Miami Heat leader Erik Spoelstra is as divisive as the team he coaches. Some believe he doesn’t have to do much coaching at all, given all the talent around him. After all you’ve got the greatest player in the game Lebron James, an aging superstar but still talented Dwyane Wade, the greatest Velociraptor to ever play NBA basketball in Chris Bosh and Jesus Shuttlesworth himself Ray Allen.
How can Spoelstra lose playing four aces? Well, it’s not that simple.
The other Spoelstra camp believes he’s a basketball nerd who can bring the “strategery” CC Will Ferrell doing George W. Bush. The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle, but I believe in the Spo.
So let’s try and see what we can learn about match-ups and game plans for game 5. We’ll use the Erik Spoelstra quotes from the post game presser. Of course, you know how hard it can be to discern any real info from these things. But we’ll try anyway. With a big 16 point win yesterday to even up the series, Spoelstra obviously motivated well. He got the team ambitious following that AWFUL loss in game 3.
“This is elite?level basketball. So they kicked our butts the other night. Yesterday was a miserable day. Probably one of the strengths of this team is instead of pointing fingers or deflecting, it’s just getting to the heart of the matter. And we were all horrible. So there was a better response today.In terms of body language and facial expressions, I don’t read those too well,” Erik Spoelstra said.
About the practical and mental aspects of giving up offensive rebounds:
Erik Spoelstra: “Often times you have to defend 20 seconds in the clock, and they get you moving. They execute with great precision. They get you running around. They pass the ball extremely well. That can be extremely deflating. You play a 23 second possession and cough up an offensive rebound, and it leads to a three, that can be extremely deflating.”
As Lebron goes, so will the series:
“Everybody knows our formula. Everybody knows their formula. The tough part is doing it against elite competition.So the aggressive start probably set the tone.”
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net. (“Quasi-endorsed” by Philadelphia Eagles Coach Chip Kelly) He’s also an author who also contributes regularly to MSN, Fox Sports , Chicago Now, Walter Football.com and Yardbarker
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