Celtics win ‘rock fight’ with Heat by turning focus to defense in Game 3

MIAMI — The sport would materialize right into a blowout later. The Boston Celtics would finally create a constant offensive rhythm. They would run away solely after the buckets started to fall, nevertheless it was in the course of the first quarter Saturday evening, after they failed to rating with their regular ease, that Jaylen Brown believed they established how the sport can be performed.

“I think just mindset,” Brown stated after his workforce took a 2-1 sequence lead by beating the Miami Heat, 104-84. “I think we put the emphasis on defense, trying to make them uncomfortable a little bit. They had a slow start, we had a good start on defense and I think that kind of opened up the game.”

The Celtics discovered magnificence in the muck of the primary quarter. They didn’t shoot the ball properly, however they competed. They defended. They held Miami to simply three factors over the primary six-plus minutes and 12 complete factors in the quarter. Even whereas scoring 21 factors, the Celtics constructed an early lead. They knew they wanted to do a greater job disrupting the Heat after permitting them to run free throughout Game 2, particularly from behind the arc.

After two days between video games to soak in the frustration of that loss, the Celtics had been decided not to permit any room for Heat shot luck to emerge. Brown stated they determined not to permit any extra “dare shots” — long-distance makes an attempt with no defender in sight. After permitting far too many open leap pictures in the earlier sport, the Celtics selected to reduce off the Heat’s air house. They didn’t make too many schematic changes, in accordance to Brown and head coach Joe Mazzulla, however confirmed extra urgency in every thing they did.

Game 3 ✅ pic.twitter.com/K5UY3AwDNT

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 28, 2024

From the primary possession, the Celtics hit tougher. Jrue Holiday stayed connected to Tyler Herro’s hip whereas the Heat guard reduce, then switched onto Jaime Jaquez Jr., with sufficient tenacity to deflect the rookie’s move. When Herro later got here off a pick-and-roll on the identical play, Holiday deserted Jaquez to ship a double workforce. That pressured Herro to move to Nikola Jović. As quickly because the move left Herro’s palms, Holiday spun round to contest Jović’s shot. He wasn’t alone. Jaylen Brown practically reached Jović in time to block his 3-point try.

The Celtics weren’t going to let the Heat get snug once more.

“I didn’t think it was ugly,” Joe Mazzulla stated of the primary quarter. “I thought it was physical, tough, I thought we got some good looks and made them, they got some good looks and didn’t make them. I just thought it was rock fight of a game. Once the game settled in, we take what we needed to take and kind of go from there.”

The Game 2 loss wiped away the perks of the Celtics’ remarkably easy common season, which didn’t embody a single three-game dropping streak. The defeat took away their home-court benefit. It tossed them proper again into the all-too-familiar feeling of turbulence in Miami. Yes, the Heat are down Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier, plus Gabe Vincent who left as a free agent final summer season after taking down the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals. But they’re nonetheless the Heat, coached by Erik Spoelstra. For years now, they’ve grown stronger when confronted with unbelievable challenges. All of that would have left the Celtics feeling unsettled. What in the event that they fell sufferer to one other Heat upset? What in the event that they allowed this Miami workforce, with out Butler, to take a sequence lead?

If the strain impacted the Celtics, it solely made them stronger. They held the Heat to 23.8 % taking pictures in the course of the first quarter. They pressured 9 first-half turnovers, together with two in the backcourt. They solely allowed Miami to shoot 28 3-point makes an attempt for the sport – 15 fewer than the Heat managed whereas pulling off a shocking Game 2 win. Bam Adebayo and Herro mixed to rating 35 factors on 34 shot makes an attempt and the Miami function gamers, the celebs of Game 2, had been all quiet.

“We didn’t over help,” Kristaps Porziņģis stated. “We respected more those guys that shot the ball really well in Game 2. And just (had) better closeouts and making them work for each basket more. Not (letting them) shoot all these shots. And that makes a huge difference. They had to get in and then another action, another action, that we just kept getting stops. So, this is what we’re going to do going forward. So, yeah, we had to respect them as a team 100 percent.”

The Celtics didn’t want to shoot properly to run away from the Heat. They made simply 11 of 27 3-point makes an attempt (29.7 %) however had been in a position to squeeze Miami on the different finish of the courtroom. The first quarter showcased Boston’s intentions.

“You would love to have a big lead to start every game, but it was just more about our attention to detail on both ends of the floor — mainly on the defensive end,” Jayson Tatum stated. “Can we start the game and not let them be comfortable? Regardless of if they hit shots or not, just try to make them work for everything that they get.”

The Heat can flip a sport ugly. They can crush one other workforce’s rhythm. They are robust sufficient and well-coached sufficient to make opponents really feel unhealthy about themselves. But the Celtics can thrive in the mud too. They picked up the Heat full-court. They turned up the strain everywhere in the courtroom. They refused to let anybody, even Miami’s lesser shooters, step into wide-open appears.

“Respecting those guys’ capability,” Brown stated. “They are NBA players and they can make shots on any given night so treating them accordingly, closing out, just making them uncomfortable. Then on the other side, just executing the offense.”

The Celtics knew the significance of rising to one other stage of physicality — and never simply in Game 3. They proved themselves all through the common season, however the playoffs deliver new challenges. They will want to win at occasions with their defense. They will want to overcome offensive droughts. They will want to flip up their ferocity to take an opponent out of what they need to do.

The first quarter Saturday evening confirmed the Celtics had been prepared to regain management of the sequence. Tatum desires to see that kind of tenacity constantly.

“Everybody knows how talented we are,” Tatum stated. (*3*)

(Photo of Boston’s Al Horford and Miami’s Bam Adebayo: Jim Rassol / USA Today)