Postgame Interview: Erik Spoelstra

Postgame Interview: Erik Spoelstra

I guess just first um General thoughts on the bounceback I mean it’s um a welcome reminder you just don’t take anything for granted you know and it it feels uh you know earned and um you know you just realize how tough it is to to win in this league and um

You know collectively we’re able to to come together and get the job done tonight uh it doesn’t matter how who uh when or what um it’s just a matter of uh you know getting the game and and we were able to do that the spirit was good and uh you know there wasn’t

Discouragement you know this morning in the prep um and I thought there was a professionalism you know to the approach tonight uh you know and now we have to you know gear up and rest up heal up and and get ready you know for the MAA game

When you look at the ctions steals how much of that is a good indicator for when the defense is on yes yes we we’ve said that all year long um we’re at our best when we’re active we’re disruptive we’re making our our presence felt we’re up and into you know offensive

Teams um we’re making them feel us uh if they’re getting wherever they want to go uh and there’s no disruption um you know then you know we’re not the biggest team we’re not small either but you know if teams can just take it to us that that’s not our

Winning formula and you know I thought the the start of the game set the tone even though it was like back and forth you know for the most of the first half the activity level was was Set uh from the beginning Terry was was terrific with his activity uh Caleb was outstanding bam

Was really good defensively and then everybody just joined the party from there the deflection Steel disruption um activity plays um you know it looked a lot more like us the way bam dominated in the second period was that just his force of will was there something you saw even against their

Size with his quickness you thought he can get to get 16 yeah what uh what what bam is about is is just being a great competitor and you know he wanted to make sure that he was going to impose his will on this game and he did did it

On both ends of the court and do whatever we had to do uh to get this win and you know he was setting the tone uh in that second quarter uh and it wasn’t just that that scoring but obviously that was that was big I mean he had some

You know impactful plays uh momentum plays um and and then defensively he was he was everywhere uh you know and and that’s what your leaders you know do you know in these uh tough moments of a season they step up and you just follow them we ask you this every year but it’s

Two games in a row now that bams hit that above the break three is that a shot when teams are giving him that space yeah it’s interesting like you know um I had this discussion with him um during the summer and he was working on his Corner three and uh man I was

Cool with that you know I want him to work on the three uh but I told him that the the three that would be more available would be the one at the top that’s where he ends up being more often like the spacing you know typically it doesn’t

Make really sense for our roster for him to be in the corner there’s other guys that would be in the corner um but he’s up top all the time uh and also I watch him you know now for several months that’s the one you know he’s he’s most

Proficient on so uh I’m good with him shooting that if they’re playing way back you know he’s he’s a great decision maker so that’s going to lead to a great action where somebody uh you know in a deep drop um which is a problem for if

You’re Duncan coming off or or Jimmy or or somebody but like that but if they’re going to totally lay off I’ve seen them make that one enough um we’ll see we’ll see where it goes speaking of Duncan those three three-pointers to break it open how important was

It uh yeah I love seeing that the competitive fire and the spirit not only from uh Duncan Um you know I I I think that was just something that he just let out because the emotion and everything you know he wants to make every shot he doesn’t want to let the team down and you can’t control whether the ball goes in all the time but he always creates something

Good for our offense when he’s moving around creating overreactions making plays uh you know off the dribble uh all of that um but he’s he’s as ignitable as anybody in this league if he sees one go down um you the first one was uh I think end of

The clock um that was a tough one it’s probably one of the tougher ones that he’s hit or shot in the last few games he’s had some much easier ones but I don’t know sometimes when he hits one of those it’s it can become an avalanche you know from there but his defensive

Activity was also uh very good and um it was great to see the fire the fire was really coming from Duncan and Caleb Caleb was uh his Spirit his uh voice uh his intensity all that stuff was contagious he’ basically let every single person in our camp understand how important this game

Was all right thank you thank you practice tomorrow uh no we’re doing at the hotel thank you

Mar. 15, 2024 – Erik Spoelstra speaks to the media following Friday night’s game vs. the Detroit Pistons.

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