NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

June 3, 2023

Duncan Robinson

Miami Heat

Practice Day

Q. I was just talking to Spo about if there is any alternate message to the shooters about the standard responsibility around here. He said, no, it's let it fly.

DUNCAN ROBINSON: Yeah, yeah. Keep it consistent, just what it's been throughout really the entirety of the season, but definitely the entirety of the playoff run. Try not to overreact to a good game or a bad game. Just kind of stay level headed with it all.

Thankful to have a staff and obviously a head coach in our corner, that's for sure.

Q. How interesting is it to have a defensive effort that is where you want to be from a point total, but not quite where you want to be from a field goal percentage total against Denver?

DUNCAN ROBINSON: Yeah, I think it's an opportunity to learn. You watch the film, go to school on it, try to take away some things that you did well, and then certainly learn from some things that you can do better.

I think in that sense there are some encouraging aspects of it. Obviously they're a really dynamic offensive team, so you're not going to be able to take away everything, but just make it difficult for them throughout the course of the game.

Q. What did jump out at you after watching the game film?

DUNCAN ROBINSON: You know, I think part of it is when you're in it, you don't necessarily feel that you played as well as maybe you feel like you could have. I think that's part of it.

They're obviously a really, really good offensive team. Just trying to learn from that, ways to kind of slow them down in offensive execution. Just seeing that there's opportunities for us to play to our strengths more.

We'll just try to do that.

Q. How do you counter their size?

DUNCAN ROBINSON: Just play them physical, setting the tone. Obviously they tried to really set the tone there early just around the paint. We're a pretty good team at protecting the paint in general.

We'll learn from that and try to just have more of a kind of physical tone set early on.

Q. Everybody on the team, not just you, you can have an off-night and keep that confidence, but in the NBA Finals, is it different knowing it's such a big stage in how big of a hurdle is the mental side of it?

DUNCAN ROBINSON: No, I think honestly it's very much kind of keep it the same, what it's been throughout the year. We've had stretches throughout this year where we've shot the ball great and where we haven't. Keep everything the same, routine the same, maintain consistency, and continue to have that belief and trust to let it fly and that it'll go in.

Q. Did you like the looks you got in Game 1?

DUNCAN ROBINSON: Yeah, we got some good looks. Shot quality was there, and I think we can definitely execute better, and I think we will as the series goes on.

This is going to be obviously a challenging task. They're a good defense, good offense, pose a lot of challenges. But we're going to get better as the series goes on. We really believe that.

Q. Even if you're getting good looks, did they do anything different to make your job more difficult?

DUNCAN ROBINSON: You know, credit to them for sure. They play differently than kind of defensively we've seen, particularly in the Eastern Conference, some of the things that they do is just a little bit different.

But it's just an adjustment and getting film with how they're going to rotate and defend and X out on actions and do all that sort of stuff. We'll continue to get familiar with it and work through it, and that's what days today are like.

Q. When you look at that stat line you see just two free throws attempted. Does that tell you maybe you were a little too jump shot happy?

DUNCAN ROBINSON: You know, we can always attack more. We're an attacking team. That's kind of who we are. Get back to that identity for sure, but we thought we got a lot of good looks, as well.

In terms of overall strategy, that's more of a coach's question. For us players it's more about executing what the game plan is going in.