Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra showed his team a video of rappers Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent to rally the team together over the final stretch of the 2022-23 regular season.
“Tyler Herro was struck by a video that Spoelstra showed them about ‘Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and Eminem and how they started, and the manager they had and he was the one rallying the troops, which is Spo [for the Heat],’” the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson wrote. “‘Spo does [this type of thing] every year, but this year has been a little bit more with how up and down the season has been.’”
Spoelstra is pulling out all the stops to get the Heat motivated to make a run in the postseason, as the team currently sits in the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Miami may not be able to get up into the No. 6 spot to avoid the league’s play-in tournament, unless it closes the season strong and gets some help from the Brooklyn Nets.
Brooklyn, the current No. 6 seed, has a two-game lead on the Heat in the conference and holds the tiebreaker between the teams from their regular season meetings.
The Heat picked up a much-needed win over the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday behind a monster game from Jimmy butler.
Butler dropped 35 points and shot the lights out in the win. The six-time All-Star was 12-for-16 from the field in the game and added 12 assists.
The Heat close the 2022-23 season with matchups against the Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Wizards and Orlando Magic. Those are all winnable games, and the Wizards and Pistons have already been eliminated from playoff contention.
Spoelstra has led the Heat to the Eastern Conference Finals in two of the last three seasons, making the NBA Finals in the 2019-20 campaign. A two-time NBA champion as a head coach, Spoelstra clearly knows what it takes to get back to the Finals again this season.
The Heat are hoping for some more solid play from Butler, and the return of big man Bam Adebayo, who missed Saturday’s game, to help them close out the season strong.
If the Heat end up with the No. 7 seed, they will have two chances to win one play-in tournament game to make the playoffs.
