POSTGAME REACTION: Miami Heat vs. Orlando Magic, 1/12/24.

POSTGAME REACTION: Miami Heat vs. Orlando Magic, 1/12/24.

It is good to see Duncan Robinson those 23 points you mentioned this win Duncan it’s rare you see an NBA game where neither team scores 100 SP talks about in the mud and all that stuff what was that finish like for you guys to close this out oh that was that was grinded

Out uh we talked about it you know just find a way to win no matter if it’s pretty ugly somewhere in between so thought we had some stretches where we played well but some real stretches where we show resolve and just found a way to get out of win not a surprise

That defense uh makes the stops as you’re watching that that final segment I mean you know man Carol’s going to get the basketball bam hits the big shot just the wildness of those final let’s say 30 seconds yeah that was a a crazy one uh credit to those guys on the floor

To get those last two stops uh you know we always say we can win it with our defense down the stretch so that was big in a game like this where you don’t have Tyler you don’t have Jimmy you don’t have Kyle that’s a lot of ball handling

You guys really were moving the ball it was crisp in particular in the first half did you enter this game knowing that it had to be kind of by committee by ball handling and working it around yeah no one person is going to fail in

For what those guys do uh and it’s going to look different you know for me it was just about being aggressive uh you know play through some mistakes some turnovers but just trying to keep attacking you know rather uh make mistakes trying to make something happen than you know being passive as this

Season has gone on you keep getting more and more comfortable and showing your ability to get to the basket tonight the 23 it wasn’t obviously all threes how comfortable are you the way that you’re able to finish and when you’re getting defended at three to be able to push to

The basket I mean I’m I’m getting more comfortable uh had a couple shots around the basket I’d like to have back but you know that’s basketball you’re not going to make them all so thought we just you know as a group just showed some resolve to get it done final question you want

To finish up this home stand at 3 and one you got that opportunity on Sunday how important is it in this new year to kind of get back to that style of Defending home court yeah it’s big uh you know we love playing here we always

Want this place to be a tough place to play so I thought the crowd tonight was great um but yeah we’re going to try to get greedy close out this home stand stand on Sunday that was fun we’ll see you Sunday all right Appr okay the last time you were up there after a game you spoke about you might have to win a game in the mud you might have to win at grimy sort of a rough kind of game was this that game and did this sort of show you that

Fortitude when neither team got to 100 uh yeah yeah for sure uh this was a game that uh you just knew um in the first quarter that it was going to be back and forth and you just had a feeling that that neither team would be able to

Create any kind of Separation you know 15 20 points they defend very well um and we came into this game you know with the intention uh to defend much better you know than uh than we did the other night um and this is you know a throwback Miami Heat game

Probably a throwback Miami uh Orlando type game uh in the last 24 hours you know Pat mentioned that a few times you know it’s okay to keep the score down and and defend and uh and then find a way to win at the end um and uh you know

We were able to do that uh I thought it was fitting that we were able to seal it with a defensive stop you know that that that part was uh encouraging to see and obviously you know Bam um we ran a lot of actions through him down the stretch and then he

Hit the big one to to give us the lead kind of along those lines how refreshing maybe for LA a better word is it to know that a a 9996 game can exist still in in except for less than 2 minutes left in the third quarter is the

Usual score now how and I think the fans really enjoyed it right I mean hey we also want to score 120 at times but look uh Orlando is a good defensive team you know they are disruptive they’re long they’re active uh you know when you think you have an

Advantage they cover up ground and they have quick hands uh they’ve been doing this all year long uh and we really came in with the intention you know to to do the tough things you know defensively and um make multiple efforts be physical you know that that defensive

Stop at the end it it wasn’t just getting the miss it was also getting the rebound I mean there was a scrum in the paint um I saw Caleb blocking out about three guys and then somebody else end up with the ball and then h ended up with

It uh but you know it’s those kind of um efforts uh and the it’s the mental toughness uh to be able to to do the necessary things to get a win you know rather than this contemporary NBA just trying to outscore the other team you mentioned it but how important was Bam’s

Playmaking uh tonight just helping juice the offense and different you know my first question to the coaching staff you know because I I I just felt that he had his fingerprints all over for this game defensively uh he was anchoring everything we had him sometimes on the

Five sometimes on the perimeter if he was on the perimeter he was there to plug everything up guide everybody through all the actions and then finish the defense with a rebound uh offensively because you know we had some Firepower out of the game we were running basically every action through

Him whether it was uh at the top or at the elbows or in the post uh and we needed him to to be a point guard from those positions I I felt like he had a triple double so that’s why I asked the staff right after the game did he have a

Triple double um because it his playmaking was um Elite and essential I don’t think we would have generated enough uh points in this game if he didn’t really help you know create some advantages with his vision and his passing and and doing it from those different regions you know I just

Mentioned I don’t want to take for granted that it actually feels normal now for bam to kind of take over a game down the stretch as opposed to four or five years ago but after the changes he made to kind of his offensive profile last year what do you think the

Experience of going through the playoffs like that now plays in maybe his composure or willingness to accept that load in fourth quarters yeah I mean that’s the the 10x effect of being in deep playoff runs uh and sometimes it’s it’s the runs where things don’t go necessarily how you want

Them to go and then you get into the lab and you go to work and you know bam is that top percentile of going to work on his game and doing it for the benefit of the team and this was the epitome of doing it in all those different regions um you

Know it’s it’s also the decision- making versus different schemes and and the reads it’s different when you’re in the top of the floor it’s different when you’re doing a dribble hand off it’s different when you’re doing a pick and roll it’s different when we’re throwing

It to you in the post or when we’re throwing it to you at the top of the floor and we’re running all of our movement and cuts and screens and all of that uh he’s he has so much experience with all of that not every obviously there’s very few centers that

Can that can handle all those responsibilities and it it’s been systematic you know basically every year he’s been able to add a whole lot more tools you know that help our our team and then you know obviously to be able to to you know make make the big plays

Down the stretch and and that that 14 foot shot that he sealed the game with you know that goes back to four years ago or whenever that was when that Milwaukee series missing that shot from B but what made it happen seem to be the spacing

And just how much space he had because of the off ball screening and everything just what did you think of the execution I guess of just the other guys that made it happen of that that last play um yeah we wanted to keep one side occupied if you have Duncan on the other

Side you know there’s going to be space on that side I thought he had an advantage and then and then I I think the the pass was just a little bit off and then it ended up um getting you know to the to the three-point line but that’s also where he’s really

Comfortable so he was able to take like a couple dribbles right into a rhythm uh jumper which may have actually been better than if it was really jammed up uh into the paint because you know those three guys were over there you never know if if somebody could have gotten to

Him at at that point coach in this part of the Season reaching the middle of the Season how you keep the players motivated and focused especially those are begin to physical and mentally fatigue no our guys aren’t uh mentally fatigued at all you know this is what they live for this

Competition and fighting and grappling in the standings uh and also uh the majority of the guys are are are are fresh because we’ve had a lot of moving parts and guys in and out of the lineups guys have had their time off when they’ve been out so

They want to play guys like Caleb he wants to gobble up any minute of this type of environment that he can right now and you know the the underlying benefit of all this is without anybody having to to talk about is you don’t that nobody’s taking any of this for

Granted when you’re out and you want to play You’re just you you’re incredibly grateful to do you know what we get to do and compete at a high level and we’re also not wor we want to be right now you know we were seventh before this game I

Don’t know where we are right now but it’s it’s not where we want to be 7.8 seconds left up by three I guess Jimmy didn’t make the call on this one what were your thoughts I talked about it you know it was a free throw um Quinny and I

Were were discussing it uh and you know without Jimmy and Kyle out there um we just didn’t feel comfortable making that call because you know that’s a valid point uh with under 8 seconds uh they had no more timeouts I just didn’t trust it um and I felt like we could get

It to their three-point Shooters with that lineup we could switch uh and take away any kind of Rhythm shot where there might be an advantage from a from a scramble just just to follow that up play with the game here with h hakin junr following that thrilling win Hy

You’ve had a few of these early in your NBA career but let’s let’s just go through those final 30 seconds that was wild enough a finish like that how were you you guys able to first B hits the big shot but then play the defense late

To get the W uh stay together I think that’s one of our biggest things is staying together as a team uh defense is something we’ve been harping on all week and practice and film and shoot rounds and we wanted to improve in that area and this was a great moment for us to

Show what we’ve worked on and that’s getting stops converting stopping guys from getting into the paint and I thought we did a tremendous job of that tonight as you’re going through a game like this the the standing show you guys are very even entered the night with the

Same record do you sense at a certain point of the game like man this is going to be one of those grinded out games this isn’t going to be a game where we can just pull away there’s going this might just come down to a final shot

Yeah I mean I think throughout the game you know trading punches throughout the you know entirety of the of the game and um you know we get to the end and it comes down to a final shot and you know coach B said in the locker room like

This is Old School Miami Heat basketball playing in the playing in the 90s so um you know that sometimes you got to get a win like that and that just shows the toughness of our team any other words in the mud the mud yeah you got to get out

The mud so that was one of those games tonight and it’s also a game where you had a lot of guys that handled the ball not playing obviously Jimmy’s been out you didn’t have Tyler you didn’t have Kyle your your point guard how much so

Did you guys know as a team it kind of had to be the everybody involved with this facilitator we saw it from you we saw it from bam we saw it from Duncan and others yeah this was a collective team effort you know always say next man

Up we got a lot of guys we think we have a very deep roster of guys who can step up and make plays and do what we need them to do so I thought it was a great team overall Collective effort finally for you you get the 19 which you know

We’re accustomed to now but you also get a full fourth quarter we’ve seen you play these big minutes in the fourth here you are into your 2024 deeper into your NBA career how much have you kind of relished enjoyed those moments of SPO trust you where pretty much you’re

You’re a guy in the fourth quarter that’s going to play every minute um yeah it feels it feels really good to have a coach that trusted me to play in these big moments and you know um these are the moments that I live for as a

Player so just to be able to go out there and play this game with such a great an elite group of guys uh it means a lot and it’s a lot of fun when you play and you know crunch crunch time games like the one we just played um it

Shows what you’re really about a lot more fun when you get the W too exactly we’ll see you thanks appreciate the time bam coach often um will rest his leading man at the start of the fourth to give him a little bit of a break tonight that

Was you tonight you didn’t get arrest you played all 12 in the fourth at times it looked exhausting can you sort of tell us how you summoned the energy at the end for that basket and just sort of keep it afloat what was it like as exhausting and grueling as close as it

Was to fight to that finish uh well I feel better now after we got the win for sure sure uh but you know when you when you go into a game like that and you go to your patented move it’s come from the hours and hours

And work of doing that shot uh different ways no matter how you get to it it’s that shot um and that’s come from all the all work that I’ve done just for that one shot in that one moment a lot of the offens has run through you today um how much do you

Kind of enjoy going back to that role of you know obviously you look for your own shot lot too but playing as it more as a facilitator uh I feel like it’s great getting everybody involved so everybody feels comfortable everybody feels like they’re dependent on um and we need

Everybody to be aggressive cuz we’re down guys um but for the most part man it was great to have everybody who played involved and uh you know it’s it’s those type of things it’s building habits it’s building building that connection um getting used to one another and obviously in the biggest

Moments of games down the line everybody got to be on the same page B going back a few years there was a the night you scored 41 against Brooklyn it was a similar night with a lot of guys out and you kind of shouldered the load that night but I’m

Curious as as to now especially going through the playoffs like you did last year with a broader offensive role does taking on that kind of offensive burden come more naturally to you now yeah definitely easier cuz I you know obviously have a pad move at this point

Uh that is my go-to shot but you know obviously I have a voice now um being able to speak and everybody follow um definitely makes it easier and it makes it easier when you know what you’re talking about B tonight you were I’m stop up on

The pain would you like to receive more balls in the low post and play more like a traditional pivot uh nah cuz you know traditional big man I feel like don’t exist anymore uh everybody’s positionist at this point I mean you have joic dribbling the ball up

Being a point guard so uh for me it’s it’s good to get the ball in different areas just so you can you can show off your versatility but also get guys involved B two minutes left you get the ball in the mid post you can throw a

Couple Jabs you spin into kind of the big dunk there can you just walk through that play in terms of just CU it seems like a lot of time you’re stopping and kind of usually throwing a pump fake or something but what what are you reading

There that makes you just go through the motions and go right up uh you know when I spun nobody was in front of me I mean that’s the easiest as the easiest read and react you can you can do uh but like I said it come from

Those hours of being in the gym of getting that work and getting up at 5: a.m. uh and really working on your craft bam obviously you you constantly talk about hey we’re a team and Etc but again with the minute you played tonight support again of Duncan and Hae what

What comes to mind when you when in a game like this too man you we had to win it ugly uh you got to win games like that you know they’re part of the Season we have a long season you got to learn how to you know grind through games cuz when you

Get these playoffs it becomes a possession game you know a lot of these games in the playoffs don’t be in the 120s uh they’ll be in the mid90s close to 100 and you got to figure out how to grind grind it and get a win and I felt like when you go

Through games like that It prepares people for what we have in the future

The Miami Heat defeated the Orlando Magic on Friday. Hear from Duncan Robinson, coach Spoelstra, Jaime Jaquez Jr., and Bam Adebayo on the win!