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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PACERS v HEATMay 31, 2013Erik SpoelstraINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA: Practice Day Q. Coach, what is it that you guys did so differently to slow Hibbert down in the second half? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Not a whole lot. Just more activity, more commitment to how we want to play with more pressure, covering ground, getting them to play a little bit quicker. But he's a big target. So if he catches it in his wheelhouse, he's tough to handle. That's why our speed and quickness has to get to their size before it gets to us. Q. Got a closeout game tomorrow. You guys have done very well in closeout games. Talk about how you've been able to do so well in those games and what you anticipate for tomorrow. COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, you know, our experience of being in a lot of different situations has taught us a lot. It doesn't guarantee anything, and we know that the toughest teams to play are the ones that are on their last stand. And so we can expect a great environment, and we need to have a real collective resolve to get it done. That's why we wanted to connect today and start to get our minds ready for tomorrow. Q. After we spoke to you last night post game, players kind of shared a little bit of what went on with Juwan and LeBron at halftime. What was your view of all of that? Was all that gone before you got in there? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Right as I was getting in Juwan was finishing up. That's why he's here. For a lot of different reasons. And if we needed to call upon him, like we did in the Indiana series last year because of injury, he's still able, ready and capable. But it's the true veteran leadership that gets tossed around probably too often in this league. But his purity, the respect level, the credibility that he has, it resonates with our guys. Specific, it resonates with the guys in the locker room. They hear what he says. It means something. And it was raw communication. We're at that point right now it has to be real, it has to be raw, it has to be eye to eye, our communication, because these are desperate times. There's no looking back. It's either us or them. Q. Can he‑‑ even though you've had the same core of guys for a while, some of them for a decade have been around you, can a guy like Juwan get through in a way that a coach can't sometimes? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. They hear it from us, hear it from me all the time. Sometimes they don't want to hear it. The best, strongest teams are the ones with player‑player communication. Real communication. Holding each other accountable. In today's age, and even society, peers don't want to hold each other accountable. There's almost an unwritten code not to call each other out. It has to be done, but done in a respectful eye‑to‑eye way, and then that can be extremely powerful. When you get desperate enough, it can be very inspiring. But it has to be pure and it has to be with a team ego in mind. Q. Erik, you talked about taking a no‑excuse approach to this game. How tough is it for you guys to get to your game when it's obvious that Dwyane and Chris Bosh just couldn't give you what they normally could? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: That's what playoffs are about. You don't know what's going to unfold. At the end of the day, yeah, we want to impose our identity and get to our normal things 90% of the time. When you're playing against a team that's equal to you, they're going to make it tough. And at that point it has to be about embracing the competition. Whatever it takes, let's get the job done. The keys sometimes change slightly from game to game, quarter to quarter. You just have to make plays to help us win. Other guys are stepping up, and it might just be we need a game from somebody to get us over the hump. Last night it was a real inspiring effort in the third quarter that everybody that played their minutes gave us impactful minutes. And even after reviewing the film today, no one came in and gave us empty minutes. Q. How concerned are you about their(Indiscernible) ‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I'm not. It's about whatever it takes. I understand the storylines that are out there. Let's just get the job done together. If we get the result that we want, no one will remember those storylines. Q. The cliché always is that the closeout is the toughest one to get. Having been in this position three years in a row now, when you're a game from The Finals, is it tough to stay locked in on this one moment? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: That's where our habits of staying process‑oriented‑‑ you can't start thinking about opening up invitations. That's over there. You can't even think about that. It is 100% commitment to the process of170, 180‑‑ I would love it to be 190 ‑‑ possessions in the game. Whatever it is, we have to focus on that first possession and go one by one by one by one and try to impact those possessions and win those possessions. And then hopefully the result will be what we want. Q. Erik, Chris obviously didn't take a lot of shots last night, but he did have a higher percentage of shots in the basket area than in the previous game. Was that by design on your end? Was he being more aggressive? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Both. We wanted to get him in areas where he can get some easy ones. Be aggressive at the rim. One of his best looks was rolling to the rim, and Hibbert made a terrific block to save that possession. But I liked that. That was one of my favorite possessions that Chris had, really getting to an open area and having an opportunity to put some pressure on their defense, put some pressure on Hibbert, get to the rim, maybe get to the line. We need a handful of those opportunities, but we need to also put him in situations where he can get those opportunities, and at the same time, he's making a big sacrifice for us as well that not everybody understands. He's also providing space for us. It's a fine line. It's not going to be a perfect line, and some people might not understand that role. But it's helping us, and that's the bottom line with us. Q. (Indiscernible) obviously getting in trouble. How much do you enjoy or embrace the intensity when guys are getting intense, or getting fired up? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: The passion you want. And more importantly, it's not the passion that everybody notices, where all eyes are on whatever, a skirmish. It's the passion and the communication in the huddles that's raw, that's real, that's eye to eye, that's not necessarily all good stuff that's coming out. But it's stuff that needs to be said. That's the passion you want. That's when you can make a difference as a team and you feel a collective spirit. When you're separate and not saying something, that's when‑‑ that's a concern. So it was a big step forward last night in terms of our connection and communication. It needs to be real right from the tip tomorrow. Q. Do you have any concern that the Birdman could be suspended? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We haven't heard anything from the league yet. And so at this point it's something that's out of our hands. We'll just have to wait and see. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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