Postgame Interview: Erik Spoelstra

Postgame Interview: Erik Spoelstra

Pregame someone started to ask you a question about being shorthanded you interrupted with the you know we’re ready have enough what is it about this team you know no Jimmy no Terry no Josh and yet you have the confidence and seemingly the team has the confidence why does that say about doing something

Like you did tonight well you you talk about the guys that uh we’re plugging into play they’ve all played a bunch of quality minutes so it’s not as if you’re playing guys you’re not really sure whether they’ve been able to impact winning these guys have done that uh and

They’ve um earned that and they’ve proven that uh uh and you know we have a bunch of competitors in our locker room and so uh we wanted to you know approach this uh Road Trip the right way before the break and um this is just one game but

Um you know our guys you know fell a certain way about you know dropping that game against Boston and then now coming back against uh another you know team that we have great respect for and they played great last night uh you know that catches everybody’s attention

Uh and then you know the guys that ended up getting you know some bigger opportunities they’ve been preparing for this and you know Nico was was very good uh tonight um obviously you know this the points that’ll make everybody notice but you know he he generates more

Inertia you know for our team uh in transition for sure uh it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to to see that uh and in his stint as a starter three weeks ago those were really important games for us uh where he played well and helped the unit function at at a high

Level um and then he handled uh you know it well when everybody got back uh to be healthy and had to um you know wait for his opportunity again but he stayed ready and and he really produced and helped out tonight um and that same thing goes you know for everybody else

Uh you know the guys that uh played uh big minutes for us have been in our system for a long time so it’s not as if they’re rookies or anything like that uh um and we really you know knew that we had to to come with a a disposition in a

Game appropriate you know to playing on this this floor good night’s obviously from Duncan back starting tonight and I may Off the Bench what was the thinking if you might be able to share that it wasn’t as if I was no stamus uh you know we just wanted

To uh get a little bit of uh spacing uh out there you know with this group you don’t really necessarily know uh you know how it’s going to go uh but um you know we weren’t coming in the game thinking that hey we got to try to

Out score this team but we knew we’d have to put some points on the board uh and you know Tyler Duncan bam uh the other night gave us some really good minutes and you know so we just uh we went with that um but Klo and haime

Coming in you know it keeps them in their role you know what they’ve been doing and and they’re getting comfortable with that you know now that they’re both healthy and we wanted to maintain as much uh continuity and stabilities we’ve had in a rotation with three guys being

Out you like up with Yannis had nearly a triple double four points after half time and didn’t get to the line once just what you like up what you with them uh you have to be ahead of the game you know every single possession you can’t

Relax he’s not going to let up uh and we had some good multiple possession um you know efforts or multiple effort possessions uh and Bam obviously you know takes the challenge every single night against the the best offenses best uh offensive players um and he plays in a lot of

Different schemes for us uh it really speaks to his versatility defensively but you also have to have uh your help side very alert and active and they have great spacing so you have to pull triggers you know from there uh you know on the other side bam was so essential

For us his own triple double uh the playmaking the relief baskets we got from his passing uh was critical and you know when we’ve been able to um generate that kind of passing game 30 plus assists uh our win loss you know record for the season has been outstanding for the three-point shooting

Just two notes on that one how nice was it to see so many other shots that over the last four or five games have gone in and out actually go in and then how did you like about the way the team went about getting their yeah I I think we

Always point to the the defending and the karma you generate the karma of the game for whatever reason the basket gets a little bit bigger uh and we’ve proven that we can win basketball games which we have uh the last two three weeks even if we’re not shooting 19 of 40 from

Three it’s not dependent uh on that but if you defend and you get multiple stops and you’re able to do that uh in consecutive possessions you don’t feel the pressure offensively you just feel more of a Rhythm and a flow and that’s the karma we’re talking about but it

Certainly helped uh the way Duncan came out flying around screens bam was was really setting him up you know for great two-man actions and uh Duncan was doing what he does best on on the move and and shooting High degree of difficulty shots and making that look easier than it is

And also Nico knocking down some open shots when Yannis was coming to help which he does as well as anybody in this league you have to keep him honest and Nico was able to do that and then Tyler got going it always helps but our defense you know holding

That team you know to 51 points or 52 points at halftime you know that kind of set the tone y’s been very self-aware with us saying I have to defend better if I’m going to play on that side of the Court where is the most growth come do

You think his attention to detail um the discipline understanding the schematics the multiple effort efforts uh all of these things he’s been making progress for a couple years it’s not something that happens overnight it’s not it’s not Improvement that’s been linear um there’s been ups and downs and

Learning um you know in a competitive form going to sou Falls uh having his stin with us where he’s starting and being accountable you know to to play at a high level uh all of that stuff matters and he’s been very dedicated um

And I I just feel I I see a maturity you know and growth from last year to this year and um and even handling you know when we get guys back and not getting discouraged and not working he continued to work uh including after the Boston

Game he went into the gym after the game and and got uh more work in with the coaches so when got when guys start to do that you start to see you know things change all right thank you than guys thank you

Feb. 13, 2024 – Erik Spoelstra speaks to the media following Tuesday’s game vs. the Milwaukee Bucks.

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