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Mike Bibby On The Heat:”The only thing that could stop us is us”
It should come as no surprise that really the only playoff series in both the Eastern and Western Conference that looks to be ticketed for a sweep is the #2 Miami Heat against the #7 Philadelphia Sixers. In game two, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh individually scored more points in the first half than the entire starting five for the Sixers. Mike Bibby claims that the Heat wanted to come out in game two and prove they had one of the top defenses in all of basketball and they showed it out there, limiting the Sixers to just 73 total points.
We all know the world of expectations that the Miami Heat put on themselves this summer after adding LeBron James, Chris Bosh and re-signing Dwyane Wade. season became a championship or bust campaign. Bibby feels that the Heat could care less about what everyone thinks, but a season without a championship wouldn’t be a complete one for this team. Bibby has become a serviceable role player on the Heat as he looks to eclipse the final frontier of his basketball career, which would be adding an NBA title to his resume.Mike Bibby joined WQAM in Miami with Steve White and former PG Kenny Anderson to discuss what happened in the locker room leading into game two against the Sixers, what does Miami need to do in order to keep the success going on the road in Philadelphia, the improvements of Chris Bosh, the Heat putting more pressure on themselves based on the expectations from the media and not having a letdown in Philadelphia later this week.
What happened in the locker room leading into game two after struggling against the Sixers in the first half of game one?
“Yeah I mean we wanted to come out and show them defensively that you know we’re one of the top defensive teams in the league. I think when I first got here I noticed that we helped each other a lot. There’s a lot of rotations. A lot of different schemes than what we use to run in Atlanta, so I’m still trying to get used to the rotations… but you know when we’re helping like that and everyone is flying around and crazy and everybody is just helping each other you know with breakdowns even if it isn’t the right rotations, we were doing that last night. We made every shot that they took tough, every shot they took was a contested layup and all.”
What do you think you need to do with the series switching over, going into their building in Philadelphia to have success?
“You know the same thing, keep our energy going and make every shot they shoot tough and not have any turnovers. They throw down a lot in the open court and they got a lot of young guys, we just gotta keep those turnovers and not let them get easy points.”
Talk about the improvements you’ve seen in Chris Bosh in the last six weeks or so?
“You know for me always watching on the outside looking in you feel that the guy is going to get his points playing rebounding the ball, scoring the ball. There’s a lot of things that we could go to – to where something isn’t working. There’s mismatches all over the court. I’ve always seen him as a great player anyway regardless if he was getting the ball or not. There’s a lot more to just numbers in this league and the way I look at it I’ve never been a numbers guy. What I look at it as you know if you’re winning everybody one to fifteen looks good, so I just kind of put the numbers and everything behind and just go from there, but I mean Chris [Bosh] he’s always been a great player in my eyes, watching him in Toronto and you know me being in Atlanta. The main focus was to try to stop him. I mean that’s…you really can’t go wrong either way.”
Internally does the team put more pressure on itself to win it all based on the expectation from the media and public?
“The guys you know the guy really don’t care what the media or what anyone thinks, so the only thing that really matters is us being on the court, you know us fifteen and the coaching staff and the people in the organization. That’s the only thing that matters to us. Everybody wants to win the championship and everybody in our eyes…we don’t think that the season would be complete if we didn’t [win a championship].”
How do you guys guard against a let down on the road in Philadelphia?
“I don’t know. I mean they looked like they were playing a little down last night. I don’t know if they were frustrated or what, but I think if we come in and play defense like we did last night things will take care of itself and we played with a lot of energy. It’s different playing at home than on the road, but I think we’ll come out with the same energy. Everybody is so hungry on this team that’s the only thing that could stop us is us.”
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