Weekend limelight’s on Spoelstra, Donaire
MIAMI coach Erik Spoelstra feels cautiously confident the Heat have righted the ship midway into the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Spoelstra steered his team to a 115103 win and a secure 2-0 lead over the Charlotte Hornets Thursday.
The 45-year-old mentor is the most recognizable sports person of Filipino heritage on the face of the Earth other than boxing icon Manny Pacquiao. Erik’s mom, Elisa Celino, hails from San Pablo City.
Three nights after scoring a franchise playoff-record 123 points and shooting 57.6 percent in a blowout win, Spoelstra’s squad made 30 of its first 40 baskets and shot 57.9 percent to vanquish the Hornets at home in American Airlines Arena.
Spoelstra told sportswriters after Game 2 that the big response he expected from Charlotte never came. Meantime, the Heat were able to knock down some shots and keep the pace better than the first game.
The Heat started slow, tied by the Hornets at 29 heading into the second stanza of Thursday’s game, before finding their rhythm, scoring a franchise-record 43 points and muffing only three of its 19 shots.
Missing the post-season last year after winning the Eastern Conference title four straight years, the three-time NBA champions appear to be back with a vengeance. The Heat led 72-60 at the half and padded the cushion to 18 points in the third quarter.
Miami spent an eternity getting into a shooting groove in the regular season before hitting back its stride that now ex- tends propitiously into the playoffs.
But Spoelstra who has led Miami to four finals appearances and two world titles, cautioned that as the best-of-seven series moves to North Carolina on Sunday, “we can’t just bank down on our offense.”
He knows all too well that a series can turn on a dime. “We need multiple efforts against a rock solid team,” he says. The Heat need to get into their spots defensewise as well, according to Spoelstra.
Twelve-time All-Star Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 28 points Thursday night. In Spoelstra’s limited playoff team this season, Wade is among the remaining veterans who tell the Heat not to lose focus.
It’s a boast that promoter Top Rank does not want to hear, but trainer Nonito Donaire Sr. keeps harping on the possibility his son, Nonito Jr., could stop Zsolt Bedak inside six rounds.
Nonito Jr., known as the Filipino Flash, stakes his WBO super bantamweight title against the fourthranked Hungarian challenger in Cebu tonight.
“Sure, Bedak has fast hand speed, but my son’s faster,” brags Donaire Sr., who also zooms in on Bedak’s stationary stance when slugging it out mid ring.
“Zsolt’s like a deer in the headlights,” says the father, whose past feud with his son is more legendary than junior’s roller-coaster ride to boxing prominence.
The trainer also says the Hungarian gets blinded by jabs, making him an easy target for Nonito Jr., a five-division world champ.
Bedak has won 10 fights in a row. His camp contradicts Donaire Sr., saying their fighter won’t get into a slugfest with the Flash and would get into a boxing, not a brawling mood instead to score points or even a knockout.