It’s all ‘meal to meal’
Spoelstra has Heat focused on developing, keeping good habits
CHICAGO — When Erik Spoelstra talks about getting on to the next thing, he means it. And the Heat coach has made it exceedingly clear lately that he’s not necessarily talking about the next game, such as Sunday’s meeting with the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.
“We’re meal to meal,” he said of the micro approach to the Heat’s existence that has become his sole focus in recent weeks.
“Get on the appropriate bus, be early, and get to a coherent, focused, detailed routine before the game,” he said. “Then get prepared, taped, braced, ready for the meeting. Get your mindset right, focused, detailed pregame. And then get ready to all go out at the same time, focused, detailed, warm up. “And then we’ll get to tipoff.” So after making it three victories in four games with Friday’s 109-97 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves at the start of this four-game trip, the focus was on Saturday’s practice at DePaul, “meal to meal” picking up where last season’s theme of “one percent better” left off.
“That’s all we’re focused on right now is habits,” Spoelstra said. “That’s going to be the rest of the year, rest of the year. We can’t even get involved right now with the result.
“Obviously we understand that that’s what we’re aiming for, but we’ve got to check all these other boxes, learn winning habits first, and then we’ll get to the result.”
The expectation had been of picking up where leaving off, after bringing back the core of last season’s roster that closed at 30-11 over the second half of the season. But, instead, there has been a constant battle just to get back to this current 9-9 standing, the Heat without a winning record this season since standing 2-1.
“Then we’ll get on to the next one, the next whatever it is,” Spoelstra said. “And then we’ll get to the game. But all these small steps matter.”
The reinforcement has become constant.
Instead of pointing to specifics in the immediate wake of Friday’s victory, be it the Heat’s 3-point proficiency, the way Justise Winslow stepped up with his defense or how his team now has gotten a better grasp on competitive third periods, Spoelstra went right back on script in his first comments after the victory.”You have to process driven, not about the results, but we have to build better habits,” he said. “We have to build a better focus, attention to detail and all the things we put into a game. The guys have owned it. I really commend them for that and are working at it. We’re still a work in progress. There’s still a ways to go.”
Whiteside watches
Heat center Hassan Whiteside was held out of Saturday’s practice at DePaul University due to lingering pain from the bone bruise on his left knee he sustained in the Oct. 18 season opener against the Orlando Magic.
Whiteside missed five consecutive games after the injury, but not has missed a game since.
Spoelstra revealed Saturday that Whiteside has missed practice time since his return from the injury absence. “It’s just more a discomfort,” Whiteside said Saturday.
Whiteside played 24:08 in Friday’s victory.
“I felt it a little bit at the beginning,” Whiteside said. “It’s still been sore. It’s just been sore. So it’s going to take a while before I’m actually 100 percent back where I was, when I was in Orlando.”
Olynyk time
Spoelstra said he was heartened by the aggressive approach by reserve center Kelly Olynyk in the victory in Minnesota.
“If he’s open beyond the three point line, I don’t want him shot faking,” Spoelstra said. “I called him our best 3-point shooter and Wayne [Ellington] got mad at me. He’s up there and I want him having that kind of aggressiveness hunting for open shots.”
Olynyk closed 4 of 7 from the field and 2 of 3 on 3-pointers against the Timberwolves, with eight rebounds and four assists.
“I’ll tell you what I like, the reads that he makes,” Spoelstra said. “He finds a way to expose weaknesses in defenses that might be the second and third layer to it.”