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NBA FINALS: HEAT v THUNDERJune 18, 2012Erik SpoelstraMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q.  While both teams have played well at times, it seems like we haven't seen the best game from either team yet. Do you think it's because of the quality of the opposition, the quality of the defense, or just the pressure of The Finals themselves? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: No, I think it's the quality of the competition. When you're talking about the best teams at this time, you take it any way you can, and it's not always going to be pretty. I mean, you're talking about a very talented group that we're playing against. So really what you're looking for is to find as many consistent minutes as you can to play to your identity. For the most part we played to our identity last night. Even if there weren't a lot of really good, smooth offensive possessions, it was to our identity, and that usually is a good formula for us. Q. How have you guys been able to limit James Harden? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Again, we're just trying to stay aggressive to our defensive system. Sometimes this is a make or miss league. He's missed some open looks. We try to make everybody work for the opportunities they get, put pressure on him, meet him early, always have a body in front of him, and then at the end of the day, you hope that's enough to make them miss, especially when it counts. But he's a terrific player, and he's very skilled, very clever. It requires a lot of effort but a lot of thought, also, to be able to contain him without fouling. Q. Two questions if I may: First, the NBA announced today that social media numbers in the Philippines exceed any other country in the world. I see you smiling. How nice is that for you? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: They root for us. When we're over there during the summer, they are. It's great to see. I had my family over here last night from the Philippines. The one thing about the Philippines is they are rabid basketball fanatics, and it's been that way for a while. They've been following us now for the last couple years, as well. Q. And the other point, when you look back at last night, I know it's just one play and there's hundreds of plays in a game, but LeBron's three at the end of the third, did you think that sort of opened things up a lot more in the fourth since there weren't a whole lot of driving lanes in the third and they seemed to come back a little bit in the fourth? Do you think that's just coincidence or largely because one outside shot fell for you guys? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Not sure, but I like the fact that he took it, I like the fact that he kept on attacking, I like the fact that we continued to throw our punches during the game. And there was a lot of skirmishes. It's not always going to go the way you want, but you have to try to continue to play to your strengths, and he was making plays on both ends of the court. He made some big plays defensively and on the glass. He was great. I liked the three‑point opportunities we had last night. We had some good looks. We've had those before on this playoff run. Usually the way we view that is we're due. As long as we continue to attack and make the timely open passes, I think our shooters will knock those down. Q. When you first took this job, were you prepared at all for the scrutiny you'd receive day in and day out? And what's been the secret for you in handling that kind of attention day in and day out? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, probably the biggest thing is you just do it. I get experience by just doing it. When I first got the job, it was nowhere near what it was last summer or two summers ago, and then when we went up to the training camp on the panhandle of Florida, that was much different than anything I'd experienced. You just try to compartmentalize. Going into it you prepare as much as possible. I had met with every single player and said, hey, here's what we can expect. There's going to be an incredible amount of noise, everybody will be under a story line at some point. I'll probably be under it every week. A couple of players, I said, you're going to be under it quite often. But it still wasn't what we anticipated. Until we got into it, I was probably uncomfortable for the first two or three weeks of it, and then you adjust quickly, and this becomes the world. Honestly now I don't think it bothers any one of us. Somebody else mentioned last week about that I created the noise. If you haven't been around us, I don't think there's any other more noise that we can create, and I don't think there's any noise that would affect us now. Q. LeBron hit a lay‑up last night where his back was to the rim. I don't think he even saw the basket, a backhanded lay‑up against Perkins. How has he improved the last two years as a finisher, not only with dunking but using the glass? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, that was a gifted shot. I don't know if he can really work on that one. I think the areas that he's really improved are his left‑handed finishes. He's tremendous extending with that left hand, and his mid‑range is in the paint from about eight, ten feet, floater over his left shoulder, and then obviously his post game. But those are special plays for special players. Q. Is that just an evolution? Every great player kind of realizes that they can't always dunk like they used to, or he can still dunk but can't always use the physical skills? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, I think the biggest evolution of great players is they always stay in constant state of being uncomfortable. They don't stay satisfied. And LeBron every summer has added something to his game. I've seen it when I've followed him from afar, and now that I've gotten to know him he's added two, three, four different elements now to his game, the well‑documented one of the post‑up game, which we needed. But he continues to try to improve and stay uncomfortable. I think that's a sign of greatness. Q. I know you've said you don't look at yourself as a small lineup, but throughout the playoffs you've been able to overcome so many times when you're out there against bigger guys. How have you guys been able to do that? I know sometimes it hasn't worked, Garnett, for instance, when Chris was out. By and large you guys have been able to overcome that. COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, I don't want it to sound like coach speak, but we really don't see ourselves as smaller. We think the versatility of our roster is one of our greatest strengths. When we went through some adversity with Chris being out, it became survival, absolute survival, and any team if you take a major component out during the playoffs, that's what you'll do. You'll do whatever you can to survive, but at least we went through moments during the regular season where we had to play a lot of different lineups and guys at different positions, so they were accustomed to it. But there's a lot of benefits for us, also, on the flip side of that. We have guys that can play different positions, and they're tough minded, and you put them in the right system, we don't view it as a negative. Q. If this were a boxing match, you would have won the 12th round last night. From a confidence standpoint the Thunder has been really good in the fourth quarter here recently. From a confidence standpoint do you think that can carry over? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I don't think confidence will be an issue for either team. Both teams have a lot of confidence. You know, right now it's about the survival of incredible competition. That's what it's about right now. And making the four or five plays that'll make the difference in the game. We felt that we could have won Game 1 even though we didn't play well, and you have to give them a lot of credit. I'm sure they're saying the same thing about either one of these last games. And you just have to stay the course and keep on grinding and then hopefully find a way at the end. Q. If you go back to Indiana, Danny Granger, Paul Pierce in Boston and now Kevin, LeBron has been able to get those guys into foul trouble. Has that been a special focus or is it just a matter of that's how the calls have gone? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: That's a residual benefit of how we want to play to our identity. And this is something we've had to continue to emphasize all year long. It does not come easy. Everybody knows our strengths, we know their strengths. Who can consistently get to it, that's the issue. Sometimes it's easier than normal, sometimes you really have to work for it. But the more aggressive we are, the better it works for our basketball karma, if you will, and that's one of the benefits. When he attacks, he has the ability to draw sometimes upwards of double‑digit fouls on the opponent. Q. Could you talk about what you're getting out of your high pick‑and‑roll with Wade in the middle of the floor, and also the movement you're getting where LeBron is hitting Wade or Dwyane hitting LeBron when they're in motion coming downhill? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, this is a very athletic team that can come a lot of ground, OKC. So they're forcing us to move bodies, try to move the ball, even at times where it doesn't look like it, the emphasis is there. The guys are trying to understand. If we don't move our bodies, we don't get the ball moving. Still want to get guys where they're comfortable, where they can be aggressive. Dwyane really likes to be aggressive obviously up top, but we have to move them, otherwise they can cover the court with this. And then their speed, they can really bottle you up. Q. LeBron is averaging 30 and 10 here in the playoffs. At the risk of being a hostage to positional designations, is it time we started thinking about him as a four rather than a three? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: No. Think of him as a great basketball player. That's what I tell him. You're a player. Make plays. Make plays for us, one through five, whatever it takes right now. Don't overthink it. He has that ability to make plays and have an impact on every single possession, and that can be the block, the deflection, the rebound, and then obviously the big offensive load that he has. I don't call him a four. I don't call Shane a four. They're both our forwards. LeBron is playing one through five, Shane is playing three positions. You know, this team, the way it was built, it forced all of us to look at it differently, even the players that we wanted to acquire. Shane Battier this summer, that would probably be deemed as unconventional in other people's eyes, but we had to look at this team differently the way it was put together and the strengths of the players, the versatility. From the outside it looks like it is incredibly unconventional, but that's a strength. Q. In light of the free‑throw disparity last night, can you talk about the art of not fouling while playing above‑average defense? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It's tough. It's tough with that team. I'll tell you, they're very similar to us. You've got to be very disciplined. Your technique has to be great, feet first, and then hope you're not leaving it to chance, to the officials, because they have some great attackers and shot‑makers. Q. You grew up in this organization sort of revolutionizing the use of video, and I was wondering, do you still consider that a very essential teaching tool? Is that still a really important part of analysis and teaching and work with your players? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It's absolutely critical when you get to this stage of the year. We're not spending much time practicing, not spending much time hitting and sweating on the court. So probably the majority of our teaching sessions are on film. But also you get to the playoffs, neither side is outworking either side. Both teams are spending an unhealthy amount of time behind the scenes devouring the film and trying to come up with a game plan. They're doing the exact same thing as we are. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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