Jimmy Butler, Bam, Caleb Martin x Coach Spo React To Heat Game 2 vs Celtics | May 19, 2023

James, the familiar theme of the season, you've told us all along how those moments help prepare for these moments. Can you talk about your team's poise and moxie down the strengths in getting it done to go up 2-0? Yeah, I think probably all those games, more than anything, it just makes you realize how tough it is. It really is tough, you know, to win. It's even tougher to win in the playoffs, and then you're playing against a very good basketball team in Boston. You know, we've just had a lot of reps on learning how to deal with a lot of different emotions. I mean, there were so many different ebbs and flows of that game. You know, you start to wrap your mind around that it's going to be a long game, 48 minutes, and you got to win skirmishes. You know, we had to battle through deficits in both halves, but we showed that grit and perseverance to be able to hang in there and then, you know, make some plays. And defensively, you know, in the second quarter, we're really good, you know, to get back into the game, you know, and then the same thing in the second half, and then Jimmy and Bam just really anchored us offensively. You know, it's just great, you know, when your two best players can lead you and, you know, a place where the ball can go and everybody else is just playing off of those guys. But they also had some very timely big shots in that fourth quarter. What did you think of, not just his entire game, but once they put Rob on Caleb, his response to that? Yeah, they did it last year, so it's almost like he's had 12 months to prepare for this. You know, he has a lot of pride. You know, whatever, you know, but he's an important playmaker for us, you know, spacing the floor. He's not your traditional 3 and D guy. He's a little bit unconventional out of the box, so he can do a lot of different things, but yeah, that's part of it. Like, if they're going to, you know, play way off of him, you know, he's now had, you know, a lot of months of knocking down those kind of shots, but also off the dribble, making plays, and just those timely winning plays, you know, in the second quarter. Really, they made a big-time push, and Caleb was the one. His energy, his offense, his defensive efforts really just kind of kept us, you know, in that scrum. Jimmy and Bam are different off the court, but you've talked about how they're so similar on the court, just in their on-court personas. What makes them so unique? That competitive spirit, the competitive will. You know, they compete to win, and they understand that you have to do it on both ends of the court. Both of them, you know, at some point probably guarded basically everybody on the floor, you know, at some point with the switches, so they're going to burn a lot of calories on that end, but then they have this shoulder, you know, massive responsibilities for us on the other end, so we follow them. We follow them with their spirit, their competitive will, you know, night in, night out. Spill, you've talked for years about the will you've got to have to succeed in the postseason. Why is the belief within this group so strong that you guys will find a way, no matter the circumstances? Feels like this has just been in our existence all year long. I guess nobody was really paying attention, you know, but we were in every single game. It felt like for weeks on end, every game was ending on the last second shot, whether we were shooting or the other team was shooting it, so you develop some grit, you know, from that, and whether that turns into confidence or not. Sometimes you don't have the confidence, but at least you have that experience of going through stuff, and you understand how tough it is. What was going through your head when you saw Jimmy and Grant face-to-face like that? Mike, is it fair to say you were not displeased? Yeah, I can see where you're going. I love that gnarly version of Jimmy, but you get that regardless. I just think people now are paying a lot more attention, you know, to him now. You know, we've won some games in the postseason, you know, the last few years. Jimmy is just a real competitor. Playing that way, you guys have played close games for like a decade. Is there a comfort when the game is like that, that you feel... For a whole decade, we're gonna... It's been years. You guys play close games every year. That sounds like it's almost an indictment on the style of play, like in the mud. No, I'm kidding. No, I think the only thing that's relevant is this year. Well, this group has been together for a while, so there's some collective experiences together, but certainly this year was really unique for all of us, and there's a beauty in the struggle. There's a beauty in that grind, and now we're privileged to be able to go through a unique regular season like we have, but we're in the midst of this right now, and yes, we feel a certain way about getting these two games, but we're well aware of who they are, what they're capable of. Just in these first two games, you know, they've gone big runs on us, so we have to stay focused on the task at hand and get ready for a big battle in game three. Coach, game two against New York, I imagine you knew you would be going to some zone just because Butler was out. I wonder if this one, if you thought you'd be playing, had any idea that you'd be playing as much zone as you did. I don't know. When you compete against great teams, you know, very good teams like we're facing in Boston, you just have to do whatever's necessary. Now, it's not about the schematics or the X's and O's. You could invent a new defense. If you're not committed to doing tough things, that's what this is about, doing tough things. These guys are not easy to defend. You have to be committed to doing the multiple efforts to contain, to get to the three-point line, to contain their drives. They do all of that, and then they crash the glass, whether in the man or the zone. But our guys have kind of wrapped their minds around that, how tough it is in the postseason. Eric, over here, you've obviously been asked a lot about the undrafted story and having so many players on those lines. Yeah, that's kind of played out. That's so disrespectful to keep on talking about that way. Like, Gabe has been with us. He's a veteran. Yes. He's a seasoned veteran. I have not even bothered to look at the playoff experience, but he's got as much playoff experience as anybody in this postseason. He's been with us since the bubble. That storyline is over. These guys have proven themselves as competitors and winning players. Maybe they feel a certain way about it, but they have the full trust of everybody in our locker room, and this is just about the Heat versus Celtics right now. My question along those lines is, what are the intangibles that those types of players have that you typically look for that maybe are showing up right now in the playoffs? Yeah, I mean, you see it. It's on display. Competitive will, competitive spirit, toughness, understanding how tough it is to win. There's a humility to that. It's a tough balance to have that razor's edge, but also have a humility and a respect for the opponent. Those guys have that for sure. Eric, obviously you count on Duncan's three-point shooting to help you, but he also was aggressive going to the basket and gave you sort of a spark at a bunch of different times. He's a guy who's been in. He's a guy who's been out, been spotted a little. Your thoughts on his overall effort tonight? Now, that's been two years of development. Where the scouting part was to do everything and anything to get him off that three-point line, so he's been working on that diligently for two off-seasons, regular seasons, really working on his off-ball movement, more actions to the rim. You saw the back cut and then putting the ball on the floor. I mean, I can't even mention how many drives he's worked on during the offseason over and over and over and then still doing his normal shooting routine because that's what creates the overreactions, but that's a commitment to the player development. That's it. Thanks. What have you seen from what you guys have done against Tatum in the fourth quarter that he hasn't, he's yet to make a field goal? I don't like thinking about that. He's a great player. I mentioned that at the top of this series. He's one of the best players on this planet that play with that round ball. Sometimes it's a make-or-miss in this league. We're aware of if you think that he's going to keep on, if he's going to miss at some points in the game, we know what he can do in the fourth quarter. We were watching that previous series. He's a great player. He deserves the respect of our efforts to try to make it tough, but great players, they can go above and beyond. Has the respect that your guys have had for him caused them to kind of raise their execution to slow him in that fourth quarter? Our guys? Yeah, I don't know. Sometimes it's make-or-miss. He's fully capable of making some of these shots, so it always looks better if you get the win. Alright, thank you. Caleb, sort of another game where another team plays the I Dare Caleb game. Robert Williams guarding you, almost making you be part of the offense. How do you take that in general? How did you take that tonight and that part of the fueling to what got you to a career playoff high? Yeah, for sure. I mean, everybody's got a game plan and scheme to follow, so I get it. You know what I mean? When you're dealing with somebody as good as Jimmy and Bam, guys like that draw so much attention, you kind of have to pick your poison, and I'm just on the short end of the stick when it comes to that. But, you know, I welcome that, and it's my job to continue to prove to people that I can't be the guy to do that off of. And, you know, I gotta not only with that, but that's just me doing my job and making creating space and making things easier on our main guys. Caleb, on that same topic, this is not the first time teams have tried that with you, and they've been doing it for over a year. How is your experience with teams trying to put centers on you, and specifically Boston trying to do that to you? How does that kind of set you up for a night like tonight? Yeah, I think automatically when we got through the second round, we matched up with Boston again. I just knew from the jump. I automatically re-triggered my brain to last year during the playoffs, and I knew exactly how they were gonna guard me. So I've been preparing myself the minute we beat the Knicks and we were preparing for Boston. I just automatically started trying to re-circuit my brain to, you know, the looks I would get and how guys are gonna help off of me, and just me preparing to be ready and confident and that sort of. Understanding that Tatum is gonna get his at certain points of the game, what do you feel like you guys have been doing in the fourth quarter to kind of keep him quiet, to slow him down a bit in those moments? Whatever we can, you know what I mean? He's a force offensively, and you know, like we were saying with Jimmy, he draws so much attention. He's one of the best scorers in the league, so we just do anything that we can to throw bodies at him and give him different looks and different coverages, and you know, that's part of him being a great offensive player. He's gonna find ways to score regardless, and you know, I mean, he's done, you know, a great job of getting other guys involved, so we just try to throw him different looks and, you know, and play him as best we can. The moment that Jimmy and Grant Williams kind of got into it, what were you guys thinking on the sideline at the time, or on the floor at the time, and then what kind of lift did it provide you all? I mean, I knew I was gonna be good for us, you know what I mean? I just, knowing Jimmy, and at that point in the game, is you kind of get him going, and you know, we'll take him out of Jimmy anytime, so we just, we, I knew kind of that you could kind of see it, kind of see it in his eyes that he was, he was ready to go after that, so you know, he leads, we follow, so you know, we just, he makes it easy on all of us, so. Caleb, up 2-0 now in this series, heading back to Miami, what do you tell each other in the locker room? Job's not done. I mean, they're gonna be two of the hardest games that we played so far coming up next at home, and we want to use the home court to our advantage, and, and you know, we just, we just understand the games are gonna continue to get tougher, and they're gonna come out, you know, far and even more than they did the last two games, and we just got to compete as if we're not up to, you know what I mean? We just got to continue to have that mindset that we, you know, that we're down to, or whatever it is, to keep us assertive and confident, so we just, it's not over till, you know, I mean, until we get to four. Caleb, do you guys take pride in doing what you're doing as an A-seed, or at this point, you don't even consider yourself an A-seed? I don't think we've ever considered ourselves an A-seed. Obviously, we put ourselves in that position through the regular season, but, you know, we always knew what we were capable of as a team, and, you know, we've always had confidence in each other, great chemistry throughout the team, so we just knew we just had to get here, and once we got here, you know, things would kind of play out in our favor, just because, you know, like I said, with the chemistry and the fact that we were, we're a versatile team, we can really shoot the ball, score the ball, and, you know, and we got guys like Jimmy and Bam on the team, so we knew they're gonna help us, definitely help us, and put us in position to make a run. Appreciate y'all. Bam, how much of this is almost feels like more of the same? So many of these games during the regular season, finding a way to will to the finish, what's it like now when you get to a game like this, knowing that you can get it done, because you've done it so many times, no matter the opponent or the venue? Like I said, you know, I say this countless times, just being in those situations 50-plus times during the regular season, you know, that, that just brings great experience for us, and for us to be able to will out this win, you know, this is, this is a good one for us. Bam, after you, you saw some doubles last game, you were able to make plays off of that. After that happened, were you expecting more single coverage in this game, and when you do get single coverage, do you feel an added weight to make some plays, and then create some shots just for yourself? Nah, you know, Spove gave me, you know, ultimate clarity, BU, you know, for me that's, that's, that's simple enough. He wants me to be aggressive, he wants me to score, you know, and like I said before, before Kyle was hating that one time, before Kyle was hating that one time, I'm a great passer. Bam, obviously you know Grant, and obviously Jimmy's your teammate, but what was your view of kind of that, that head-to-head confrontation between the two of them, and how much you think that fueled Jimmy going down the stretch? I mean, I feel like things like that always fuel Jimmy, you know, I feel like he starts it, so it can, it can get him more in the competition, and I mean, you see down the stretch what he was doing. You were down 12 twice tonight, so you talk about being able to thrive in these close games, but you had to get there first. Do you think that you are forcing the Celtics into the mistakes that are happening that allow you to get back into these games? I feel like we're forcing them into difficult shots, you know, trying to, trying to make them turn the ball over, but you know, the biggest thing for us, I feel like we're making shots, you know. I don't know why we keep wanting to get down 12 every once in a while, but it seemed like guys just, you know, stop playing and just really want to hoop, and we will win. We willed our way back from 12 down twice and got the W. Bam, this is nothing new for Caleb, but what did you think of his response to Boston putting Rob on him? One thing Caleb told me was, this not last year, and that really resonated with me because they did the same thing to him last year, and I feel like he felt like it was disrespectful. That's it. Jimmy, after last game, when they, you saw some doubles, you were able to make plays off those doubles tonight, did you, when did you get the sense that they weren't going to send as much help, and did you see it as an opportunity to create more shots for yourself? Yes, I was trying to play the right way the entire game, and then I feel like in the fourth, it's all about getting the bucket, whether you're taking a contested shot, a wide-open shot, it's all about getting shots on goal, and I can only tell y'all so many times how much confidence that my teammates put in me, that coaching staff put to me to just go out there and hoop, play carefree, and as we like to say in our locker room, take us there. Jimmy, before you got up here, we've been talking about Grant Williams and what happened there in the fourth quarter, and Bam even suggested that you occasionally start things like that to just kind of get yourself going. Can you tell us what happened in the moment there, and did it fuel you down the stretch? Yes, it did, but that's just competition at its finest. He hit a big shot, started talking to me. I like that. I'm all for that. It makes me key in a lot more, and it pushes that will that I have to win a lot more, and it makes me smile. It does. When people talk to me, I'm like, okay, I know I'm a decent player if you want to talk to me out of everybody that you can talk to, but I don't know. It's just competition. I do respect him, though. He's a big part of what they try to do. He switches. He can shoot the ball. I just don't know if I'm the best person to talk to. So Jimmy Grant wasn't the answer, was he, to the Jimmy Butler problem? Mm-hmm. He wasn't. That's what the end of that post game was about? That's what you're referencing? That's not what it's about, but I don't know. I think so many guys played well for us tonight. You know, Caleb was huge, as was Bam, and I just think we played high-energy, and everybody's gonna focus in on that, but that's for sure not the reason why we won the game. I think what Caleb did tonight was incredible in keeping us in the game. You can't leave him. He's on everybody's count report. He does everything that you ask him to do, and then Bam was Bam, rebounding, passing the ball, scoring the ball, and then I made some shots late. That's the ballgame. One last one. Can you tell us about the song you're listening to on the way in here? Morgan Wyland, Somebody's Problem. It's a hit in the locker room right now, but honestly speaking, I think I'm kind of like the DJ, so I get to pick and choose what we listen to. If it's not him, it's Dermot Kennedy. It might be some gospel in there. Who knows? Jimmy, fourth quarter execution, both here in game two and also in game one, they seem to be very much out of rhythm. You're disrupting them, turn the ball over. You guys seem pretty confident and comfortable in the offensive end. What's keyed to both of those elements? Honestly, they just missed some shots. That's part of the game. I think our game plan is kind of simple in the fourth quarter, if I'm being brutally honest. It's kind of like give me the ball to move, and I'm tasked with making the right play. Sometimes it's shoot the ball. Most of the time it's shoot the ball, and a lot of times it's pass the ball to the open guy. I pride myself on finding that open guy. I really do. I want to get all my teammates involved, and I've never been a guy to say that the player that I am today isn't because of my teammates. It's always because of them. They always make shots. It makes my job so much easier. If I get beat on defense, somebody's always there. I have so much faith in this group of guys that we have, and I've said it all year long. We gonna ride with one another till the wolves fall off. Do you feel like because of that you have kind of a mental edge on them at this point? I don't think so. I just think we're so worried about us as a team, us as a unit that we don't. It's not like we don't focus on them because we do. You know, we talk about everything that they do, but at the end of the day, we have to be the best version of ourselves. We have to believe in one another. We got to go out there and compete together, um, withstand the runs that they will go on and be able to make runs of our own. And at the end of the day, we can always live with the result because we did it together. Jimmy, you talked through the years here about the confidence everybody pours into you and everybody pours and everyone else. Why is the belief so strong within that? No matter what the situation is in a game that you guys will find a way to win. We see it every day in practice on off days. Guys are constantly working on our game. Guys are constantly studying film. Um, and guys just want to win at the end of the day. That's all anybody wants on his roster. If you ask him to do something, as long as it's for winning, they're gonna do it. Um, nobody on this roster is dumb, so they can tell whenever it's about winning and whenever you're telling them something because the end goal is winning. And then more than anything, like I always say, we just man, we in this thing together. We love it that way, and we'll continue to play that way and have fun while we're doing it. Jimmy, you guys finished seventh record in the East number eight seed, but there's been that sort of will all along. Do you expect this? Do you when that Chicago game is over already? Yeah, but just when you when you reach a point like this now at two oh in this series, maybe other people are talking about a surprise in the series. Your thought on that? We don't care. We never have. We never will. We know we're capable of. We're gonna be in this thing to the end together. Good, bad, indifferent. We are who we are. We are where we are, and we're gonna continue to fight together.