How Celtics’ defensive adjustment backfired as Heat catch fire in Game 2

BOSTON — It doesn’t matter who’s on the ground, the Heat discover a technique to make it a sequence.

Thanks to some stout protection and a franchise document 23 of 43 from deep, the Heat beat the Celtics 111-101 in Game 2 to tie the sequence 1-1 as it heads again to Miami. It was essentially the most 3s a playoff opponent has ever hit in the Garden and two wanting the NBA postseason document.

Miami now has 4 playoff video games in the previous two seasons with 50 p.c taking pictures from 3 in opposition to Boston, whereas no different crew has shot 50 p.c greater than as soon as, per the Heat’s Couper Moorhead.

Considering what he did to the Celtics in the convention finals final 12 months, Caleb Martin should adore Dunkin’ or one thing. He and Tyler Herro seemed like Splash Bros 2.0 on Wednesday.

But how did they pull this off?

“They made a conscious effort with free rein to shoot more,” Mazzulla mentioned. “I thought most of those were moderately to heavily contested, so we’re going to have to make the adjustment on some of those.”

Reviewing the movie, Boston had 13 poor contests on Miami’s 43 pictures from deep and the Heat solely hit six of them. That’s a fairly good fee on open 3s for a crew that was so sizzling.

To perceive what went improper, you need to have a look at how Boston closed out. The Celtics had been gentle, on goal.

Instead of taking arduous closeouts the place they aggressively run shooters off the road, they went with largely gentle closeouts the place they stopped brief to stop the drive and reasonably contest the shot.

“We’re going to have to find the balance, because a lot of those guys who made shots tonight are also good drivers, especially getting downhill,” Mazzulla mentioned. “And so we’re going to have to find that balance of making sure we close out appropriately, but we don’t want to start opening up the other side of that. So that’ll be the adjustment.”

The key to that adjustment is whether or not to modify from a gentle to a tough shut out on Miami’s function gamers. Boston’s sport plan on Caleb Martin, Jamie Jacquez Jr., Nikola Jović, and Haywood Highsmith was to gentle shut.

“The guys that we wanted to shoot, not that we let them, but it wasn’t like a get out to them and put it on the ground,” Jrue Holiday mentioned. “It was kind of like protect the basket but still get a closeout, but they started knocking them in.”

That’s the proper name more often than not since they’re all higher drivers than shooters. This was the worst-case state of affairs for that sport plan, however so was the complete sequence final 12 months. The Celtics did arduous shut on Duncan Robinson in Game 2 and he was a non-factor. But generally the closeouts had been simply mediocre, particularly from Jaylen Brown early on.

But there are ranges to this.

For the Heat, Bam Adebayo knew when closing out on Jaylen Brown in the left nook to shut gentle and shade towards Brown’s proper hand. That forces Brown to drive baseline together with his left hand and he was reticent to do this, bricking a contested 3 as a substitute. Brown confirmed earlier in the sport he needed to drive center together with his proper and Miami took that away. These are the main points giving the Heat its edge.

What actually damage the Celtics in Game 2 was the Herro-Adebayo pick-and-roll. This was pick-and-roll perfection a lot of the night time, as Herro obtained 4 clear 3s because of Adebayo selecting off Celtics defenders.

Boston tried a number of counters, together with icing the display screen the place Herro’s man forces him to go the opposite route. But Herro was capable of comfortably step right into a 3 with Derrick White trailing behind and Jrue Holiday not speaking to Al Horford that he had time to step as much as have an effect on the shot.

Just broke our season-high for three-pointers in a half with 13 🔥

Tyler’s obtained 4 of ’em pic.twitter.com/LICe9trN9F

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) April 25, 2024

Adebayo’s screening was so good that late in the sport, Boston experimented with double-teaming the display screen. Usually, when a defender abandons a close-by shooter, they aggressively double the ball. But on this play, White factors to Kristaps Porziņģis to basically run a double drop protection that backfires instantly.

Credit to Brown, that was no less than an awesome closeout that point. He balanced taking away the passing lane to the nook and the drive, whereas nonetheless getting excessive in the air to power a troublesome shot by Martin.

Didn’t matter. Martin and the Heat had been on a heater.

“(Martin) is the X-factor of X-factors,” Erik Spoelstra mentioned. “He’s going to put his imprint on the game. He’s always going to bring that competitive spirit, his leadership, his voice, that edginess.”

Boston needed to remove the driving lanes, however Martin made them pay. Now the query is how a lot Mazzulla adjusts in Game 3.

Adebayo was screening like he was coated in tremendous glue. Once Herro dribbled over that decide, White, Holiday, or whoever, they weren’t getting over it. Boston even tried going below the screens at one level, something to stop sending additional assist onto Herro and danger Martin or one other shooter taking benefit.

The Heat can’t break a document with their taking pictures each night time … or can they? It appeared like there was no method they may do that repeatedly at the beginning of the convention finals final season, however Martin factored in all sequence lengthy and Miami buried the Celtics in a three-game gap that they, regardless of their finest efforts, couldn’t climb out of.

But Boston can often deal with an excellent taking pictures night time by the opponent by enjoying organized offense and limiting transition. That wasn’t occurring both. An enormous a part of that was the Heat taking away the Celtics’ security valve: Porziņģis.

An open secret amongst scouts is that one of the best defenses for Porziņģis are lineups with a number of lively wings who can have an effect on his catches and disrupt his rhythm. The Celtics heart doesn’t transfer our bodies and largely desires to shoot over somebody. So, he’s by no means going to submit up one other huge, however for those who can put gamers like Jović or Martin on him, he’ll attempt to go at them.

“That’s been something that has given us a different look on the offensive end. So I think when you’re in situations like that, you have to fight for your spacing,” Mazzulla mentioned. “On some of those we weren’t spaced well, we didn’t hold the seals well. So just a little bit of everything.”

The subject with the seals was apparent with these Jović ideas, the place Porziņģis didn’t put a physique to a participant with sufficient size and athleticism to get to most passes.

“He’s a big target, right? So it is difficult and they have very good spacing. They know what they’re doing,” Spoelstra mentioned. “You have to make stands and incredible efforts. But also, sometimes they have to miss.”

Mazzulla talked concerning the spacing not being proper with Porziņģis, which sped him up and had his teammates attempting to go to him earlier than he had leverage on the defender. When Tatum was requested what went improper, he mentioned they wanted to be extra inventive in getting Porziņģis the ball.

“They’re not just going to let us catch the ball. They’re not just going to let us throw it to KP easy,” Tatum mentioned. “They’re supposed to try to mess things a little up, and make it a little bit tougher. So it’s our job to react in real-time, as well as make our adjustments going from game to game.”

That could be one of many wake-up requires the Celtics in this playoff run. Going by means of Porziņģis in the center of the ground wasn’t going to be easy.

The think-fast, play-slow strategy is tougher to tug off when the opponent can sustain with their considering. That is why the Celtics have to be as aggressive as they’re cerebral, particularly going up in opposition to the Heat.

“Own our space, catch the ball with physicality, don’t look for the ref to make the call, and embrace it,” Brown mentioned. “It’s a mindset, it’s a lifestyle, we gotta just embrace it, and I don’t think we did. I think they embraced it a little bit more than we did tonight.”

This efficiency from Miami was a shock in comparison with Game 1. No Jimmy Butler or Terry Rozier. The final sport was a taking pictures dud for Miami each in accuracy and frequency.

But it’s the Heat. Everyone is aware of that is going to occur. They obtained one, one thing Jimmy Butler was enthusiastic about.

(*2*)

Now that the Celtics have been reminded of the truth of a sequence with the Heat, it’s time to personal their area.

“I mean, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Tatum mentioned. “There’s a lot of history between these two franchises, especially recently. Regardless of seeding or who’s in and who’s out, it’s the playoffs and especially with that team, it’s never going to go how people expect it to go. That’s the beauty of being in the playoffs and playing at the highest level, it’s part of it.”

(Photo of Miami’s Caleb Martin and Boston’s Jaylen Brown: Winslow Townson / Getty Images)