Speaker 1: Welcome into NBA Polster production of iHeartMedia and the NBA.
Speaker 1: I'm Syracusetock, NBA analyst for the Yes Network, and today
Speaker 1: is Friday, May twenty six, and we got a special
Speaker 1: guest on this Friday, South Florida Zone, ESPN Zone Israel
Speaker 1: Gutiras and Is. It's a thrill to have you on
Speaker 1: here with us because what a series this has been
Speaker 1: for the Miami Heat in the Boston Celtics. Is Boston
Speaker 1: now stays alive? But first of all, great to have
Speaker 1: you on and great to see you well.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you. It's funny.
Speaker 3: I was just texting with a friend who grew up
Speaker 3: down here in Miami but now lives up in New York,
Speaker 3: and he was all nervous and saying, man, what do
Speaker 3: you think the Heat's going to do in Game six?
Speaker 3: And I'm just like, Hey, isn't this fun? Like did
Speaker 3: you really expect this to happen? So don't be nervous,
Speaker 3: just kind of see what happens. And I think that's
Speaker 3: kind of where I'm at with this run. It's just
Speaker 3: a lot of fun to watch and it's just surprising
Speaker 3: that it happens to be team in town.
Speaker 1: Well for Miami Heat. Yeah, Miami Heat fans probably a
Speaker 1: lot more fun a few days ago, the fact that
Speaker 1: the Heat jumped out to that three to zero series lead.
Speaker 1: Never in NBA history has a team come back from
Speaker 1: three to zero. But by all accounts, you got a
Speaker 1: lot of people and a lot of chatter coming out
Speaker 1: of Boston hoping that this could be the team. And
Speaker 1: they certainly looked like a team that had changed their
Speaker 1: attitude and changed their mentality, in particular last night at
Speaker 1: TV Garden one ten ninety seven win. Two times, people comes, Tatum, comeside.
Speaker 2: Snort teams.
Speaker 1: And from the start they were excellent. Jump out to
Speaker 1: a thirty five to twenty first quarter lead, and whether
Speaker 1: it was a three point shooting, once again, the pace,
Speaker 1: the fast break points turning Miami over. Obviously the Heat
Speaker 1: playing without Cape Vincent Kyle Lowry getting the starts, but
Speaker 1: a lot of facets in this game, of which the
Speaker 1: Celtics started to look like the team that had them
Speaker 1: is one of the favorites entering the playoffs in what
Speaker 1: they could do in postseason. What stood out to you
Speaker 1: with the way that Boston was able to play against
Speaker 1: this Miami team that really has exceeded a lot of
Speaker 1: people's expectation throughout the course of this playoffs and in
Speaker 1: particular the series.
Speaker 3: Well, there's two things that stood out to me. One
Speaker 3: was the defensive pressure. Nothing, no pass was easy for Miami.
Speaker 2: No you know, dribbled.
Speaker 3: No, you know, Marcus Smart just clean steals a couple
Speaker 3: of times of guys off the dribble, and so that
Speaker 3: was a lot more intense, a little surprised that the
Speaker 3: heat kind of looked like they didn't expect that. You know,
Speaker 3: there weren't a lot of backdoor cuts. There weren't a
Speaker 3: lot of relief buckets against that pressure, and so that
Speaker 3: was something that the Celtics just had in their favor
Speaker 3: pretty much the entire game, and you know, Miami didn't
Speaker 3: really adjust to it, whether it be strategically or just
Speaker 3: in terms of, uh matching that effort. And then the
Speaker 3: other thing is the Celtics and this was a good strategy.
Speaker 3: They decided to make all their shots at least early
Speaker 3: enough to where you know, Derek White just looked like,
Speaker 3: you know, you cannot leave him open for half a
Speaker 3: second off to White. You know, Jalen Brown went from
Speaker 3: odd airball like free throws in game four or game
Speaker 3: three four, and then you know, an airball in his
Speaker 3: first shot in game five to all of a sudden
Speaker 3: looking like his normal self again. And then I'd say
Speaker 3: the last thing that sort of stood out was Jason
Speaker 3: Tatum not forcing the issue. I feel like so many
Speaker 3: eyes were on him in game three, he didn't really
Speaker 3: perform Game four, he returned, and you would think, based
Speaker 3: on his history that that meant this was going to
Speaker 3: be a high volume shooting game for him in game
Speaker 3: five to carry the team, and it wasn't. It was
Speaker 3: a high assist game. It was an eleven assist game
Speaker 3: for Jason sure comes Tatum twelve in the first quarter,
Speaker 3: score was in the second one to three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why is absolutely on fire?
Speaker 3: And he played great and all those you know turnovers
Speaker 3: that looked like there was some sort of ghost pushing
Speaker 3: the ball out of the Celtics hands in Game three,
Speaker 3: that was now happening to the heat in game four,
Speaker 3: in game five, where it seemed like any time bam
Speaker 3: Adebayo put the ball on the ground it was Heat players,
Speaker 3: it was Celtics players rather swiping at it and getting
Speaker 3: a turnover. And that's basically what Miami has been doing
Speaker 3: all postseason leading the NBA postseason teams, and deflections in
Speaker 3: loose balls recovered in charges taken as well, and so
Speaker 3: those things weren't really there.
Speaker 2: And I also think just because.
Speaker 3: I'm mentioning the charge is taken thing, I feel like
Speaker 3: that is the only place where Joe Mizzoula is going
Speaker 3: to use his challenges just to kind of kill the
Speaker 3: mythology of hey, they don't take a bunch of charges.
Speaker 3: You guys just call a lot of charges for them.
Speaker 3: So watch when I challenge them, You're going to overturn everyone.
Speaker 1: Well, and you mentioned it, Joe Missoula had been under
Speaker 1: a lot of heat, a lot of scrutiny throughout the
Speaker 1: course of those first couple of games, and his seemingly,
Speaker 1: you know, push some of the right buttons, I think,
Speaker 1: but also just as players playing harder, I mean you
Speaker 1: talked about it, the defensive pressure. Twenty seven points off
Speaker 1: turnovers for the Celtics, Jason Tatum with eleven assists, there
Speaker 1: was nice balance and they did an excellent job too,
Speaker 1: I think to your point of just how they were
Speaker 1: able to flow into the offense. And when you look
Speaker 1: at Miami, going back to South Beach, they get to
Speaker 1: go home Game six, they still do have this three
Speaker 1: to two series lead. But what do Eric Spolstro, Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler this group, what do they need to do differently
Speaker 1: in game six to get back to playing the way
Speaker 1: that they were early on in try and close out
Speaker 1: this series?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: For starters, you know, everybody seems to want Bam out
Speaker 3: of Bay or at least those who want the Heat
Speaker 3: to do well.
Speaker 2: They seem to what bam.
Speaker 3: Out of Bio to translate into a score all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, And when you look at yesterday's game, he
Speaker 3: would have been just as helpful, if not more helpful,
Speaker 3: if he'd just kept, say Al Horford off the boards
Speaker 3: because a lot of again you look at the Heat
Speaker 3: shooting percentage fifty to fifty one percent in that game.
Speaker 3: If they don't turn the ball over, if they don't
Speaker 3: give up offensive rebounds, the Celtics don't get those extra possessions.
Speaker 3: And then you know, obviously they shot better than fifty
Speaker 3: percent as well, so you know they've got to look
Speaker 3: at it as Okay, Bam, I want you to score it.
Speaker 3: Don't get me wrong, but two things wou'd rather you do?
Speaker 3: A not turn the ball over. So if you need
Speaker 3: to kick it out, kick it out and be rebound
Speaker 3: the basketball in their defensive end, and we when the
Speaker 3: heat close those possessions out there, they can sort of
Speaker 3: organize the offense. They can run if they need to,
Speaker 3: if they have the opportunity, but if not, they can
Speaker 3: at least organize the offense, get Jimmy the ball, maybe
Speaker 3: get him to the foul line.
Speaker 2: And so I think that's where it starts.
Speaker 3: It starts with, you know, Bam not necessarily being an
Speaker 3: offense presence, but being a rebounding presence and being a
Speaker 3: defensive presence where kind of reminds him. Maybe they show
Speaker 3: him the tape of the Atlanta play in where Clint
Speaker 3: Capello was just grabbing rebounds all over the place, and
Speaker 3: as Iron Eagle said on the call, it's just the
Speaker 3: same highlight over and over again with the Hawk players
Speaker 3: getting rebounds and kicking it out for another bucket. Well,
Speaker 3: that's what Bam needs to avoid him this one. And
Speaker 3: Al Horford and Robert Williams can't have that big of
Speaker 3: an impact of a game, you know, And then you
Speaker 3: just need something from those outset, from those perimeter shooters.
Speaker 3: If you gave Vincent'll be back if he gets hot again,
Speaker 3: or Duncan Robinson or Max Steus, any of those guys
Speaker 3: to sort of just maybe take a little bit of
Speaker 3: the attention away from Jimmy and then let sort of
Speaker 3: Jimmy operate while the defense has to worry about everybody
Speaker 3: else on the court, because that in this series, that's
Speaker 3: what's worked best. It hasn't been just Jimmy going off
Speaker 3: for twenty straight points. It's hey, let's see what other
Speaker 3: role players can't force the Celtics defense attention away from Jimmy,
Speaker 3: and if they don't, hey, they're going to be wide open.
Speaker 3: And so far, you know, guys like Gabe and Caleb
Speaker 3: Martin have have taken advantage of that. So I think
Speaker 3: you're going to see a lot more of that. I
Speaker 3: think you're going to need a lot more of that
Speaker 3: from Miami. And I think when you talk about Eric
Speaker 3: Sposter needing one or his turn, would you say to
Speaker 3: make the adjustments and you're going into a home closeout game,
Speaker 3: I think that's probably the perfect scenario for Miami. They're
Speaker 3: going to be sort of ahead, one step ahead theoretically
Speaker 3: in the game plan, and then they know if they
Speaker 3: just play with effort. They'll probably get a few home
Speaker 3: court calls and you know, ideally pull out this victory
Speaker 3: and have the Celtics looking back at Game two at
Speaker 3: home really regretting how they ended that one.
Speaker 1: Well, with that being said, is he that I'm going
Speaker 1: to put you on the spot a prediction both for
Speaker 1: Game six and also just your perspective and how desperately
Speaker 1: Miami does need to win Game six if they want
Speaker 1: to win this series.
Speaker 3: I've watched this team enough the last four years to
Speaker 3: say they don't have to win Game six because they've
Speaker 3: gone into Boston and just done some amazing things, or
Speaker 3: on the road in general and done some amazing things
Speaker 3: even in the playoffs or in the postseason the last
Speaker 3: few years. But I think they desperately want to win
Speaker 3: it at home. I think, you know, part of the
Speaker 3: pregame speech from Eric Spolster is going to be like, Hey,
Speaker 3: this is going to feel just like last year's Game seven,
Speaker 3: and that one ended not in our favor, very close,
Speaker 3: but not in our favor. So to avoid that, avoid
Speaker 3: the close game situation at the end, really make it
Speaker 3: one of those Game three type of situations where it
Speaker 3: seems like an avalanche where for the Celtics and there's
Speaker 3: nothing they can do about it. That's kind of the
Speaker 3: feel they need to get. Fortunately for the heat, though
Speaker 3: they've been involved in more close games than anybody in
Speaker 3: the league this year, so if it comes down to that,
Speaker 3: you know, they still are well positioned. But I think
Speaker 3: Miami will win Game six. I think, you know, big
Speaker 3: performances from guys like Caleb Martin and then like I mentioned,
Speaker 3: the defensive and rebounding performances from Bam. If you do that,
Speaker 3: there's not all the pressure on Jimmy, and Jimmy will
Speaker 3: probably find ways to get his points. So I think
Speaker 3: it's funny because we've been sort of selling the Celtics'
Speaker 3: motivation as rebounding from last year's finals, such a painful loss.
Speaker 3: I don't think they had the most painful loss of
Speaker 3: the postseason. I think that was Miami at home in
Speaker 3: a Game seven, with a shot by Jimmy Butler to.
Speaker 2: End it, and that was the memory that.
Speaker 3: They're going to use as their fuel in this game.
Speaker 3: And I don't know if the Celtics have that same
Speaker 3: fuel to match, because if they did, I don't think
Speaker 3: they would have been down oh three Frankly.
Speaker 1: Get out the popcorn. I know we're already Saturday Game
Speaker 1: six at Miami that's at eight thirty pm on TNT.
Speaker 1: And this has been a fun run, but there was
Speaker 1: a glorious four years in Miami Heat history from twenty
Speaker 1: ten to twenty fourteen. You are the host of a
Speaker 1: new podcast, Four Years of Heat. We will get to
Speaker 1: that right after Welcome back to be Paul Sarahkhustak joined
Speaker 1: by the great Israel Gutierra is ESPN's own NBA reporter.
Speaker 1: On your personality, you do it all and now you
Speaker 1: also host an extraordinary podcast called the four Years of Heat,
Speaker 1: and it's about the four years Lebron James spent with
Speaker 1: Dwayne Wade Chris Bosh. You grew up in South Florida.
Speaker 1: You cover the Heat for both ESPN Miami Herald during
Speaker 1: the course of that time. I know we all loved
Speaker 1: watching that team and just all the different parts of
Speaker 1: how it came together and also what they accomplished. The
Speaker 1: first episode is already out. What have you now learned
Speaker 1: covering the Heat and sharing with it, but even just
Speaker 1: starting this podcast and things that you'll be able to
Speaker 1: share with listeners about that great time for Miami Heat.
Speaker 3: Well, one thing I learned is that if you stick
Speaker 3: around long enough in the business, people call you things
Speaker 3: like legend, so thank you, but just been around for
Speaker 3: a while. True, Sure, I've learned that, you know, living
Speaker 3: here through that while still covering it. You know, I
Speaker 3: started off with the Big three air out stilt the
Speaker 3: Miami Herald as a columnist at the time, and.
Speaker 2: So it felt so intense, so.
Speaker 3: Hyper local, but also like us against the world type
Speaker 3: of situation, you know, even though you know, as an
Speaker 3: objective journalist, I'm not thinking or feeling that way. But
Speaker 3: you see it all around you, right, you hear it
Speaker 3: all around you. I listen to, you know, sports radio
Speaker 3: all the time, and so it was just fiery all
Speaker 3: the time. And it wasn't like what we're used to,
Speaker 3: which is that in a football season where you sort
Speaker 3: of discuss things as the week goes on and you
Speaker 3: sort of bubble up to the Sunday. This was like
Speaker 3: every day, every time there's a game, it's like, oh, no,
Speaker 3: you know what's gonna happen, or oh yeah, look what happened,
Speaker 3: and it was it was it was crazy intense. And
Speaker 3: then when I switched over to ESPN. I realized that,
Speaker 3: and everybody is covering this team this way, and going
Speaker 3: back through it all makes me just kind of realize
Speaker 3: the fervor that was around that team. The kind of like, honestly,
Speaker 3: going back with the stories with the players and stuff
Speaker 3: is you know, it's always fun, right, especially guys that
Speaker 3: want to talk about these things and want to get
Speaker 3: into the finer details. But a lot of the time
Speaker 3: you look at just the perspective and the way people
Speaker 3: were thinking at the time, and man, we would cover
Speaker 3: this team so differently if it was today. In fact,
Speaker 3: I think the team itself would be handled so differently
Speaker 3: if it happened today, because this was ten years ago, right,
Speaker 3: And you think of load management, and you think of
Speaker 3: guys playing, you know, currently maybe thirty seven thirty eight
Speaker 3: minutes to lead the league, Like you had a Heat
Speaker 3: team where Eric Spolster in his third years playing their
Speaker 3: Big three forty five minutes in like a November December game,
Speaker 3: and it's just like, what are we doing? That never
Speaker 3: would have happened in twenty twenty three. So just those
Speaker 3: little details kind of put you in a place that
Speaker 3: you realize it's it's different than it was than it
Speaker 3: is now.
Speaker 1: What was what was? Obviously we know the talent, we
Speaker 1: know the success they had, but with the way that
Speaker 1: that team came together, what was unique about those stars
Speaker 1: that group? Eric Spolstra, pat Riley. We continue to see
Speaker 1: this and talk about Heat culture, but what was unique
Speaker 1: about that group in particular?
Speaker 3: Well, it's why it's so funny because this Heat team
Speaker 3: has won a championship with almost a pressure free like
Speaker 3: that was pressure for Shaq, but you know, yeah, not
Speaker 3: as much.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: We wanted to see if Dwayne Wade could be that
Speaker 3: partner for him. You weren't sure. Boom, they did win
Speaker 3: a championship felt great because you had you knew you
Speaker 3: had another decade plus of Dwayne Wade, and that feels great.
Speaker 3: This one it was entirely different because it was championship pressure,
Speaker 3: not just like one, but multiple championship pressure placed on
Speaker 3: them right away. And if you really look back at it,
Speaker 3: was it pressure on everybody or was it just to
Speaker 3: get Lebron his championship? Like that was he was the
Speaker 3: main character in this story. He was who everybody would say,
Speaker 3: if we win a championship for Slash with that guy,
Speaker 3: then we all win.
Speaker 2: But really they.
Speaker 3: Wanted for him, meaning the media of the world, the fans,
Speaker 3: and that was just an intense level of pressure. And
Speaker 3: what I think was unique about this team was they
Speaker 3: took what you mentioned the Heat culture, the Heat way
Speaker 3: of sort of facing everything up front, eye to eye,
Speaker 3: face to face, don't sweep anything under the rug, don't
Speaker 3: mumble under your breath, like, let's just handle our situations.
Speaker 3: And early on Lebron had to sort of figure out
Speaker 3: what that dynamic meant. And what that meant was, Hey,
Speaker 3: you and your teammates are peers. We're all in this together.
Speaker 3: It's the only way we can have this bunker mentality
Speaker 3: is if we're all honest with each other. And they
Speaker 3: sort of grew to understand what the mission was, and
Speaker 3: Lebron was like, all right, I know for me not
Speaker 3: to be selfish, but everybody has to look out for
Speaker 3: themselves first.
Speaker 2: And so Lebron's like.
Speaker 3: For me, I need to win, and if I believe,
Speaker 3: if you believe that this is the way to do it, cool, fine,
Speaker 3: Eventually I'm in. It might have taken him twenty games,
Speaker 3: thirty games, whatever, but he was in. And then you know,
Speaker 3: they went through their stumble at in that in that
Speaker 3: eleven Finals and where it could have crumbled a little bit,
Speaker 3: they instead, meaning Duaye Lebron, James, Eric Spolstra, all those
Speaker 3: who felt like they could have done more, looked internally
Speaker 3: that offseason, and then sort of repaired themselves the next season.
Speaker 3: And I think the big takeaway that I take from
Speaker 3: revisiting this is the patience that you need to build
Speaker 3: something that great like no matter how good the players are,
Speaker 3: it takes so much to win an NBA championship, And
Speaker 3: if you don't have sort of the game plan, the blueprint,
Speaker 3: the mentality and the ability, you're just not going to
Speaker 3: finish the deal. And they had that far finally that
Speaker 3: second year, and to just to tie it into this
Speaker 3: year's team, nobody wanted the Heat to run it back.
Speaker 3: They didn't want just to have Hey, Caleb Martin, you
Speaker 3: take PJ. Tucker's place, Let's do this again. They watched
Speaker 3: through the regular.
Speaker 2: Season and said, see, I told you so.
Speaker 3: But what Eric Spoltzer and the Heat are saying right
Speaker 3: back to everybody else is no, we told you so,
Speaker 3: stick with it, believe.
Speaker 2: In our process.
Speaker 3: If you will not to steal anything from Philadelphia, and
Speaker 3: in the end, you're going to get the best out
Speaker 3: of who you are. And back then it took the
Speaker 3: best out of the best player in the world to
Speaker 3: win two championships and make four finals in a row.
Speaker 3: And right now it's taking you know, the best out
Speaker 3: of a guy who's probably the biggest competitor in the
Speaker 3: league right now, Jimmy Butler and a bunch of you know,
Speaker 3: really gritty guys around them. So the process, the mentality
Speaker 3: remains the same, just the pieces are different.
Speaker 1: Is you got me hype?
Speaker 3: You got me hype?
Speaker 1: Four years of Heat. As I said, episode one is
Speaker 1: already out. Episode two will drop on Tuesday. A great
Speaker 1: table setter as we get set for Game six as
Speaker 1: this Heat team leads the Boston Celtics three games to
Speaker 1: two in the Eastern Conference Final. It's real, Gutierre, as
Speaker 1: you really are the best. We appreciate your time and
Speaker 1: we look forward to hearing, seeing, listening to you as
Speaker 1: these finals continue.
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1: NBA Pulse with Sarahu Stack is a production of the
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