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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATJune 4, 2012Erik SpoelstraMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: This is classic playoff competition, and that's what it is at its highest. And this is really what you live for, however you get to these points. We're disappointed that we couldn't steal one in Boston. Very competitive there in the second half. Couldn't come away with a win in overtime, but we feel good about some things. It's competition. And you have to find different ways to win. So as we come back here home, all we're focused on is tomorrow and what we have to do. Now that may mean we have to grind games and try to hold them to a low percentage and get some in the open court. Maybe not all of the possessions will be pretty. But when the competition is fierce like it is right now, you just have to try to find a way and different ways to win. And we feel very confident coming here at home. Now, regarding Chris. Obviously, there's a report out there that he's ready to go and playing tomorrow. His status is day‑to‑day. And I know everything is heightened because of the playoffs. I'll continue to make my evaluations about Chris. He's making significant progress, but to say that it's definitive right now is premature. Each day will be a new evaluation, and then we'll go from there. Q. Do you intend to evaluate him today? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah. He had three good workouts in Boston. The reality of it is it's not a normal situation. Everything is heightened. It is extreme. And so we'll have to be very judicious in our evaluations. Q. What are you going to be looking for when you evaluate him? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: The normal thing as we go through evaluating when players are coming back from injury. And so conditioning, comfort level, their comfort level‑‑ I mean with the training staff. But he is making progress. It's premature to say that he'll definitively play. At this point each day is its own day. If he doesn't play, it's not a setback. You can go on and on and on and drive yourself crazy. We'll evaluate it every day. Q. You talked last night about how there's no textbook for having guys play with fouls like LeBron's situation last night. Is there a textbook for how to put Chris Bosh back into your lineup five games into a series? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: That, I think I would feel much more comfortable doing that than the other, learning how to play without him in extreme playoff situations. We couldn't win without him for two years. Not only could we not win without him, we looked horrible without him. So I think that was the bigger challenge. If and when we ever get to that point, we'll gladly take that challenge. He was our most important player for a long period of time. Q. Erik, when Bosh returns, will you be inclined to start him right away? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: If. Way too early to say. Q. If he does‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It's way too early to say. Q. There's the obvious things, but what do you miss without Chris Bosh in this series? Can you kind of summarize? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, our offense has changed considerably with him out. And we're reinventing ourselves on the fly and making, I think, great progress on that end. In the playoffs against a great defensive team, it's not always going to look fluid. But we're doing some actions that at least guys feel comfortable with, and we're able to create some triggers. Kevin Garnett makes it always a challenge. He's one of the better weak‑side defenders in the league. Defensively he's always been a multi‑position anchor for us that knows our schemes and allows us to do different things. So everybody knows that's been around our team that he was a major component of what we do. Q. Coach, Boston basically did what they were supposed to do. But looking back at the two losses, what stood out most about them? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: The most disappointing part of our Boston trip was our inconsistent defensive commitment. The second half last night was much better. In the first game it really was for about two periods, the first and the fourth. This is a competitive scrum. You have to get into the pit, make sure you're committing to get your hands dirty. It won't always be pretty, and you have to compete every single possession. Obviously, we did that in the second half last night. We put ourselves in a position to win. We had to overcome a big deficit to get to that point. Whether or not that caused us to expend too much energy, I'll never know. But we're better and we can be more consistent than we have been. Here in this building we feel confident that we can play. Both teams feel confident right now. That's the way it should be in the Conference Finals. Our guys are really looking forward to playing this game at home. Q. Erik, can you break down the decision‑making both on the sideline and on the floor for the last possession of regulation and the last possession of overtime? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, I mean, the last possession of regulation we're trying to get a little bit of movement to get LeBron on the run, and then from there it broke down, and he had to make the play off the dribble. And then they collapsed and our spacing wasn't terrific. It always looks better when the ball goes in. At the end of overtime, they fouled us in the first one. We took another 20, tried to run a little bit of misdirection, to have one option and maybe open up a lane for Dwyane again. Got too deep into the options, again pushed it to the end of the clock, but got a clean look at it. Everything about those plays we'll address with the team and our execution. Q. Erik, not using Mike Miller in the second half, was it health‑related or just a lineup decision on your part? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA:  Lineup decision. Those are tough decisions in this series. He's ready to go. He's giving us everything he's got. I don't think there's any more that he can give. Norris gave us some good minutes, and that speed, I think, and quickness helped. But that doesn't change my thinking of tomorrow night with Mike. He'll play. Q. At the end of the game, if you look at your players' numbers (Indiscernible) 24 seconds, it's like over 10, last second shots. Is that something that you can address schematically? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We'll work on it. We want to make sure they're in places where they can feel comfortable. Everybody has to be a live option. It can't be a situation where everybody knows and thinks and absolutely is sure who is shooting the ball. The main thing we look for is the spacing and whether we're getting clean looks. At the end of regulation, it wasn't a clean look. At the end of overtime, even though it wasn't the best‑executed play we could run, we got a clean look at it. Q. Erik, you would rather, obviously, the series was over or 3‑1 or something. But is there an enjoyment in a series like this? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It's competition. You live for this. Q. So much was made of Boston's run and all that, the DNA‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: If you're a competitor, you live for this. And it's everything about it. It's the highs and the lows, the knowing but not knowing. It's competition, man. And these are the days 20 years from now that we'll all be thinking about, oh, man, that's when you felt most alive. Q. Looking at the last four games, do you feel that Dwyane has a better handle now as far as what Boston is throwing at them defensively in terms of (Indiscernible) heading into tomorrow night's game? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, we have a good idea of what they're trying to do. And I think we'll continue to make adjustments to try to get them in places he can attack. Obviously the more we can defend and get some opportunities in the open court, that puts bodies off him. You are seeing the flip side of that with Rondo. He's getting a lot of opportunities in broken situations in the open court off their stops. It's the same idea. And then, obviously, the challenge is getting Garnett moving and getting him out of that paint where he can be so effective. Q. Erik, what did you think of Rondo's halftime comments on TV about the Heat complaining‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Normal playoff chatter. Q. Is there any validity at all to what he said? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I could really care less‑‑ couldn't care less about what another player has to say about our team. The deeper you get into a competitive series, the more people‑‑ the more noise there tends to be. Q. Pushing aside whatever Rondo may have said, do you think that the players are sometimes too concerned about the refs when they go down? Do you think they're looking at the refs for a call too often? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I think we've managed that part of the game better than we have in the past. I think, particularly in this playoff run, we've been able to focus on things that we can control. And that's not one of them. But if you have been around our team, I think you've seen a lot of progress, particularly from last year. Q. Going back to Chris for a second, how much does he get a vote in this at this point? I know you've always been you, Jay, the player, there's some combination thereof, but does the player‑‑ is the vote heightened or lessened? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: He'll get a vote. Again, everything is heightened right now. These are extreme circumstances. Everybody will be involved in the decision, if and when it happens. But you always have to take the player's opinion with a grain of salt. They all say they're ready. Q. Does he say he's ready? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: He said he was ready ten days ago. Q. Could it get to the point where he's a game‑time decision tomorrow? Do you think you'll know earlier in the day depending on what he has to do‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Chris, I think it's too early even to go there. Q. How are the extreme circumstances changing regarding (Indiscernible)? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: You know, you always hear the cliché. Would you play if it was the playoffs? It's the playoffs. So you have to make a lot of these type of decisions right now. I think league‑wide right now, the four teams, there's probably more than a handful of players that would not be playing right now. Q. Can you change anything up? Going back to the Indiana series, starts have been‑‑ more often than not you've dug out of them, but starts have been a concern. Can you switch anything up? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, we have to get into the fight earlier. That's the most important thing. The competitiveness of it, the big muscle areas. Yes, there's things that will always‑‑ continue to make adjustments with schematically. But it's the effort and the energy and all that right from the get‑go. That's why here at home we feel confident about coming back. Even after two tough games. That Game 4, strikingly similar to Game 2 flip‑flopped. They came back into their building with a lot of confidence. So are we. We gave it a shot there at the end. We had a great opportunity at the end of regulation, the last couple of minutes and also in overtime. If that's not the definition of a slugfest in overtime four to two, I don't know what is. That's the way this series is going to be. Nobody said this was going to be easy in general, and certainly not this series against that team. Q. Erik, getting back to Chris for a second. If this was 3‑1, would you have the luxury of resting him a few more days, not having to consider playing him? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Who knows. There's so many variables to consider. I just have to‑‑ we'll take it day by day. Q. Had you liked the shots you got in overtime last night? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Some of them, yeah. A couple of them. Look, you have two really good defensive teams. If you're not getting great opportunities in the open court, you're not going to get a lot of clean looks in the half court. We had, I think, three shots that were in and out that could change it. And that's why this is a make‑or‑miss league. Q. Erik, you've spent countless hours preparing for the Celtics. What is the number one thing that has surprised you about the way they've played? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: You know, I think we anticipated they would try to play fast against us and Rondo would be extremely aggressive. Because of Chris being out and who we're playing, they've downsized quite a bit. Q. I know you've wanted to keep Dwyane Wade's minutes down. 51 minutes last night, the most ever he's played in the playoffs. Any concern about how he's going to bounce back after that? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We had a lot of discussions in the second half. We said we would work it out. At that point once we got on our run, the only minutes I would take him out would be two minutes before one of the time‑outs. And I had direct communication with him every time. Okay, I can get you right now. And he wanted to keep on going. Surprisingly, he looked fresh. He was into the competition in the second half. He did not want to come out, and we needed it. Q. So you are pretty confident of him bouncing back well tomorrow? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Oh, he'll bounce back, yeah. Q. What are you doing with the players today? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Nothing today. Treatment and optional shooting and free‑throws. Q. Were you able to gauge the mood of the team, or anything like that? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Our mood was good after the game. We understand. This is not supposed to be easy. This is what competition is all about. And when you get in a competitive series like this, yes, there will be highs and lows. You're disappointed, you're angry, sometimes you're exhilarated. But I'll tell you what, you feel alive. That's what our guys feel right now. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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