Heat’s Erik Spoelstra gets 100% real on tough Jalen Brunson, Knicks challenge

Spoelstra talks about the Heat’s game plan vs. Knicks star Jalen Brunson

While it may be the forgotten playoff series for the Heat as they beat the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics on their way to the NBA Finals last season, they did also beat the Knicks in the semi-finals in six games as they look to seek revenge. So far this season, the Knicks have won two straight games against Miami, both at Madison Square Garden where as Tuesday’s contest will be inside the Kaseya Center.

The anchor to New York’s success this season has no doubt been star Jalen Brunson who has averaged 27.9 points, 6.5 assists, and 3.6 rebounds per game while shooting 47.8 percent from the field. Spoelstra said before the Heat’s final regular season matchup against the Knicks that the goal isn’t to ultimately stop him as he’s on a different level, but Miami has to be “extremely disciplined.”

“He is at that level right now, you have to be really good at what you do. You have to have a bunch of habits built on a lot of weeks and months and you just try to be extremely disciplined to your system,” Spoelstra said. “You’re not taking things away from him at this point, at the level he’s playing right now. And that’s why those habits that we talked about all the time are, we have to beat the Knicks. You have to make it tough on him, but ultimately we want to make it tough on their team and when we’re at that level defensively, we’re capable of that.”

There is no doubt the final eight games are integral for Miami as they are trying to get out of contention for the play-in tournament and obtain a top six seed in the East. Before Tuesday’s outing, the Heat are 41-33 on the season which puts them seventh in the conference.