erik-spoelstra - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Meet Jimmy Butler, the NBA’s Neymar
They go about it in opposite ways, but Neymar and Jimmy Butler end in the same place. They’re both very good to great players. They’re billed as epicenters. It’s just as important, if not more so, that they’re seen as THE guys than just being them. Neymar goes about it with flash and showmanship, wh...
The Nuggets are immune to the Heat’s Dark Arts
The Miami Heat’s success has been hard to define all postseason. Words like resilience, toughness, and intelligence certainly apply, but that can be said about any team in any sport that makes a deep playoff run. No, Miami has been Jonathan Crane, injecting fear into Gothamites and Bostonians alike....
Investment into Heat Culture already has better ROI than cryptocurrency
Miami is home to numerous crash diets, fads, and fast fashions that disappear in two months. Even the weather is just as volatile. Noon Monsoons and sunny skies throughout the rest of the afternoon are a symptom of their haywire climate. Heat Culture and crypto are the most consistent staples though...
Jimmy Butler was good enough in Game 2
There was a little too much fouling of 3-point shooters for my taste on Sunday night, but other than that, the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets played quite the thrilling Game 2. The Nuggets threw run after run at the Heat, who ate every blow and kept countering. Eventually the Heat put the Nuggets on ...
Nuggets' Mike Malone has coached more in the past two days than he has all playoffs
In-game coaching is only a part of the equation, which is evident by the way Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone has been waving his hands and trying to get his players attention since their Game 1 win. While he can’t call a timeout, huddle up his team, and scream at them to stay focused, he’s been ...
The Denver Nuggets did something no team has done in a long time — beat the Miami Heat in Game 1
The last time the Miami Heat lost the first game of a series they got swept. Game 1 is always important, but Thursday night was essential for the Denver Nuggets — a franchise that is making its first appearance in the NBA Finals. It’s why Mike Malone knew his team was a must-win scenario....
Will Nikola Jokić lead Denver to its first title or will Jimmy Butler fulfill his playoff prophecy?
One of the least anticipated matchups in recent memory is upon us. The Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat. Let’s be real here. No LeBron, no Jayson Tatum, and no Boston Celtics legends in the stands. Media members have been openly grousing all week about having to cover the Nuggets. That’s a cornball pos...
The Miami Heat have the Boston Celtics right where they want them
Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals is going to decide nature vs. nurture, talent vs. culture, once and for all. Jimmy Butler has been giving the cameras a wry smile and an occasional wink since the Miami Heat lost Game 4, and even went as far as to say “We can and we will win this series.” Desp...
Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics have Boston on the edge of misery
Joe Mazzulla versus Erik Spoelstra has been a lopsided showdown between two coaches with a devotion to film study. Spoelstra famously began his brilliant coaching career as a video coordinator with the Miami Heat in 1995. Joe Mazzulla is more of a pure cinephile. One of the more interesting peeks in...
Celtics' Joe Mazzulla’s reluctance to call a timeout is a blunder that’s become too common
The use of timeouts in one-possession games is a contentious philosophical debate in NBA circles. Each end-of-game episode presents coaches with an ambiguous multiple-choice equation. Timeouts have an expiration date, but that hasn’t stopped coaches from attempting to carry them into the next game o...
Which Jimmy Butler are the Knicks getting?
Jimmy Butler is the validation I needed that NBA playoff basketball is America’s fifth major professional sports league among the “Big Four.” From the pace to the way games are scheduled as a series to the effort, it’s almost a parallel Association. Golden State has been historically bad on the road...
NBA Schedule: Make some time to watch the Knicks
Bing-bong, bang-bang, pick whatever onomatopoeia you desire to properly emphasize the 2022-23 New York Knicks, as long as you acknowledge that this team is for real. They have won nine games in a row and are 4.5 games ahead of a play-in tournament appearance....