Spoelstra living in the moment
Coach not worrying about possible playoff scenarios
To his benefit, and to the benefit of his team, Erik Spoelstra lives in the moment.
Therefore, the Miami Heat do the same thing.
Because as the regular season draws toward its May 16 conclusion, several upcoming Heat games essentially will count double, including Friday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks at the conclusion of this two-game trip.
To Spoelstra, even with the Heat facing the possibility of the pre-playoff play-in round, such matters remain best left for another day.
“There’s going to be so many of these storylines in the next month,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat opening their two-game trip Wednesday night at the AT&T Center against the Spurs. “You just have to stay the course, focus on your team, focus on each game. You can’t get ahead of yourself, and this is ultimately what you want as a professional.
“You want these games to have incredible context. You want there to be great frustration [or] anger if you lose.”
With the top six teams in each conference
moving directly to the playoffs, the Heat went into Wednesday at No. 7 in the East, barely behind the Hawks, Boston Celtics and New York Knicks and just ahead of the Charlotte Hornets.
Of the Heat’s 13 remaining games after Wednesday, there is the Friday game against the Hawks, one against the Hornets and two against the Celtics.
With the play-in element that was added this season, the Nos. 7 and 8 teams play a single game at season’s end for the No. 7 seed. The loser of that game plays the winner of the Nos. 9-10 game for a final chance for a playoff berth.
“It’s not like, I don’t think, anybody really in our grouping is going to be like pulling away in the month,” Spoelstra said. “This is going to be a competitive grind.”
Moving up: In entering Wednesday with 202 3-pointers this season, Heat guard Duncan Robinson stands as the only undrafted NBA player with at least two seasons of 200 or more 3-pointers. He set the record for undrafted players with his 270 last season.
The only other undrafted players with 200 or more 3-pointers in a season have been Damon Jones (225, 2004-05), John Starks (217, 1994-95), Raja Bell (205, 2006-07) and Joe Ingles (204, 2017-18).
“I know I am capable and I have known I am capable,” Robinson said of his record-setting 3-point shooting. “It is just a matter of opportunity. Like with so many guys in this league, opportunity and situation, and I feel really fortunate to be in a great one here.
“It makes it easy on me that I just kind of go out there and show up every single day, handle my business and try to the best of my ability to be a consummate professional.”
If nothing else, Robinson has been consistent. He made his 200th 3-pointer in his 57th game last season and made his 200th in his 58th game this season.
“In terms of the game-play stuff, they just let me be me and be aggressive and see where the chips fall,” he said. “It is super humbling to be in any record book, let alone [for] a franchise like this. I just try not to take it for granted and try to keep it rolling.”