Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s greatness on display in playoffs

Just minutes after the Miami Heat moved two wins away from becoming the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to make the NBA Finals, coach Erik Spoelstra was asked about an important tactical decision he made.

After using zone on just 19 defensive possessions through the first seven quarters of the Eastern Conference finals, the Heat played 19 zone possessions in Friday’s game-deciding fourth quarter, according to Synergy Sports. The adjustment worked, as the Boston Celtics scored just 0.9 points per possession on the 19 fourth-quarter possessions the Heat turned to zone.

That helped the Heat rally from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to win Game 2 of the East finals 111-105 over the Celtics on Friday night at TD Garden to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. Miami became the first road team to win the first two games of a playoff series since the 2021 playoffs, with the Heat now returning to Miami for Game 3 on Sunday (8:30 p.m., TNT).

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When asked about his strategic decision to rely on the Heat’s zone defense in Friday’s fourth quarter, Spoelstra was quick to downplay the move to deflect the credit away from himself. That’s the Spoelstra way.

“I don’t know,” Spoelstra said. “When you play against great teams, very good teams like we’re facing, Boston, you just have to do whatever is necessary. It’s not about the schematics or the Xs and Os. You can invent a new defense. But if you’re not committed to doing tough things — that’s what this is about, doing tough things.”

Spoelstra, 52, will never take credit for wins, instead giving that all to his players. Those around and inside the league, though, understand how important Spoelstra is to the Heat’s success.

In his 15th season as the Heat’s head coach, Spoelstra has already established himself as the winningest coach in franchise history in both the regular season and playoffs while being voted as the league’s best head coach for the last three seasons in the NBA’s preseason survey of general managers. This marks the seventh time he has helped lead the Heat to the conference finals in the last 13 seasons and he’s just a few wins away from earning his sixth NBA Finals appearance during that same stretch.

“I don’t think he has a weakness,” said Stan Van Gundy, who is currently working as a TNT analyst for the East finals but has a history with Spoelstra that dates back to their time as Heat assistant coaches in the late 1990s. “If you can break down coaching, he’s a great X and O guy, he’s a great teacher on the floor, he can do player development stuff, he’s an outstanding motivator. I think he’s got a great feel for players and they like him, his relationships are good. I just don’t think he has a weakness.”

But what sets Spoelstra apart from other coaches is what was on display late in the Heat’s Game 2 win on Friday. It’s Spoelstra’s ability to shape-shift his system around the strengths and weaknesses of his players and opponent and/or the context of the moment.

“I think the thing he does, which I think all coaches strive to do but he’s just done a great job of is he will clearly play to the strengths of the players on his roster and it changes from year to year,” Van Gundy said. “It’s never about his ego or his system, it’s what will help this team win and he’ll go with that.”

With the Celtics having success against the Heat’s man-to-man defense, Spoelstra was able to rely on the zone to slow their offense and complete Friday’s comeback. But even beyond that, Spoelstra has built a Heat defense that can switch pick-and-rolls, play drop coverage, pick ball-handlers up full court, trap teams’ best players and show and recover on screens to protect its weaker defenders.

Whatever is required to put the Heat in the best position to win.

“By the time you get to the playoffs, you better have some alternatives based on who you’re playing,” Van Gundy said. “Like can we switch, can we drop, can we blitz people, can we double team, can we zone? Erik builds that in. So when they get to these times of the year, you’re not trying to go into a walk through for one hour and put something in you haven’t done all year. They’ve done it throughout the year. He gets his team ready for this time of the year during the regular season.”

Veteran Kevin Love has only been with the Heat for three months after signing with Miami during the mid-February All-Star break, but Spoelstra has already made a strong impression on him.

“We are, I think, the most well prepared team,” Love said. “And as far as execution goes, we execute at an extremely high level and that all starts with him. I think at the end of the day against any team, no matter who we’re playing, we’re going to give ourselves a shot to win.”

How does Spoelstra consistently make sure that’s the case?

“Just his attention to detail,” Love said. “It can be across the board. It can be matchups, it can be tendencies, it can be advanced analytics, it can be coaching styles on different teams and the way that they play, understanding where teams are at in their season. That stuff all matters and all those details matter in getting a victory.”

The Heat’s historic playoff run is filled with eye-opening numbers:

▪ The Heat is 6-2 when trailing double-digits in this year’s playoffs. The rest of the NBA is 15-60 in those situations.

▪ The Heat is an NBA-best 6-2 in clutch games (one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter) after recording the most clutch wins (32) in the league this regular season.

▪ The Heat has outscored opponents by an NBA-best 20.1 points per 100 possessions in the fourth quarter during this year’s playoffs.

▪ The Heat, which was outscored by a total of 26 points this regular season, is the first team since at least 2000 to advance to the conference finals after posting a negative point differential in the regular season.

Love believes Spoelstra has played a big role in all of that from the sideline, as the Heat’s duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler leads the way on the court.

“He knows exactly who he is and knows exactly what he wants,” Love said of Spoelstra. “I mean, that calms us down. That allows a level of comfort for us, understanding that he’s battle tested, he’s been there before. Guys like Jimmy and Bam are an extension of him. So those two guys are going to lead us out there on the floor, but we know we have one of the best all time who’s sitting on the sideline who’s going to lead us and guide us through this.”

The Heat has won two championships with Spoelstra at the helm, but this one would represent his greatest achievement as a head coach. A No. 8 seed has never won an NBA title.

But don’t tell Spoelstra that. There’s plenty of work to be done before that possibility even crosses his mind, plus he’ll never accept credit for it.

“I think he doesn’t get caught up in getting too high or getting too low. He’s not into all that,” Van Gundy said. “He’s just about what’s next and what do we have to do to win. I think players have great respect for that. He’s not dwelling on the past or failures. It’s just all look ahead.”