Erik Spoelstra defends Myron Gardner

They highlighted the Heat’s win over the Grizzlies on Saturday night a big misunderstanding between Myron Gardner etc Scottie Pippen Jr. The latter reacted badly after what appeared to be a deliberate shove in the back of a Heat player on a (late) defensive return.

The refs didn’t blow the whistle, and Scottie Pippen Jr. got his revenge on the next possession by grabbing Myron Gardner by the neck. Both players ended up on the ground, surrounded by teammates from both teams to try and separate them. Miami was expecting the sanction handed down by the NBA yesterday, and the verdict ($35,000 in fines for two players) disappointed the player and his coach Erik Spoelstra.

“I was actually trying to get back on defense, I was running back. And I just happened to run into him, really!” , declared the Heat rookie, who expressed surprise at receiving such a sentence. “Clearly I feel lighter now!” But it’s okay, it’s behind me now and there’s nothing I can do about it. »

“If it was someone else…”

Sticking to his player’s version, coach Spoelstra also expressed his disagreement, believing that Myron Gardner’s behavior did not incite the situation.

For the iconic Heat coach, the NBA wasn’t taking any chances in tapping a young player barely making it to the NBA when his “two-way contract” had just been converted to allow him to finish out the season.

“It’s an easy target. He’s a young player. It’s easy for the league to mark that opportunity because it continued all the way to the stands. But we don’t agree with this decision. Pippen pushed him into the stands, and Miron didn’t fight back. When he was on the ground, he was smiling. If it was anyone else, I don’t think they would have moved 5’0’0. on.”he confided.

For Erik Spoelstra, this incident could even benefit Myron Gardner in the future and he hopes he won’t find himself in a similar situation again. “It’s a good learning opportunity for Myron because now he will be on the radar of the referees. Anyway, we wanted to improve his technique and he has already improved a lot. Now he is able to defend without mistakes and shows more discipline.”

https://vvv.youtube.com/vatch?v=EDPi8IZIrK0

			Shots			Rebounds
Players	MJ	Min	Shots	3pts	LF	Off	Def	That	Pd	Bp	Int	Ct	Ft	Pts
Norman Powell	47	30:26	47.6	39.2	83.0	0.4	3.2	3.6	2.6	2.0	1.2	0.2	2.2	22.9
Tyler Herro	13	30:23	49.5	36.0	91.7	0.5	4.2	4.7	3.0	1.6	0.9	0.4	2.0	21.5
Bam Adebayo	50	31:12	44.6	33.6	77.6	2.0	7.8	9.8	2.9	1.8	1.0	0.7	1.6	18.3
Andrew Wiggins	52	31:09	47.6	40.7	77.9	1.8	3.3	5.1	2.8	1.7	1.2	0.9	2.2	16.1
Jaime Jaquez Jr.	53	28:43	50.4	25.7	75.2	1.4	4.1	5.4	4.7	2.2	0.8	0.3	2.0	15.1
Kel’el Ware	54	22:12	52.8	40.4	78.1	3.1	6.3	9.4	0.6	0.9	0.8	1.0	1.6	11.4
Pelle Larsson	47	24:20	49.9	32.3	76.2	0.8	2.5	3.3	3.3	1.2	0.7	0.2	1.9	10.3
Davion Mitchell	47	28:50	47.0	40.0	66.0	0.4	2.1	2.5	7.0	1.6	1.1	0.2	2.7	9.0
Simone Fontecchio	55	17:02	39.2	35.8	83.1	0.8	2.4	3.2	1.5	0.8	0.5	0.2	1.5	8.5
Nikola Jovic	45	17:35	37.0	27.2	68.3	0.6	2.8	3.4	2.2	1.4	0.6	0.4	1.4	7.5
Drew Smith	57	17:04	40.7	30.4	84.0	0.9	1.7	2.6	2.7	0.8	1.4	0.3	1.5	6.0
Kaspars Iakoutionis	31	17:12	40.9	45.3	90.3	0.8	1.7	2.5	2.5	0.9	0.7	0.1	2.0	5.8
Myron Gardner	28	9:32	47.7	40.4	73.7	1.0	2.0	3.0	1.1	0.3	0.5	0.2	1.7	4.2
Keshad Johnson	23	7:08	41.3	32.0	76.5	0.7	1.2	1.9	0.1	0.4	0.2	0.2	0.8	3.2
Jahmir Young	8	5:30	36.8	28.6	100.0	0.3	0.3	0.5	0.8	0.3	0.1	0.0	0.5	2.1
Vladislav Goldin	2	4:00 am	100.0	0	0	0.0	0.5	0.5	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	1.5	2.0
Trevor Keels	1	2:00 am	0.0	0.0	0	0.0	1.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0