Postgame Interview: Erik Spoelstra

Postgame Interview: Erik Spoelstra

In many ways is see Mirror Image big early lead uh then offensive rebounds timely Baskets at the end do you win sort of your thoughts about tonight playing up like yesterday and how frustrating disappointed is it not to respond I mean 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 a 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 is adequate I I

Was encouraged by uh the commit to do hard things um against a very good offensive team um you know if we could have finished off a couple more possessions you would 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 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 we basically 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 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 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 Hae to step up and sort of fill in when maybe others were struggling yeah we really needed it you know because we we put a lot into the game pH 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 uh but you know there wasn’t a lot of juice you know you know throughout the rotation but haime um you 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 them kind of settle in uh in a similar way that we were doing you know we what we do with 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 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 and filled out the rest of the box score was off with his shot was that something they were doing is in a little bit of a funk right now based on last night and tonight offensively you know

Sometimes these SE 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’re switching so we couldn’t

Necessarily get in the ball in the 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

Mar. 8, 2024 – Erik Spoelstra speaks to the media following Friday night’s game vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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