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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATJune 6, 2012Erik SpoelstraBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Practice Day COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Pick ourselves back up, and we're back to work today. You can't script a series. This is what the playoffs are about. Whatever it takes is whatever it takes. And it doesn't matter how you get there. We still have a great opportunity. We're still alive, and we have an opportunity to win tomorrow and change the momentum of this series again. And so much about the playoffs is maintaining your perspective and your balance as a basketball team. I feel our guys came in with the right mentality today. Not to say we weren't human last night. Everybody felt that last night, but we moved on now, and now it's about the opportunity we have ahead of us. And, again, it's perspective. 3‑2. It doesn't matter how you get there. If it would have been 1‑1‑1‑1‑1 would it have changed things? Maybe from the outset. Q. You've mentioned, used the noise term a lot these two games. Does it get easier or does it get harder in situations like this to just keep an eye on‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I think we're accustomed to it. I don't think anybody is turning on their TV and opening up the newspaper to invite it in. So I think we're all disciplined enough to partmentalize and focus on the challenge that we have ahead of us. It never is easy on your journey to try to be an NBA champion. You'll always have these tough moments where you have to come together and go through that moment together. You can't skip it. There isn't an easy way. Q. How do you get past that whole Ben Hur(Indiscernible) thing where you haven't played well in that building? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We won a big one last year. You can look at it a lot of different ways for motivation. We know we can win tomorrow night. That's the only thing we're focusing on right now. We're not getting overwhelmed with what's happened the last three games. We want to take responsibility for it, learn from it, but we've got to move on. And again, it's perspective. It really is. If the series turns out a different way where it's back and forth, 1 and 1 and all of a sudden after five games they're up 3‑2, you would have a much different perspective than if it went two and lost three. So it's still an opportunity to win tomorrow. Q. What's been your most consistent problem over the last three games? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It's been a little bit different each game. We had a great scoring quarter. Our best scoring quarter in the series in the fourth. Last night we made some great plays down the stretch. We had some tough defensive plays, some loose balls that weren't necessarily 50‑50 balls that we lost. A couple of them were just odd bounces that ended up in unfortunate guy's hands for open shots. But we competed. We gave ourselves a chance to win, but we couldn't make enough plays there at the end. And so now we have to move on. Q. Things like loose balls and such, are you completely satisfied with the effort at times? Or are there times where you guys are getting out‑hustled? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We charted it. You know what, based on our chart, it was about 50‑50 on the loose balls. I think we had two more than they had. And it wasn't for lack of trying. Those two loose balls in the fourth quarter, our hands were on one. We kicked another one. I mean, we were there. They were just tough bounces. You have to deal with that. It didn't turn out in our favor this time, but you have to keep on grinding, keep on pushing, and hopefully it does the next time. Q. (Indiscernible) said last night that you guys weren't playing very smart and that people aren't in the right spots where they should be. Are you seeing that‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I think‑‑ everything after the game you have a different perspective the next day. Like I said, we did some good things. There were some tough possessions both ways. They really are. If you take away the isolation one‑on‑one three from Pierce where he hits the three, there wasn't really any offense. They bang home two threes on broken plays, on loose balls. We were defending the heck out of them in the fourth quarter. We had, like I said, our highest scoring output quarter of the series in the fourth in the moment of truth. It just wasn't enough to get us over the top. So we'll move on to the next game. Q. How is Chris Bosh doing? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: He's doing better. Q. Is there a thought of starting him tomorrow? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I don't know. I'm still going through that thought process. But I think he'll be able to handle a bigger load of minutes. And it would be based more on how he feels during the game. Q. You're someone who always says if you're healthy enough to play, you're healthy enough to play. So how come you decided it wasn't fair to put him in in the fourth? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I thought ‑‑ those are the decisions you have to make as a head coach. I know after the fact those can always be second‑guessed. But we're treading in kind of new waters right now, and he had been out quite a while. But he'll play more tomorrow night. Q. What troubles you most going into Game 6? What aspect? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I don't know if I'm troubled right now. Q. What are the biggest challenges you face‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We're looking forward to the challenge of putting together a full 48‑minute game. In the last two games we've had two golden opportunities to win. That's why you have to keep on pressing forward. It's a make‑or‑miss league. It can look a lot different with a make here, a make there, maybe a miss on their end, and that's why we have to maintain perspective. Nothing has changed. We still have an opportunity to play well and win tomorrow night, and bang, everything changes. Our guys are mature enough and experienced enough to understand that. I know there's probably a lot of opinions and noise out there, but, again, this is still a series. Make no mistake about that. This is as competitive as it can be. And I expect it to be like that tomorrow. Q. Erik, with Garnett having such a good series for them, how much concern‑‑ what kind of challenge or the lack of continuity you guys have had in the post? You started three different centers‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: No, that's not it. He's a great player. He's a proven former MVP. We have to match his force with force, a lot of different bodies. We have to do what we do, but do it better, and rise to that challenge. Q. Erik, as well as Haslem has been playing, do you give more thought to playing he and Bosh together, which worked so well for you in April before they got hurt? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It could happen. It could happen. Now that we have Chris back, I don't know how many minutes he'll actually be able to play tomorrow. But certainly that's an option to go back to some things we were doing before. Q. Is there any concern, though, about playing two bigs in light that Boston has a smaller‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: No, not necessarily. I think this series has been so unconventional for both teams. There have been a lot of odd lineups. Q. James played as much in the fourth last night as he has in a while. Was it because of their zone? What went into your thinking there? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It started out a little bit of rest for Shane, and then James was giving us some good spacing and he was able to chase Ray Allen and take some of those minutes. But we came back with Shane. That was one of the positives, I think, was the game‑‑ that's probably the most efficient we've ever been against the zone. Q. Do you have any numbers? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: There's 13 possessions, I think we scored 16 points. Any time you get more points than possessions it's excellent. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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