With apologies, your creator is brief on time whereas writing these Takeaways. So, no clips and simply transient ideas on the Prime 10 causes the Boston Celtics misplaced Recreation 2 to the Miami Heat. These are being offered within the order that I’d place the blame, however be happy to debate within the feedback. There’s loads of ordering, re-ordering, eradicating and changing that may be performed from this disastrous begin to the Japanese Convention Finals.
1. Boston was out-executed, out-smarted and out-toughed all sport lengthy. Miami has been faster to the ball they usually really do appear to need it extra. However the Warmth are additionally executing at a excessive degree and the Celtics usually are not. And Erik Spoelstra, as was the worry, is teaching circles round Joe Mazzulla, whereas his veteran group runs his schemes on offense and protection to perfection.
2. The Celtics clutch offense was as soon as once more a catastrophe. Within the last 5 minutes, Boston went 1-for-7 from the ground, with three turnovers.
For the fourth quarter as a complete, the Celtics shot 7-of-18 with 4 turnovers.
A whole and utter mess throughout crunch time. Once more.
3. Jaylen Brown had a catastrophe of a sport. He shot simply 7-of-23 and by no means actually discovered any sort of rhythm. Even worse, Brown was forcing pictures, as he seemingly tried to try to spark himself.
Brown was additionally a large number on protection. One 4 completely different events, Brown was on a totally completely different web page from his teammates. At one level, each Marcus Good and Al Horford have been letting him have it after Caleb Martin received a wide-open three. Brown additionally misplaced cutters for open pictures inside, in addition to dedicated some dangerous fouls as a result of he was late.
This was arguably the worst playoff sport, given the stakes, that Brown has ever performed.
4. Joe Mazzulla selected to shut with Al Horford and Marcus Good in a sport the place they have been a mixed 3-of-10 from the ground, together with 1-of-6 from behind the arc.
Following the sport, Mazzulla indicated that these are his guys. And that’s honest. Most coaches will give their veterans a really lengthy leash and can follow them.
However Rob Williams, after a tough begin, was having a terrific sport on each ends of the ground. And Derrick White had additionally performed nice. These two ought to have closed the sport, with Horford and Good on the bench.
5. Miami spent virtually your complete fourth quarter taking part in a matchup zone protection. It seemed to be a 3-2 floating zone, that successfully functioned like a 4-1 zone. Bam Adebayo stayed again on the time, whereas the opposite 4 Warmth defenders pressed out to the arc and past. When the ball went to 1 facet, the alternative facet defender would pinch as much as the nail.
It was extraordinarily well-executed, and Boston by no means actually solved it to get attractiveness. As a substitute of being affected person, working the ball to the wing and nook, Boston frequently tried to drive the ball proper by the center. These forces brought about turnovers and rushed, late-clock pictures.
6. Boston’s off-ball protection was very dangerous all sport lengthy. We already referred to as out Jaylen Brown, however he was hardly the one perpetrator. Derrick White misplaced Duncan Robinson three groups on cuts for layups, Robinson made two of them and as soon as he fumbled the go away.
Max Strus is superb about altering his reducing angle. He was in a position to shake free very often when Marcus Good or Malcolm Brogdon, and infrequently Brown or White, tried to cheat and take a shortcut to the place they thought Strus was going.
And repeatedly, Al Horford and Rob Williams would get too sucked in on assist protection and lose Bam Adebayo slipping in behind them for straightforward pictures on the rim.
It was one of many messier defensive performances we’ve seen from Boston. This wasn’t one of many no-effort no-shows that’s straightforward to identify. The hassle was superb from the Celtics. This was extra refined however screamed an absence of focus and execution.
7. The Warmth grabbed 11 offensive rebounds. This included some massive ones late within the sport. As soon as once more, Boston failed to complete possessions with stops. It’s been a season-long drawback and reared its ugly head as soon as once more.
8. Turnovers have been additionally a difficulty once more. Boston had 15 of them, many unforced. 9 of the 15 have been live-ball, which led to some straightforward transition hoops for Miami.
9. Sure, we now have Grant Williams going head-to-head with Jimmy Butler (actually) this low on the record. Ought to Williams have poked the bear? In all probability not. However Butler went 3-of-6 with a turnover after that occurred.
Butler might be doing that it doesn’t matter what within the fourth quarter. That’s really sort of ho-hum for him down the stretch. It’s not like he was prime Michael Jordan and scored 20 factors over the ultimate six minutes of the sport. He did what he does within the clutch.
Additionally, not less than Williams was displaying some combat. He was keen to scrap and to get into it. That’s much more than might be mentioned for many of his Celtics teammates in Recreation 2.
10. Jayson Tatum had one other pedestrian fourth quarter. He solely took three pictures from the ground and missed all of them. He additionally had two turnovers.
Tatum additionally had three assists, as Miami loaded an additional defender to him in that matchup zone they have been sitting in. So, he wasn’t fully uninvolved.
Sure, Tatum must be higher. He wants to determine a technique to get pictures, however that has to return with assist from his teammates and his coach.
And, let’s not overlook that he had 34 whole factors, to associate with 13 rebounds and 5 assists. The fourth quarter might, and will, have been higher, however Jayson Tatum was very far down on the record of causes the Celtics misplaced Recreation 2.
Nicely…that is it. Recreation 3 is the season. There’s no getting back from down 0-3. This isn’t baseball the place momentum is nearly as good as the subsequent beginning pitcher. It’s not hockey the place a goalie can get sizzling. You may win a sport, and even two video games, however you aren’t successful a collection after falling behind 0-3.
Per Celtics radio play-by-play man Sean Grande, 9 groups have fallen behind 0-2 in a playoff collection and are available again to nonetheless within the NBA title. Solely as soon as did a type of groups fall behind 0-2 with each losses coming at residence.
So, the Celtics might want to make some historical past right here. All of it begins with Recreation 3 in Miami on Sunday night time.
