How do Heat get back into NBA Finals? For Erik Spoelstra it starts with their 'toughness'

Forget about the Miami Heat’s ugly 3-point shooting. And the problematic defensive mismatches.

Or even the zone defense that energized them in the second half of a 104-93 loss to the Denver Nuggets Thursday in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

"Scheme is not going to save us," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said during his postgame news conference. "It's going to be the toughness and resolve, collective resolve.

"That's us at our finest, when we rally around each other and commit to doing incredibly tough things."

This was not the Heat at their finest.

This was Jimmy Butler scoring 13 points, his lowest point total of the playoffs.

This was Miami earning a single-game Finals record for fewest free throw attempts, with two.

This was Caleb Martin, the Heat’s breakout star during the Eastern Conference finals, combining with guard Max Strus and forward Duncan Robinson to shoot 2-for-23 from the floor.

This is not what Spoelstra has in mind for Game 2 Sunday in Denver.

"Things have to be done with a lot more intention and a lot more pace, a lot more detail," he said.

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There were signs the Heat are simply overmatched. (See: Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.) There also were signs the Heat might be able to put up a fight.

Spurred in part by their zone defense, the Heat pulled within nine points in the fourth quarter after trailing by as many as 24 in the second half.

And there was Heat forward Haywood Highsmith, coming off the bench to score 18 points.

"Yeah, that's what we need from everybody, regardless of when you come into the game, how many minutes you're getting, those inspiring minutes," Spoelstra said. "And that's what our team is about, having a roster of guys that just come out there and you're making great efforts, you're impacting the game and then it inspires the next guy to do it.

"We need more of those kind of things."

The types of things the Heat typically get from Butler.

"Maybe I have to be a little bit more aggressive," Butler said after the game. "I've got to put pressure on the rim.  Me with no free throws, that was all on myself, nobody else. So we'll definitely correct that the next game, but only I can do that."

But this goes beyond Butler, and to the core of the Heat.

The kind of things they showed in taking down the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs. In beating the Boston Celtics on the road in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. And, as the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed, their improbable march to the NBA Finals.

Which is to say, in Spoelstra’s words, aggression, collective resolve and the commitment to doing incredibly tough things.

"That's what our group loves to do more than anything," Spoelstra said, "to compete, to get out there and do things that people think can't be done."

A single victory over the Nuggets would be a start.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Heat cite 'toughness and resolve' as key to bouncing back vs. Nuggets