have to get back to that tomorrow. Q. Dwyane and LeBron had 36 free‑throws in Game 2. Yesterday LeBron had five, Dwyane had none. What happens? What do they need to do differently? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, we just have to get them in spots where they can continue to be aggressive. And they will be. And we'll make some adjustments to make sure they're aggressive.  They were able to get to the rim a few times. That's just the way it goes. But again, at the end of the day, you score 91 in the playoffs against a good defensive team like this, and you shoot 49%, it may not be pretty, but that was probably good enough to give ourselves a chance if we play our normal defensive game, even against a great offensive team like that. But we were not sharp on that end of the court. Q. How do you explain the missed free‑throws? I think it's 33 now in three games? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We have to keep on stepping up there with confidence. We work on it. My bigger focus is making sure we get free throw attempts. We only had 20 last night, so we have to do some things to make sure we're getting our guys in a place where they can be aggressive. Q. With KG having the kind of game he had, is it a matter of getting him off his sweet spots? Is there more involved in just limiting his effectiveness? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: A little bit of everything. He came in with an aggressive mindset. They came in with a mentality make sure he got some deep catches. So we have to meet him with force, play him with two people at times, but do things harder and better than what we did last night. Q. Erik, in the second half you had LeBron on him it seemed like quite a bit. What was the reasoning for that? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well the fourth quarter we were down by 24. I went with LeBron at the center. That was the biggest reason. Q. Do you have an update on Chris? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: No update on Chris, no. Q. Can you guys still afford to go small like that? I know you guys made your run. But when KG is in there playing the way he's playing, is that something that you have to have a big on him? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I don't know. We'll find out. I don't know how much of that is real or not real or circumstantial. It was 28‑16 with that lineup. But we were playing out of desperation, down by 24. We had an opportunity to really get it to about six or five. That might have made it a little more interesting. We couldn't get over the hump. We'll just have to wait and see. It's not necessarily about that. It's more about the big muscle effort areas, being quicker to loose balls, making multiple efforts on plays. Again, they were making one trigger plays to get deep catches in the paint on any situation they wanted to. It could have been a pick‑and‑roll, it could have been a post‑up, it could have been a catch and shoot. But it was the floodgates at the rim. I don't think they've had a game like that‑‑ I think that's the second most they have had all season long, and the highest in the playoffs. That's the most we've given up in the playoffs and I think the second most we've given up all season long. That's not who we are. We know they'll challenge you and make things difficult, but we have to come up with a much better force and much more committed to what we do defensively. We did enough things offensively to win that‑‑ put ourselves in a position to win. Q. Erik, for you guys how important is it having this practice today to work out all the issues you feel you need to‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We don't have a lot of issues. At the same time we think if we do things the way we're capable of with a commitment to that effort and toughness to our system, that this is probably not going to be a series where you just run away with games. These are games you'll have to grind out. The possessions won't all be pretty. But we didn't give ourselves the best chance last night, and we realize that. There are some things we can definitely build on that we feel good about. But defensively we can be much, much better. Q. Is Chris practicing today, doing any work? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: No, he'll do a little bit of his normal work. After last night, we'll not be doing a lot of full‑contact stuff today. Q. Fans get so excited when you go up 2‑0. Then when you lose they get equally crazy. Is there an overreaction, in your mind, both ways? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Probably to the people outside our circle. That's the only thing we're concentrating on is our inner circle. And all the noise and everything out there, you can get whiplash if you allow yourself to. Our focus just has to be on owning it, number one. We can't just discard it and say this is a throw‑away game. But learn from it and make the proper adjustments for tomorrow. Q. LeBron has bounced back before from poor personal performances in Boston in the playoffs. What would you expect his mindset to be coming back from a game that you guys lost but he himself played well personally? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: He knows what our ultimate goal is. Yeah. I think we're going to have a mentality to be much sharper, much tougher tomorrow. Q. Doc kind of said it after Game 1, and Popovich said he needed a little more nasty. Why, when things aren't going well in the playoffs, it seems like it's the first thing that coaches pick out is effort? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: You look at all the effort areas we dominated in the first two games. We got our butt kicked in all of them last night. So it's not a stretch for me to go that route. Points in the paint, they pounded us. The rebounding, they pounded us. Free‑throws, they beat us. Lay‑up attempts, they beat us. Every area that has to do with toughness and effort we lost. And the first two games we were winning those categories. Loose balls, 50‑50 opportunities. So often when you talk about teams where there's a small margin of error both ways, you get to this level, the talent will arguably be equal. It will come down to a lot of those things that transcend it. Q. I know you guys aren't going to do a lot of full‑contact stuff today, but what do you get by getting the guys out here and practicing before a game like Game 4? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, we have to own it and learn from it. We'll make the appropriate adjustments. Again, there are some things that we feel confident about coming out of these three games. But at the same time we know it can be much better as a group that prides ourselves on our defense, even against a team that challenges you. You have to be very committed on that side of the floor. We feel we can play better on that end. Q. How would you assess Dwyane's play in the series? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, I mean, look, we're trying to win games. And Dwyane is a big part of what we do. And he's got a lot of responsibility on the other end. He's guarding multiple players. I would like to see if we can get him some easy ones in the open court, cuts, in the post, maybe some drives on the weak side. But we also have to do a better job of getting him in areas where he can be aggressive, and that will be part of our focus tomorrow. Q. How is he physically? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: He's fine. Q. Erik, do you think you have to get him going earlier? It seems like as the game goes on, he makes the adjustments and then gets going. Do you think you need to get him going early? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We'll see. Sometimes the game dictates that. And sometimes what they do, you have to give them credit. They're putting two on the balls as much as they can, trying to make him a passer. But we'll have to get him in areas where he can still be effective and aggressive. Q. Erik, they made it sound so simple after the game. Throw it up, Kevin is the tallest guy, he catches it. If Chris is not playing, how do you solve such a simple problem of height there? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, we've dealt with that for a couple of rounds, and we feel we can be very disruptive when we're committed to what we do defensively. In some ways this series is probably more small ball than it is big ball. Certainly from what we faced last series, and even with Tyson Chandler in the first round. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Off makes it's difficult. For most of the game it felt like we were playing off of the ball going in. And that's probably the best we've played all year when it's that type of circumstance. Normally we're horrible when we're taking the ball out of the net every single time. But again, while it wasn't pretty the whole game, we did enough to put ourselves in a position to win if we even had the normal defensive game, which we did not. Yeah, obviously we want to play at a pace that's more appropriate to us than them. Q. Your bench was huge the first two games. Not so much in Game 3. What's the key to jump‑starting that second unit? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We just have to trust what we do. They don't always have to make shots. We have full confidence in them when they're good, clean looks and the ball is moving. We had a lot of possessions where it was moving, and we had some possession when the ball was sticking. When it sticks, those guys don't get involved as much. Q. They were pretty efficient in game two also. Maybe that one was a little more flukey with the jumpers that they were hitting. This one was maybe a little bit more concerning. Is that the defense on that end? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: A lot of times that's how those guys get involved, from our activity defensively, the open‑court opportunities, rather than the half‑court opportunities. And all they need is a handful more to get involved and feel a little bit more confident and in the flow of the game. Q. Just from your defensive perspective, this one was a little bit more concerning, even though they scored 111 points the other night in Game 2? This one was more concerning‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, they tend to do a lot of their damage from outside, typically. They're a great jump‑shooting team. We allowed a great jump‑shooting team to have easy opportunities to get themselves into a terrific flow. Q. You talked about ‑‑ obviously, you faced a 7'2" big in the last series. Garnett isn't taller than that. How do you guys adjust to sort of take‑‑ is there anything you can do from‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, there are some things we can do. But the first thing is commit more to what we do in the effort areas. It's tough to judge apples and oranges. Our effort numbers and our activity numbers that we chart were the lowest of the playoffs. Tied I think with Game 3 in Indiana. So if we don't have that, it's tough to judge how any of the schematic things were working when we weren't applying our normal type of activity. We have to start with that and then see. If we have our normal activity that we had, such as in a desperation game, Game 4 in Indiana, the offense was probably good enough to put ourselves at least in a position to have a chance on the road. Q. Any thoughts to going back to a big lineup? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We'll see. Both teams are making adjustments. You're seeing some wild lineups on both sides. We've had to reinvent ourselves with Chris out. So as the series goes on, everything is on the table. Q. When you talk about effort, you're also talking about adjustments. How do you as a coach draw a line between there's more tactical things we need to do or maybe we don't need to do the tactical things as much as just doing the things we were doing originally? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: That's where it's tough to gauge it off of last night. Yes, we have been making small adjustments each game. But the biggest adjustment we have to make for tomorrow is our toughness and effort areas. That's No. 1. That would transcend anything else we do schematically. Q. I know you're probably tired of answering the Chris question, but how close do you think he is‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I'm not even thinking about Chris today. He's not on my mind. I love you, Chris, but I'm focused on tomorrow. That's all my energies are focused on right now. I know I don't have to watch a workout of his today. If it ever gets to that point, I'll start to let my mind go there. But it's not at that time. Q. Can getting more aggressive on the perimeter prevent some of those entry passes? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yes, specifically in certain areas. We're an aggressive team. When we back off and we're not aggressive‑‑ we have to show the appropriate respect to Rondo. But there's other areas where we can be more aggressive. And that's our identity. When we don't play like that, it hasn't been a successful formula. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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