Miami (USA), May 13 (EFE) , everything is possible.
“It’s crazy. With all the ups and downs of the season, being here in the Eastern final, speaks of the determination that this team has”, highlighted Bam Adebayo after eliminating the New York Knicks this Friday (96-92 and 4-2 in the series). .
The center does not forget that they finished seventh, lost in the ‘play-in’ against the Atlanta Hawks and suffered to overcome the Chicago Bulls. Everything was doubtful and the ‘holidays’ seemed close, but the best version of Miami was about to appear.
That version is that of the three conference finals in four years, that of Kyle Lowry champion with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, that of Jimmy Butler of the 2020 ‘bubble’, that of Spoestra who destroys the approach of his rival colleague… A team that is wholehearted and with the necessary experience in this type of demand.
“Many teams would like to be in this place,” said a Spoelstra who reached his seventh Eastern final in thirteen seasons.
The handicap of the injuries to Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo gives even more merit to a team that is now a candidate for everything.
“We are not the typical team that gets eighth in the playoffs,” justified the Miami coach.
“We went through injuries and many things. We have been heavily criticized. We have not even been in the top three, but we should have been fourth or fifth if not for the circumstances, ”he argued.
With statistics you can understand many things: they score more, they are more reliable in the triple, they improve in defense…
But what really explains this reaction are the intangibles that have more to do with emotions, experience and group management.
SECONDARY WITH GALLONS
Miami has always boasted of being the promised land of undrafted players: there are nine players, out of the 17 on the roster, who were never selected in a draft.
Of all of them, five are essential in the rotation: Caleb Martin, Haywood Highsmith, Duncan Robinson, Gabe Vincent and Max Strus, the latter two as starters along with Adebayo, Butler and Kevin Love.
The work of this block of players does not go unnoticed by Butler.
“We are one step closer to our goal. I always say that we have to be together, I am very proud of all my teammates, ”she confirmed in the press room.
Thanks to them, the Heat star always found a solution when the Knicks defense tried to drown him: “Everyone was in the right place. The ball moved incredibly well and I was always able to find someone.”
Vincent took over at the expense of a Lowry who now leads the second unit and the response was unbeatable, boosting his contribution from 9.4 to 11.1 points per game.
Strus has also become a concern for rivals from the perimeter: against the Knicks he averaged 14.6 points and improved his effectiveness in triples to 38.9%.
Martin, for his part, has one of the best numbers in the plus-minus statistic and was one of the differential factors between the Heat’s bench and the Knicks’.
THE ADJUSTMENTS OF SPOELSTRA
It was not necessary to touch too many things, but enough to get Miami to now have a deeper rotation and a second unit that does not lower the intensity or the level of the starters.
The coach has been able to compensate for the physical problem by including Love as a starter, equalizing that imbalance in defense but at the same time attacking openly. He adds from the perimeter, with a lot of confidence, but also continues to be the best counter-attack shooter after defensive rebounding in the entire league.
With Lowry, Spoelstra has been able to apply the theory of ‘less is more’, locating the reason for the constant discomfort and injuries to his starting point guard, which took many minutes and was very demanding.
Lowry’s performance was explicitly based on his consistency.
“For me it was about being healthy to be able to help my team in these types of moments and situations,” said the point guard.
Since his return in March, Lowry has played less than 25 minutes on average and from the bench, but that has not made him lose prominence: he is the leader of the second unit and plays the important minutes.
Thus, the rotation is less punished and he has the confidence to once again show that intelligence on the track that characterized him years ago and for which Pat Riley called him.
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