POSTGAME REACTION: Miami Heat at OKC, 3/8/24.

POSTGAME REACTION: Miami Heat at OKC, 3/8/24.

This is competition and we’re going to work together until we get this breakthrough um you know these are painful moments uh you know we had an opportunity in both games um and you don’t know necessarily if if you can finish your defensive possessions you know with a rebound um whether you’re

Going to win or not um but that is our hurdle for this moment in time you know we we’ve rebounded great you know for the majority of the season for whatever reason this little pocket right now uh it’s um been troubling for us and you know the defensive efforts and

Disposition um you know was adequate I I was encouraged by uh the commitment to do hard things um against a very good offensive team um you know if we could have finished off a couple more uh possessions you we might have had an opportunity to hold them under a 100 um

Uh and that’s not easy in today’s game and the way they they uh drive and attack and uh the skill level um and they also can keep you honest at the three-point line um I thought the attention to detail um the physicality the force U and the efforts were there

Uh it just was very similar you know down the stretch uh looked like we had opportunities you know to secure the ball but um weren’t able to do it and you have to get them credit and they also knocked down shots after that it almost looked like a misprint you know B

Had the same amount of offensive rebounds uh we end up with less than 10 points off of those offensive rebounds they have 23 I had to look at it you know three or four times but um but my gut felt like it was 30 off those nine offensive rebounds so we’ll get better

From this um you know there were a lot of good things to take away none of us want to talk about it or feel that or uh you know um whatever you know right now because we’re competitors but by the time we get back to Miami Miami uh even

The head coach you know can see that there are some good things you know happening in our locker room how hardening was it for H to step up and sort of fill in when maybe others were struggling yeah we really needed it you know because we we uh put a lot into the

Game physically and emotionally last night uh and that’s not an excuse at all like our guys were ready to compete and put it out there tonight um but you know there wasn’t a lot of juice you know you know throughout the rotation but Hae um

Know was able to give us a lot of relief points and also during key moments of the game we could throw the ball to him kind of settle in uh in a similar way that we were doing you know we what we do with uh Jimmy um and that allowed us

To catch our breath get to spacing and play out of you know their aggressive uh defense and it also you know says a lot about his his mental toughness you know to be able to have that kind of performance on on the second night of a back toback and your thoughts on Patty

Mills heat debut yeah that was great to see him uh finally do it in a heat uniform instead of against us um we’ve seen that for too many years um you can see you know why he’s been able to do what he does he’s ignitable he’s smart

He’s been in a lot of uh very good systems so he knows how to fit in even though he hasn’t had a practice uh 15 years uh in it’s all the same kind of stuff he can play his game he helps our best players uh he was able to to really

Help that that unit we had in with Jimmy and Nico and um that’s something that uh you know will definitely add to our depth they filled out the rest of the box score was off with his shock was that something they were doing is he in

A little bit of a funk right now based on last night and tonight offensively you know sometimes these things happen but he’s a competitor he knows how to to impact you know the game and they’re committed you know to take the ball out of his hands uh you know particularly out of

The post um and on the pick and rolls there switching so we couldn’t necessarily get him the ball in his sweet spots uh so he wasn’t able to get some easy relief points and um you know but he did a lot of good things and and that’s why you know it’s

These are great opportunities to to win a game on the road with your C game you know if we’re not at at your best you know that that you can still find a way to win we weren’t able to do that tonight and so we we live with the

Loss all right thank you your number gets called and you can things positively um I mean you know like I said a million times you know just having a team that trusts me and a coach and staff that that trust me and put me in those positions um you know it’s a

Great feeling unfortunately we didn’t get it done tonight um but you know we’re going to learn from this and get better guys didn’t get killed on the offensive board I think it was 9 to seven it’s just they were converting almost every time they had it and mostly

Three balls what was there anything different you could have done to kind of Stave that Avalanche against them yeah I mean that’s what we talked about about 50-50 balls we didn’t come up with 50-50 balls this game uh it’s something that we talked about um going into the game

Um making sure that we got those and uh we just couldn’t convert tonight there was one play where gave up offensive rebound they got a three and SPO just came out and we just live it do you sort of appreciate that that he sees you guys working your butt off defensively for 20

Seconds only to see that happen yeah I mean you know those are what you call back breaking plays you know when you’re defending so hard and so well for you know like 20 20 out of the 24 seconds and the shot goes up and we don’t come

Up with the rebound um you know you know that’s on us as a team we got to get those um and and like I said those are back breaking plays um when we don’t come up with the don’t come up with the ball you were so young when Patty

Started out even had his championship moments what was it like to see him come in and in his first game do what he did oh I mean it just shows the professionalism I mean you know he’s been in this league for so long he’s been so good for so long and you know

Tonight is just another example of that um just coming off the bench when his numbers called um you know not really even having a practice with everybody and then just coming out ready to produce it just shows you know how professional um and how lethal he is as

A player appreciate thank you so much

The Miami Heat fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday by a score of 107-100. Hear from coach Spoelstra and Jaime Jaquez Jr. on the defeat. 🎙