Erik Spoelstra and Tyler Herro spoke honestly about the Heat dropping Game 1 against the Cavaliers in Cleveland.
The Cavs were too good on offense and Spoelstra knows his team will have to try and find ways to slow them down.
“You get to the playoffs, there are going to be dynamic offensive teams,” Spoelstra said. “And they have guys that drive and break you down off the dribble and they can also just shoot pull-up threes and they’re very good spot-up shooters, as well. So that’s the task and it’s up to us to figure out how to beat that.”
Herro also touched on his opponents’ offense as the main area for the Heat to focus on.
“They’re a historically good offense,” Herro said. “Obviously, they’re No. 1 in the East for a reason. I think we lacked a lot of communication, just mental errors that we can cover up. I think, obviously, the two days in between will give us time to watch film, have a practice and then clean up the things we need to clean up.”
The shooting guard ended the night with 21 points, three rebounds and two assists – not enough for the team’s star scorer since the departure of Jimmy Butler.
“I just got to continue to be aggressive in finding my shots,” Herro said. “Obviously, they’re denying me and picking me up full court and just trying to make things tough. But we’ve faced that literally all year. I just got to be better.”
After Cleveland’s win, Cavs point guard Darius Garland pointed to his team’s “competitive spirit,” which is what gave them the edge over Miami.
“Our competitive spirit,” Garland said. “We actually played for 48 minutes tonight, the full game. With sending in runs and actually coming back and swinging ourselves. So we can withstand the runs, of course. We rebounded the ball pretty well. I think that’s what can really carry over to Game 2. Try to limit them to one shot a possession instead of two or multiple, period. Keep loading on their main guys. Keep loading on Bam. Keep loading on Tyler. Keep loading on Wiggs and try to slow them down as much as we can.”
