Erik Spoelstra dishes on Heat’s ‘fun’ playoff race

Spoelstra talks about Heat having a top five defense

Miami has won three straight games heading into Thursday’s vital game, but besides making strides on offense, they are a top five defense as they are fifth in efficiency. Spoelstra said to ClutchPoints that aspect was something they “really tried to rally around” a few months ago.

“We tried to simplify that a few months ago, and just really tried to rally around that just to stabilize things while while we had moving parts,” Spoelstra said. “It’s also you know what we take pride in, you know, as an organization. You do have to do things well on both sides of the floor, as we know, and we’ve been making some strides offensively as well. And we still have some room for growth there.”

At the current moment before the contest against the 76ers, the Heat are sixth in the Eastern Conference after the Indiana Pacers lost to the Brooklyn Nets Wednesday. Taking them out of contention for the play-in tourney, Spoelstra is “aware” of where they are, but they are not in “obsession mode.”

“We’re aware of things, we’re in hunt mode, chase mode right now. We’re not in obsession mode of looking at the standings,” Spoelstra said. “We see opportunity in front of us, but that old adage, you have to live in the present moment. That’s where we are right now. We have to focus on this game tonight. It’s going to be very competitive, both teams know what’s up. There’s no surprises here. Years later, you’re gonna miss these kinds of like, competitive games.”

Spoelstra talks about if this Heat season reminds him of last year

The Heat were in the same spot last season as they were fighting for a play-in spot which resulted in the team making a miraculous run to the NBA Finals from the eighth seed. However, Spoelstra said that’s in the past and that the main reasons why it isn’t the same because the “landscape” and the “journey” are different.

“Last year is last year…because the team is different. The landscape is different. This journey is different. Maybe somewhere in the back of our minds there’s a certain feeling about that,” Spoelstra said. “But we’re going for it and the unknown I think is the beauty of this. That’s what competition is. We’re putting ourselves out there in a vulnerable way, we’re going for it, we we want to make the playoffs. You know, and not just be a play in team and, you know, we’ll see you know what happens with these last seven games, but this is extremely competitive, and I want our players to embrace that. And hopefully the whole idea of competition is hopefully it brings out a higher level of play. We need to get to a higher level and hopefully, this elevated level of competition can get us to you know that that place that we want to get to.”

While Spoelstra sees little similarities from last season, fans are hoping Miami recreates the magic from last season and go back to the NBA Finals and compete for a championship.