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NBA FINALS: SPURS v HEATJune 9, 2013Erik SpoelstraMIAMI, FLORIDA: Game Two San Antonio Spurs - 84 Q.  Erik, can you talk, when LeBron was struggling early, just the supporting efforts you got from Ray and Mike Miller and Chris stepping up and even Chris Andersen, how encouraging and heartening was it that your star could be off a little and everyone else stepped up for him? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, it's such a competitive series, one of the things we talked about is contributing in whatever way you can, and even if it's small minutes, big minutes. This series probably is defined by all the little things. LeBron couldn't get into a rhythm early on, and other guys stepped up. He showed great poise and trust in not getting caught up in feeling like he had to make the play or score, but rather either facilitate or let other guys make plays. And that's what they did. Mario was able to make some plays. Ray and Mike both found open gaps for the shooting. Dwyane and CB were able to make plays in the first half, and LeBron was fine with that. Q. When you talked about LeBron not having to make quote, unquote, the play, and then he goes out and makes the play on the block on Splitter. The game was well in hand at that point, what did that sequence mean tonight? And what could that mean going forward? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: What you like from a competitive standpoint is a lot of players wouldn't go for that. The risk‑reward, and they weigh that right away and the possibility of getting dunked on and being on a highlight film. He's been on that highlight film both ways. It takes great courage to go up and make one of those plays. Obviously you have to have that ability. He and Dwyane always make those plays, knowing there's a big chance they'll get dunked on. Q. Coach, just talk about the defense you guys had against Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. What was the key to slowing those three guys down? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I don't know. I really don't know. They are great players. Duncan made a lot of those shots last game. Same thing with Parker. We tried to keep a body in front as much as possible. Make them have to work for it, just like they're trying to do to us. We were able to get a little bit more to our identity and get some mistakes that got us in the open court. But they do such a great job of moving the ball and executing with precision that you've got to be great early, and that's sometimes not enough. Q. Mario hit the two threes but also had a couple of and‑one situations where he went to the basket. It seems like he's been very aggressive over the past couple of weeks when he sees an opportunity. What did you see in his game tonight? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: That's happening all playoffs. Just the way we're being defended, our guards, our point guards both have to be aggressive and make plays for us. That started happening two series ago. This is a good defensive team, much like we've faced. So everybody has to be a live option. And when we're at our best, you're not necessarily sure where the ball is going to end up, and guys have to make the right decision to be able to do that. Q. Erik, another question on Mario: What is it about when he gets to this stage of the NBA Finals? He's had some big Finals games. He's averaging about three more points in Finals games than his career average. What is it about him offensively at this stage? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: You don't know. We have a lot of those guys. You can't teach that quality, the big game guts. They feel most alive in these situations when you typically feel the most pressure. Drives me crazy sometimes in December and January. But when you get to this time of year you like it. Q. Anything specifically just on Mario that he's been able to‑‑ COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: He's got guts. Come on. He had that all the way in college. He's got incredible confidence in his game. He's shown that throughout the years, even when it's sometimes‑‑ I wouldn't say irrational. You have to have guts to play with our guys. If you don't, you get swallowed up. The good thing about it is the other guys were fine with him making plays. That might be different the next game. As they make adjustments, everybody has got to be live. Him being aggressive helps us, no question. Q. Erik, coming into this series there's a lot of talk about the Big Threes for both teams. How important is the next three, the supporting cast for these teams in terms of supporting the outcome? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Small things will make a major thing in this series, because talent level is pretty equivalent. And so it's going to be loose balls, rebounds, execution, guys coming in with confidence, being aggressive, that type of thing. Everybody was fine with it tonight. Wherever the ball ended up, you know, and not getting caught up in an individual ego, but more of a team ego. Q. Erik, what kind of boost have you gotten from Mike Miller, not just the three‑pointers but the whole package? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Kind of what I was talking about. The little things, he does a lot of those things. Very similar to Shane. Some of those things don't show up in a boxscore, but his effort, his hustle, extra efforts, closeouts. He has a knack for being around the ball. If you see a collision or loose ball, Mike likely is involved with it somehow, some way. You add all those up, those are winning plays. Q. Erik, it's been a while since you've been on the postgame podium and talked about skirmishes. Seems like this was as good as any skirmish you have had. COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah. It felt like we were losing all of them, too. We were playing okay in the first half, but it seemed like all the way through ‑‑ midway through the third quarter we were losing every skirmish, every loose ball, every tipped ball, every broken play. We weren't finishing those plays. That was really hurting us. We weren't able to create some separation. Then it changed for whatever reason, the momentum, the energy, and we were able to win some of those momentum plays. And it made a tremendous difference, obviously, going down the other end. This series will be defined by those plays. Q. Erik, it feels to me that LeBron wasn't as aggressive as we expected from the first part of the game, but he did manage to get everybody involved. What can you tell us about the performance tonight from him? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: It's a great performance. That's the thing, look, we've been in this fishbowl now for three years, we don't get caught up in that. That doesn't really make sense that he wasn't being aggressive. You have to give credit to the competition. They're scheming and ready and taking our normal strengths away from us, and you have to have a player and players that have a team ego to understand that next layer of offense. Sometimes that's facilitating. Sometimes that's screening. Sometimes that's executing offense and letting somebody else make a play against a very good defense. And that's what he showed tonight. Even though a lot of people are unwarrantedly criticizing him for not being aggressive. He's being aggressive. He's creating opportunities for us. It just might not be in the way you're accustomed to. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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