Erik Spoelstra on Heat's Finals Hopes: 'We Don't Give a S--t' What Others Think

The Miami Heat came into the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers as underdogs, and find themselves trailing in the series 3-1. It's hard to imagine many people outside of Miami believing the Heat can pull off the comeback. 

But Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra doesn't really care.

"We don't give a s--t what everyone else thinks," he told reporters Thursday. "We are here for a purpose. This is everything we wanted ... an opportunity to compete for a championship against a great team. ... Our guys are in the arena, and that's where we are meant to be."

The Heat are already constructing their version of the "it's us against the world" narrative as they try to get back into this series.

"They're writing us off," star center Bam Adebayo told reporters Thursday. "Everybody's doubting us."

Jimmy Butler said Wednesday that the team's mentality wouldn't change just because they've fallen behind in the series, per Nick Friedell of ESPN:

"We're so comfortable with who we are and how we play that that's what we're going to go out there and do. And we're going to live with the end result. Obviously, we want it to be a win, but we just got to lock in on us knowing that we can control a lot of these things, but our confidence ain't going nowhere. It's going to stay high. I'm going to make sure that it stays high because it's going to have to be at an all-time high to get this next win."

The Heat haven't faced this level of adversity yet in the postseason. They swept the Indiana Pacers, went up 3-0 in their series against the Milwaukee Bucks before winning in five games and were 3-1 up on the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals before winning in six. 

Putting together a comeback against a Los Angeles Lakers team that has the two best players in the series, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and has the size, physicality and defensive prowess to give the Heat major issues will be no small task. For now, the Heat are happy to have an extra day off between contests before Friday's Game 5. 

"I feel like, collectively, we all need two days off. It's not just me, it's not just Goran, but we all need a couple days just to readjust, realign, get some fresh air and get back to the drawing board," Adebayo said, referencing the injuries that kept Adebayo out of two games and Goran Dragic out of three games in this series. 

Spoelstra is confident his team has another gear left in them against the Lakers. 

"We'll respond," he said. "That's not even—that's academic at this point."