Spoelstra has a new big 3: ‘Force and speed and pace’

Listen to Erik Spoelstra often enough and he’ll convince you the Boston Celtics not only have one of this season’s best defenses, but one for the ages.

It’s his way of making sure the Miami Heat remain on the move in these Eastern Conference finals.

“I say it time and time again: You have to do things with force and speed and pace,” Spoelstra said ahead of Thursday’s Game 2 of the best-of-seven series. “If you don’t, and you just are mindlessly running around out there without spacing, without those level of details, they will flatten you out and they will do it and make you feel some pain, getting into some tough shots.

“We understand their defense is really good. We’ll see what layers that we’ll have to get into as we can.”

The approach clearly is a touchstone for the Heat this round, with Spoelstra’s players parroting the fear of flattening.

“They do a lot of switching and they can flatten us out on that end of the floor,” guard Tyler

Herro said. “If we’re not detailed and not doing things with precision, that’s where they can flatten us out and they can get us late in the shot clock and we end up taking shots that we don’t want to take.

“Just doing things with detail and getting the ball where we want it, and that’s how we get the best shots and work it to our advantage.”

Otherwise, guard Duncan Robinson said, the Heat will find themselves dealing with a flat.

“As we learned from the other series,” he said of the Heat’s 8-1 run through the first two rounds of these NBA playoffs, against the Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks, “teams are going to adjust and find ways to take things away.

“For us, it’s really going to be about executing the detail and not letting them just flatten us out. Whatever it is, catch-and-shoot, ball screen action, drives, all that sort of stuff.

For us, it really just comes down to execution and really being locked in.”

Eclectic mix

Spoelstra said among the reasons for his team’s success has been the mix of 30-somethings and neophytes.

“We have a lot of veteran guys that have been in playoff series before,” he said, noting Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic, Jae Crowder and Andre Iguodala. “You start with that. You need guys that have been playoff-tested and have that experience.

“Jimmy, Goran, Jae, Andre, they have been through so many tough playoff series before and felt disappointment, felt elation. They know how hard it is in the playoffs. You have that kind of stability and leadership that trickles down to our young players that allows them to be themselves and allows them to play without knowing what they don’t know.”

The balance has been the youthful enthusiasm.

“We do have a lot of different personalities with this group,” Spoelstra said, “but we share the same values about competition. Guys are very serious about their approach to competition and competing.

“But then you get outside the four lines and it is a fun group to be around.”