Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was mad as hell after Sunday’s 25 point loss against the Indiana Pacers. He said he would get to the bottom of things and obviously did make a step in that direction. Untypical for the regular part of the season, he tortured his players in practice for two days. Dragić’s comment that he faced the hardest practice in his career, illustrates how intensive those practice sessions really were.
Gogi reached twenty in the first half
You could see no sign of fatigue on the Slovenian captain. It came out on court looking fresh and motivated. And why wouldn’t he, facing one of the best plays in the league, Kyrie Irving. Shooting 6/9 Dragić scored 20 points in the first half, which ended with a 13 points advantage for the Miami Heat.
Waiters’ decisive threes
In contrast to Miami’s previous games, coach Spolestra gave Dragić more rest this time, keeping him fresh for the entire game. More freedom was given to Dion Waiters, which did pay off in the end. Waiters shot 11/24 from the field and scored 26 points, including eight in the last three minutes. The Miami guard was the one who decided the match.
After trailing big Boston to did cut Miami’s lead to only one point with a 13:0 run. The Celtics did come back eight times this season after trailing in the fourth quarter, but this time it did not play out that way. When it was 91:90 Waiters hit a three, with the ball bouncing off the rim three times before going through the net. He made his next three pointer two minutes before the end for a 97:90 lead. Irving (23 points) answered back with four points, but a dunk by Waiters 35 seconds before the end removed all doubt about the winner.
That meant the end of the fourth longest winning streak in the history of the Boston Celtics, the NBA’s most successful franchise.
Spoelstra: We have to learn winning habits
"We obviously beat a very good basketball team, but it has nothing to do with that. What’s important is our behavior, our habits, our consistency. The test will be what we do in the next 48 hours. We’re trying learn how to develop winning habits," said Spoelstra. Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens tried to be short: "No question, they deserved to win." Smiling, he then added: "Maybe that’s why they got the big bounce," thinking of Waiters’ first three pointer in the final minutes of the match.
Dragić, who scored 27 points (shooting 8/17) with five rebounds and four assists, was pleased: "You can see what we can do. Sometimes it’s crazy what kind of game we can have. We can play really well or really bad. But we’re happy with this performance."
