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NBA FINALS: HEAT v SPURSJune 14, 2014Erik SpoelstraSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Practice Day Q. Can you take us through what these last 36, 38 hours have been like for you, and just what you've worked on today, and what the message, most importantly, was? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, two days ago was a day off. We had gone quite a few days, and I think it was good for everybody just to decompress and get away from it. So I actually told the guys not even to think about it. Try to spend time with your families and get your mind off of it. Came back today with a clear mind and ready to get to work and to really dive into this competition. That's all it is. What we talked about is we're not so entitled or jaded that we're above having to fight for it, and that's what it is right now. It's competition. So we've got to find a way to fight and get this next game, and that's what it's all about. Q. How do you think Dwayne is right now, physically? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: You'd have to ask him, but nobody's going to make any excuses at this time. He wouldn't want me to make one for him. I don't think anybody that's playing minutes at this time of year is feeling 100% and feeling spry and like they're 16 years old. But that's part of competition, how you manage everything, your body, your mind, manage frustration, manage elation, manage everything in between, and through all that trying to figure out how to get the job done. And so that's been our focus. I know that's Dwayne's focus as well. Q. After the last game we all look at the stat sheet and say, oh, how much does he have left? Do you think he has a lot left? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah. He has more than enough. He's proven time and time again that he has an incredible way of just finding a way. Finding a way to impact and help your team win. And that focus is just for tomorrow. We had the extra day of rest, which I think is good. I think it was good physically for our guys and mentally as well. Q. Erik, I know you're thinking about the here and now, but you were on a staff, though, of a team that came back from 3‑1 pretty early in your Heat tenure in '97. Do you remember other than P.J. throwing Charlie Ward, do you remember anything else about that and what Pat's message maybe was at that time? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, it was probably similar. You can't get ahead of yourself. You really can't. Once we won the infamous flip game, okay, we still had to go into the lion's den, and that was an incredible challenge to go into New York where they had built up a great deal of confidence. The crowd was incredible. We had to gut out a very close win down the stretch. But you can't start thinking about two games ahead, three games ahead, all of that. It's just about tomorrow for us and today was about getting to work. I'm sure all of our guys‑‑ we didn't talk about it, but I'm sure everybody's heard all the clichés, all the messages, all the positive thinking, but it's about us collectively coming together and embracing it. It's different. We talk about it all the time. The toughest thing ever to do collectively for a team is to compete and win an NBA title. Once you get over yourself and embrace that it's the toughest thing and embrace the competition, however you get to the point, then you have a better chance of conquering the competition. Our competition and our focus is tomorrow. But if you would have said at the beginning of the year that, hey, this group, you're going to have another chance and go to the Finals, our guys aren't so entitled that we take that for granted, that you make it to the Finals, but you're going to be there, but it's going to be a different journey, it's going to be a lot tougher than the year before, all of our guys would have signed up for that. And that's something to keep perspective about. Q. I'm sure you haven't slept much in the last couple days, so have you figured out how to slow down the Spurs? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, we better. Q. How do you? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: We'll figure that out. Q. Is there anything different that Dwyane can do defensively? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Well, we all have to step up our game. And competition brings out everything in you. When it's fierce competition, it brings out the good, the bad, and everything in between. We talk about it all the time. We have to figure it out. They kicked our tails in for two games. This competition is not over. Our focus just moves on to the next game, and we have to bring a better game. We have to figure out how to do both sides of the basketball better where they've been in an incredible groove. They've really played sensational offensive basketball, but also they've been able to keep us away from our game consistently on the other end, and we need to figure that out tomorrow. Q. As always, either all criticism or all glory for LeBron, depending on how you guys are going. How have you noticed in the last two days in terms of embracing this opportunity to sort of do something that isn't done very often? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: All of our guys have embraced it. We talked about it from the first day of training camp that this year would be different. It wouldn't serve us any good to try to compare it to years past. If we went back and looked at the 2012 title, we thought that that was the toughest thing we'd ever have to go through, having to win some tough road games along the way, starting out that series down 1‑zip and taking back into that. And then last year we thought that there wouldn't be anything tougher than that. This year, it's proven to be, and that's what competition is all about. Embrace it and get into it. There is no logic. There is no natural order to competition. Competition just happens. The better team gets the better team until the first team gets to four. You just have to figure it out. Q. Do you feel like you guys have had trouble sorting out their screens when you guys are on defense? And if so, what specifically has been the problem? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: I wouldn't even make it exclusive to that. They've played well enough the last two games where we've had a lot of holes in the dam, okay, where we're trying to plug some bigger ones and we have small ones. But you still can't get overwhelmed with the result of those two. We need to correct some things and do it better. It starts with the competition of really getting into this competition and playing at a higher level competitively, effort‑wise, activity‑wise, loose ball‑wise, all of those things first, and then we need to do some things better in terms of our schematics and things of that nature. It didn't look as horrible coming out of Game 2. The last two games it has, and you have to give them credit. But we move on to the next competition. Q. Do you expect to use Haslem more even in the starting lineup? COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA: Possibly. He's on my mind. These are the type of games where he's proven himself, and you need somebody to rely on that's been there and has proven that those tough things, when your back is against the wall, but we'll see. We'll see what happens. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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