Erik Spoelstra Wants Miami Heat to Treat Game 5 Like a Game 7

The Miami Heat have an opportunity to capture the second NBA title in franchise history tonight, and head coach Erik Spoelstra wants his team to fully seize the opportunity, and not have to go back to OKC. Per the Sun-Sentinel: “Up 3-1 in the best-of-seven series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Heat are one victory from the second championship in the franchise’s 24 seasons. Of course, to Spoelstra, they’re also three losses from being denied. ‘You can’t ever take it for granted,’ Spoelstra said. ‘I remember when I was an assistant forPat [Riley], he used to say this all the time, ‘You never know you’re going to win it until you actually do.’ […] ‘It’s Game 5,’ Spoelstra said. ‘We want to treat it as a Game 7.’ Spoelstra bristled at the suggestion that the Heat were on the verge of the ultimate goal established when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were signed as free agents in July 2010. ‘Come on, this series has been decided by four or five plays every single game,’ he said. ‘We have to generate, again, the physical and mental toughness, again, to go through it. It’s going to be a grind, and we have to be prepared for that.’ Wade said it is a different feeling than when he shared in the 2006 title, knowing they can close it out at home. ‘I was actually trying to think about that, and it’s hard to bring back six years ago exactly what we were going through, what we did,’ he said of being up 3-2 on the Mavericks in 2006. ‘It was a little different because we were on the road.’ It’s also different from last season’s Finals, when the Heat never got to the doorstep of a title, falling 4-2 to the Mavericks on the very court where they Thursday hope to create their own celebration. ‘I haven’t even really looked at it as just one game away,’ James said. ‘I look at it as this is our next game. As crazy as it sounds, I haven’t got caught up in it. I won’t get caught up in it because I’m not going to let … you know, the human nature is to automatically think about after we win it, what are we going to do. I’m not there. I won’t get there until those zeros hit and I see that we won.'”