The Miami Heat are homeward bound, and for coach Erik Spoelstra and the defending NBA champions, that’s where the heart has been all season.
The San Antonio Spurs hold a 3-2 series lead and can close out the NBA Finals with a victory in one of the two remaining games in the series. But only three of eight teams holding that advantage with two games to play on the road finished the job. There will be nothing easy about extinguishing the Heat.
Miami hasn’t lost consecutive home games at American Airlines Arena this year. In the postseason following a loss, the Heat has a 6-0 record with an average margin of victory over 20 points.
“Every series is different,” said Spoelstra. “You fight for home court. Our focus now … is on playing our best game. Can we put together our best game on both sides of the floor in Game 6? We do feel good that we’re going home for that game. But we’ve got to earn back that home court. And so our focus is only on the next game.”
Facing a similar situation two years ago, the Heat lost to the Mavericks in Game 6 and watched Dallas celebrate an NBA championship. Trends and predictions aren’t going to factor Tuesday, Spoelstra said.
“You can’t win a game with a statistic,” he said.
In 2012, the Heat won the final two games of the Eastern Conference finals to eliminate Boston and advance to the Finals. This isn’t uncharted territory. But San Antonio, which won Game 1 in Miami, is the only team with a margin for error.
“The most important game is Game 6,” LeBron James said. “We can’t worry about a Game 7. We have to worry about Game 6 and going back home, being confident about our game, being confident about getting a win, which we are.
So it is what it is. We have a Game 6 on our home floor.”
Spoelstra has been dumbfounded at times by his team’s inconsistency. He repeated after the Game 5 loss in which Miami was doomed by San Antonio’s 19-1 run, that his team put itself in the win-or-apocalypse position it faces Tuesday.
To varying degrees, offense and defense have been troublingly poor, by Spoelstra’s description. He felt the offense was too enigmatic Sunday in Game 5, but one-on-one defense was as much a bugaboo in that defeat. San Antonio found it easy from isolation sets and simple top-of-the-key pick-and-roll plays to spring point guard Tony Parker and surprise starter Manu Ginobili for point-blank shot attempts.
“Not only Ginobili, but basically everybody on their team was taking turns off the dribble, getting by us and breaking down our defense,” Spoelstra said.
Ginobili had his first 24-point, 10-assist game since 2008, a performance he said Sunday he “needed” in the worst way to regain confidence just two days after hinting at retirement. While his shot began falling in Game 5, the unsung heroes have been the Spurs’ complementary wing players. Danny Green, unheralded in relation to the stars in the series, has been unconscious knocking down 3-point shots and has already established an NBA Finals record.
“That will be something that we have to correct,” Spoelstra said. “Got to do it harder, and be more committed. He’s getting some open looks, and he’s making some contested looks. But the open looks are the ones that are killing us.”
The potential adjustments to slow the Spurs’ offense include leaving James to defend Parker without switching over screens, a notion Spoelstra wouldn’t rule out. Parker wouldn’t mind if the stubborn approach Miami has used through five games is applied again Tuesday.
“Danny has been playing great. He’s making shots,” Parker said. “I can’t believe he’s still open at this moment of this series. They are still trapping me and doubling Timmy, and Danny is wide open. He’s shooting the ball well. If you are going to leave Danny wide open, he’s going to make threes.”
James said there is no individual push for him to carry the Heat to Game 7. He pleaded for the full roster to bring whatever they have left to live to fight in a final game on Miami’s home court.
“Me being one of the leaders of this team, I do put a lot of pressure on myself to force a Game 7, and I look forward to the challenge,” he said.
James said when the series began that he isn’t playing the game for his legacy. But the outcome of the 2013 Finals likely have a lot to say historically about the careers of James, Dwyane Wade, Popovich, Duncan, Parker and Ginobili, among others, the kind of weighty matter none of the principal parties want to discuss.
“You just go play Game 6,” said Popovich, who has four NBA titles with the Spurs. “There’s no magic to it. It’s basketball. It’s not that complicated. Both teams will compete their fannies off. Players will play well or poorly. Coaches will try to help them as much as possible, and the best team will end up winning.”