Erik Spoelstra planning to stick with same Heat starting lineup for Game 6
Elimination games sometimes force teams to make big changes in order to save their seasons, but Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra doesn’t feel that’s necessary.
Despite the starting lineup’s struggles in the previous two games, Spoelstra plans to stick with the same group to begin Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals on Friday night at TD Garden. The Heat is on the brink of elimination, trailing 3-2 in the best-of-7 series.
The five-man combination of Kyle Lowry, Max Strus, Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker and Bam Adebayo was outscored by an alarming 39 points in 26 minutes in Games 4 and 5 of the series. This group had actually outscored teams by 54 points in 106 minutes together since it became the Heat’s starting lineup in late March before this recent two-game stretch.
“These are tough decisions,” Spoelstra said ahead of Game 6 on Friday morning. “We’re going with that lineup. It has been a really successful lineup. Then based on the moment of the game, you can’t make necessarily sweeping generalizations on things. This is a fast moving series and that happens with two competitive teams. Who can get to who, who can get to their strengths more often, who can take the other team out of their strengths. It’s a fine line between doing those things and then making adjustments. But that’s part of the deal.”
Most of the recent issues stem from the lineup’s sudden inability to hit outside shots. In the 26 minutes the starting lineup played together in Games 4 and 5, they combined to miss all 22 of their three-point attempts.
But injuries have also taken a toll on some of the lineup’s leaders, as Butler has been playing through a swollen right knee and Lowry is dealing with the lingering effects of a strained left hamstring that forced him to miss eight games this postseason.
“Those guys are confident,” Tucker said of Butler and Lowry. “They’re great players. They’ve been around. They know how this goes. I think it’s more the emotion and the whole situation. Guys not feeling like they’re healthy, feeling like they’re not themselves and still having to play. But it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, it’s about winning and losing and getting it done.”
NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE
Heat guard Victor Oladipo has accomplished a lot during his NBA career, but this is the first time that he has played past the first round of the playoffs.
“It’s just different,” Oladipo said of his first conference finals experience. “It’s self explanatory. It speaks for itself. You’re closer to the Finals. In the Eastern Conference finals, everything is hard and everything is tougher. That’s pretty much it. I don’t know what else to say. … Now that I’m here, I’m just trying to make the most of it.”
The former All-Star had played in just 16 NBA playoff games before this season.
“I can look at the Eastern Conference finals and watch it from afar,” Oladipo continued. “But until I’m in it, I won’t really grasp the intensity and the feeling of actually being in it.”
NBA FINALS SCHEDULE RELEASED
The Golden State Warriors punched their ticket to the NBA Finals on Thursday night and the full schedule for the championship series was announced by the league shortly after.
The NBA Finals schedule looks like this: Game 1 on Thursday at Chase Center in San Francisco at 9 p.m., Game 2 on June 5 at Chase Center at 8 p.m., Game 3 on June 8 at 9 p.m., Game 4 on June 10 at 9 p.m., Game 5 on June 13 at Chase Center at 9 p.m., Game 6 on June 16 at 9 p.m., and Game 7 on June 19 at Chase Center at 8 p.m.
All games will be televised on ABC. Games 5, 6 and 7 will only be played if necessary.
