The Chicago Bulls beat the Miami Heat Sunday to take Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Finals series. Here’s some of what Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said to the media after the loss:
Erik Spoelstra: So we’re obviously very disappointed about last night’s performance. We have to come in the next two days and try to fix some of the things that gave us problems. We all know obviously the effort plays, the second chance opportunities — all those things really deflated our focus and our concentration and effort there in the second half. With all that said, and with all the evaluations about the game, we are still in a position to take control with a win on Wednesday. And this whole series will be about enduring and how long can you endure through the physical grind, but just as importantly, the mental grind, because it’s two very competitive physical teams.
Question: Udonis Haslem is the kind of guy, it would seem, if healthy, to offer exactly what you would need with hustle and rebounding and movement. Is he in a position to offer that, or is that simply not an option for you at this stage?
Spoelstra: It’s an option. I’ll evaluate everything. The reality is a lot of the rebound, second chance effort plays were with our main guys on the court. And it’s something we can do much better. We’re a very good rebounding team. We’ve proven that all season long. We’ve got to revert back to our habits. And sometimes it’s the little things, finishing off your defense, the next rotation to block out, and just as important, finishing the offensive rebound possessions. They had five big three pointers after an offensive rebound that we could have gotten to shooters and make an extra effort. We weren’t able to do that.
Question: Similarly, Mike Miller is also another hustle kind of player. Very good rebounder, but also limited. Is he a guy who has the skill set that can help, or is he simply not in shape enough to be an impact player?
Spoelstra: He’s ready. All these things we’ll look at. We want to do it better as a group, and everybody that’s out there can do a better job of it.
Question: Two of your centers, Zydrunas and Dampier, are inactive. They offer a lot of size. Is that something you may need to rethink?
Spoelstra: I’ll evaluate everything. We could do normally much better than we did last night.
Question: Do you prefer to play sooner, or are you glad to have the two days off?
Spoelstra: Like I said in the previous series, you probably would rather get going. But that’s not the schedule we’ve been dealt. So we have to deal with it. And we can use the days to prep and work on some of these things.
