MIAMI: The Miami Heat are one win away from becoming just the fourth team in the history of the NBA to enjoy 20 straight victories in a single season and try as they might, they just can’t quite hide the fact that it really is great fun beating all comers.
For coach Erik Spoelstra, the winning streak is a topic he avoids in his team-talks as he focuses on drilling good habits into the team before the games that really matter - the play-offs.
“I’m not going to bring it up. I haven’t brought it up once yet, the streak,” he said. Spoelstra said that even if he reflected on the run of form privately, it would only be to compare it with the feeling of the franchise’s worst season back in 2007/08.
“I don’t think about it much but if I were to think about it, I would think about the 15 win season and how awful it can be,” he said.
The players try their best to keep with Spoelstra’s mantra but after the Atlanta game LeBron James eventually conceded, it was something unique worth acknowledging.
“Let’s be honest guys, we aren’t sitting here and saying this is not something special - this is an unbelievable streak, we are playing great basketball, we are winning in different phases of the game and we are playing different styles,” he said.
“I’m not going to say it’s not special but we just can’t get caught up in it too much and not seize the moment that we are in each and every night,” he said.
The moment is one that the Heat players are certainly enjoying - on and off the court.
One can sense it in the Heat locker-room where the banter flies or see it in the madcap ‘Harlem Shake’ video the team posted online.
“Winning makes it more fun,” said Spoelstra. “What comes first though, the winning or the camaraderie? I don’t see a lot of camaraderie on losing teams and we have been part of both,” he said.
In the locker-room there is an acknowledgement that the bonds they are building.
“This is a special group of guys and it has been a blast this season, we have been working hard but having fun at the same time,” said center Chris Bosh. REUTERS
