Heat caught in squeeze of preseason
BOCA RATON — Time might be short in the NBA’s condensed preseason, but in the view of coach Erik Spoelstra, the Miami Heat might be a bit long on preseason games.
With the league moving up the start of the regular season in order to better space out the schedule, the turnaround to opening night will have the Heat playing games that count starting Oct. 17 in Orlando.
“Because things are shortened, and we obviously would like to get off to a good start, we’d like to start that process earlier than later,” Spoelstra said of getting his rotations in order, as the Heat move toward the close of training camp at Florida Atlantic University. “We do have some evaluations to make.”
But that doesn’t mean Spoelstra sees a need for an exhaustive preseason schedule.
Last year, with the NBA moving up the start of the season, the league reduced maximum preseason schedules from eight games to six.
Now, with most of his cast returning, Spoelstra is not sure that even that many are necessary.
“I feel like we’re moving toward the NFL,” Spoelstra said of those fourgame preseason schedules. “We had these all under contract. We probably would have preferred five. But it was too late by the time the preseason shrunk. So we’ll adjust when we can, when the contracts expire.”
For now, there is a three-game trip to open the preseason that begins Sunday against the San Antonio Spurs, followed by a three-game preseason homestand at AmericanAirlines Arena that opens Oct. 8 against the Magic.
“There’s always an urgency from a coaching standpoint,” Spoelstra said. “But the fact that we have some familiar faces, we were able to fast track a little bit. We know the deal. We know the schedule.”
Before those exhibitions, the Heat will close out training camp at FAU with a 10 a.m. Saturday scrimmage, which has been sold out.
That made Friday morning’s two-hour grind the final contact session of camp.
“It’s nice to have that group where you can fast track,” Spoelstra said of having 14 players back from last season’s roster. “It’s been highly competitive. Guys didn’t have their legs [Friday]. I expected that. We still got after it. It becomes an exercise in mental resiliency, which I think was very good for us.”
Spoelstra said there would be a few twists to this season’s approach, but nothing dramatically different from the previous foundation.
“It’s not like we’re reinventing anything,” he said. “We’re just trying to get to what our identity is, what our strengths are and get to those more often than we get to our weakness. It’s a simple concept, but it’s not easy.”
Saturday’s scrimmage will represent a quick turnaround, with the Heat having to fly to San Antonio later in the day.
“We’ll see how the guys feel in the morning. Guys that can go, will go,” he said. “We’re going to grind through it.
“I think it’ll be fun in front of the fans. We’ve been doing it just with ourselves. It’ll be a good prep for Sunday.”
Spoelstra brought in NBA officials for Friday’s session, to help his players adjust to this season’s rules changes and revised interpretations.
“We asked for it during the summer and they got back to us last week, said the local people could,” he said.
Saturday’s scrimmage will be broadcast on 790-The Ticket. All six exhibitions then will be broadcast on Fox Sports Sun, with the first exhibition on alternate channels on some satellite systems.