Popovich Says Heat Didn’t Respond Well Mentally After Game 2 Finals Win

Always deflecting attention away from himself and his brilliant championship team, Gregg Popovich says the San Antonio Spurs’ mesmerizing play in the last three games of the NBA Finals was about more than their standalone performance. According to the future Hall-of-Famer, the complacent attitude of their opponents was influential to the Spurs’ incredible and ultimately crowning success.

In a must-read story detailing his preparation for the coming season, Pop told Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News that Miami was doomed in part by their emotional response to winning Game 2 in San Antonio.

“When they won Game 2,” he said, “they probably didn’t handle that win real well. They were probably thinking that we got lucky in Game 1, with the air conditioning issue, and they thought they were just going to do it again. As two-time defending champs, it was natural. This had become their place in the world.”

Though it seems this way on the surface, we don’t take Popovich’s sentiment as pouring salt in the wounds of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and the rest. He and his players mentioned throughout the 2013-2014 season how motivated they were by coming so close to defeating the Heat in the previous year’s Finals. Whereas the Spurs were fueled by that relative failure, the Heat were twice-defending champs – it’s only natural those circumstances would glean a mental edge for San Antonio.

And as Pop indicates, Miami had reason to believe after Game 2 that it should have won both games in the Alamo City. The Heat led by seven early in the fourth quarter of the Finals opener, and still held a lead when LeBron James’ body succumbed to heat of the air conditioning-less AT&T Center.

So according to Popovich, the teams left Game 2 with wholly disparate attitudes: Miami feeling the status quo was restored, while San Antonio became even more desperately motivated and confident.

And after the Spurs lost Game 2 to the Heat? They reacted as they hadn’t before.

“There was a different mantra,” Popovich said. “Boarding the plane, before practices, during shootaround, we said, ‘We came here to win two.’ We totally believed at that point. We thought we were better.”

This is all in the past, of course. The 2014-2015 season is less than six weeks away. But it’s always informative when Pop offers more insight than dismissive wit and typical company lines.

Unlike the Heat of 2013-2014, let’s see if the Spurs can stay vigilant this season. With Popovich at the helm, we expect nothing less.

What do you think?

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