NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS. HEAT

May 21, 2022

Erik Spoelstra

Miami Heat

Game 3: Pregame

Q. Where do we stand with Kyle and Tuck at the moment?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Same as this morning. Haven't even seen them yet.

Q. So warming up with intention to play?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, I haven't talked to the trainers. That was the plan. We'll follow up. I think we said at about 8:00, I would turn in my card. So I'm going to really try to stay true to that.

Q. Everybody loves a gamer, but when a player is determined to play even if he's not feeling great, if he's got an injury, how much does that shift the burden to you and your staff to eyeball it and make a quick decision on whether he's up to the task?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Quite a bit, and to be frank, we have a locker room full of these kind of guys. There's been so much narrative in this league about load management, guys resting, guys sitting out for better or worse. We don't have guys wired like that.

Q. You talked a lot in Miami about Marcus, Defensive Player of the Year, but he has the game in Game 2. How do you react to one like that when you still focus on Tatum, Brown, the stars for the team, and he breaks loose with a night he had, too?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, there's X-factors on both sides. You have to respect Marcus as a competitor more than anything. He had his fingerprints on that game and definitely had an impact on both sides of the floor for sure.