The Miami Heat were in a code red situation after losing three of their last four games prior to taking on the league-leading Celtics, who were riding a 16-game win streak.
The team managed the unthinkable, taking down the Celtics in a critical 104-98 win on Thanksgiving's eve. But it's what preceded the win that really turned the gears for Miami. The team took part in another grueling practice — intense enough to propel this team to get a jump on the Celtics early.
“Brutal, man,” center Hassan Whiteside said after Wednesday’s victory, according to Anthony Chiang of The Palm Beach Post. “Coach was working us hard. They were brutal, brutal practices. Hard.”
Forward James Johnson, who was the first to warn his team was in a code red situation, was the first to note these practices were no joke.
“I would have rather went through training camp, to be honest,” Johnson said. “They were tough, nitty-gritty [practices]. Everybody set a precedence for themselves and it was just full of inspiring moments that you couldn’t believe guys got back to guys or closed out to guys that were 20 feet away, things like that.”
“Like I said, we set a bar not only for each other, but ourselves. We found out that once we take our excuses away that we can really do a lot of things.”
Goran Dragic called them “probably the toughest practices that I was a part of in my career,” as head coach Erik Spoelstra has followed president Pat Riley's instruction to a tee.
These tough practices have kept each of these players ready to compete at all times and barring some tough shooting nights, they're all bound to bring an immense amount of effort night in and night out, as they do so in practice.
Follow Us
Subscribe