If you’re a head coach, and you really want the ball in your star players’ hands, yelling at everyone to “get him open” might be efficient enough.
It definitely is if you’re Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, named one of the Top 15 Coaches in NBA history during the league’s 75-year anniversary in 2022.
On an inbound play with 26.4 seconds left as the Heat led the Cavaliers 113-112 in a critical Eastern Conference match-up Friday night, Spoelstra was shown on camera pointing at his players on the floor and yelling, “get him open!” repeatedly.
The camera then revealed that the player he wanted open was, of course, Jimmy Butler, who received the inbound pass from Tyler Herro after Spoelstra shouted “get him open” six times — or, at least, that’s how many were shown on camera.
After receiving the pass, Butler promptly scored a pull-up jumper over Cavs forward Lamar Stevens with 18 seconds to go, two of his 33 points on a 12-for-16 shooting night as the Heat won 119-115.
The game itself was a significant result locally as the five-seed Knicks and six-seed Nets remain firmly in the playoff race with eyes on each team.
As it stands, the Cavaliers’ loss keeps the Knicks 2.5 games out of the No. 4 seed after the orange and blue dropped two straight to follow a nine-game winning streak.
As for the Nets, who outlasted the Timberwolves in a road overtime win on Friday night, they remain 2.5 games ahead of the Heat to avoid the play-in and are just half a game behind the Knicks for a top-five record in the Eastern Conference.