ATLANTA _ This is when Pat Riley is at his fiercest and when many of his Miami Heat teams have been at their best.
As counter-punchers.
So as the Heat returned from the All-Star break, Riley offered a reminder that external doubts remain.
Because to the Heat president, little provides as much motivation as an us-against-the-world mindset.
"If you listen to all the prognosticators out there," Riley said during an interview broadcast Thursday on 790-The Ticket, "everybody who's predicting who's going to win, where you're going to place, what position you're going to be in in either conference, the truth is nobody believes (in us).
"I haven't heard it from anybody out there, nobody believes that we can win a championship, the media. And I don't think many of 'em even believe that we're going to finish high. They give us a chance, they give us a shot. But there's something out there about them that don't have a real belief in us. And I believe our players have more of a belief in what we can do than they do. It's not to use that as motivation, but that's a reality."
When it comes to the edge that helped produced the rise to the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff pack, coach Erik Spoelstra said Thursday that it has not been muted.
"That is something that is built in with these guys," he said ahead of his team's game against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena. "At some point, it has to become more than that. That's the last thing on my mind is whether we're losing our edge.
"It's more about developing a game that's consistent and becoming reliable to that. That's our next step."
Riley said there has to be next steps.
"You have to continue to earn, continue to earn your place by winning," he said. "Earn it more by winning and winning, and then when the playoffs start and you're in the playoffs, that's when a player is really, at that point, is really recognized."
While the day-to-day motivation is provided by Spoelstra and his staff, Riley offered a reminder that the front office is there to make sure a chip remains firmly on the team's shoulder.
"All of the good things that have happened to us up to this point, we got to make 'em even better," Riley said. "So that perception out there that we're not the team this year is something that is not a reality, but it is a perception.
"And it's up to us to prove people different by having great games going down the stretch."
And, yes, keeping an eye on the standings.
"It's certainly not something," Spoelstra said, "that we're going to obsess about and talk about every single minute of the day. But I also want guys to embrace the competitive nature of a stretch run, going for the playoffs.
"The guys are not oblivious to it, so I don't want to act like it's not there. That's the fun part of this."
Guard Goran Dragic said it's not as if the players need to be made aware of the stakes.
"Everything counts," he said. "We want to have that home-court advantage in the playoffs. Those teams are pretty close. So everything counts."
