Erik Spoelstra is regarded one of the top head coaches in the NBA, but he is putting the finishing touch on what may be his finest season.
Spoelstra has guided the Miami Heat to an unlikely trip to the NBA Finals, where they will take on the Denver Nuggets. Game 1 of the series is scheduled for Thursday night in Denver.
Spoelstra and the Heat have a chance to make history. The Heat, just the second eighth-seeded team (New York Knicks, 1999) to reach the NBA Finals, can become the first eighth-seeded team to capture the NBA title since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1984.
Few expected the Heat to be competing in the NBA Finals when the playoffs began. The Heat has strung together a series of upset wins in each round of the NBA playoffs to give themselves a chance to win their third championship under Spoelstra.
The Heat stunned the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the opening round. They defeated the New York Knicks in the conference semifinals and then shocked the heavily-favored Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.
“This group has been able to overcome a lot of different things, handle a lot of adversity, setbacks, things that have not gone the way we wanted it to go,” Spoelstra told reporters Wednesday. “Instead of having that collapse our spirit, it allowed us to develop some fortitude and grit collectively and give us something to rally around, which was each other.”
The win over the Celtics displayed Spoelstra’s coaching acumen and the resiliency he has instilled within the group.
The Heat was just three seconds away from reaching the NBA Finals before Boston guard Derrick White’s buzzer-beating putback gave the Celtics a 104-103 win in Game 6. The Celtics rallied to tie the series 3-3 after the Heat had won the first three games. The Celtics had the momentum and few felt Miami could recover from the loss and win on the road in Game 7 at Boston.
Spoelstra, who played basketball at Jesuit High School and the University of Portland, never wavered in his belief that the Heat could win in Boston following the devastating loss.
“These are lessons that we’re going to pass on to our children about perseverance,” Spoelstra said. “Things don’t go your way, we just keep on forging ahead and suffer and suffer and suffer until you get what you want.”
The composed and confident Heat jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and never looked back, blowing out the Celtics 103-84 in Game 7 to win the series.
What makes the Heat’s run under Spoelstra even more impressive is the makeup of Miami’s roster. The only star is guard Jimmy Butler. The rest of the roster is made up of role players, and the Heat have nine undrafted players on the roster, more than any other team.
In addition, the Heat lost starting guard Tyler Herro to a fractured bone in his hand during the first game of their series against the Bucks. Herro has recovered, but he’s not expected to play in Game 1. Guard Victor Oladipo suffered a season-ending knee injury during Game 3 of the series against the Bucks.
The series against the Nuggets marks Spoelstra’s sixth trip to the NBA Finals. Only Phil Jackson (13), Pat Riley (9), San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich (6) and Golden State’s Kerr (6) have coached teams to as many or more Finals. Spoelstra was named as one of the NBA’s 15 Greatest Coaches as part of the league’s 75th anniversary celebration last year.
Spoelstra’ two NBA titles came when LeBron James was on the roster. The Heat reached the NBA Finals in 2020, but lost to James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the “Bubble.”
Now Spoelstra has the Heat on the cusp of winning another championship and making history.