Let’s get a couple of things out of the way.
First, the Celtics were not good defensively in Game 2. They made a lot of mistakes that led to open shots and they didn’t close out effectively. Miami took 43 3-pointers but only six came against what NBA tracking data considers tight or very tight defense.
So one part of the analysis from Game 2 is that on a night when everyone in the world knew Miami needed to shoot a ton of 3-pointers, the Celtics were lax defending the 3-point line.
“You just have to be better. You have to be better defending the 3-point line.” Al Horford said at the team’s Thursday practice. “They shot it, shot a lot of them, a lot of frequency and I know we will be better, coming next game. There'll be more of an awareness to that. And, for us, defensively continuing to make sure that we do a good job of getting stops and holding them to one shot.”
Second, Boston’s offense was not good. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown put up big offensive numbers but the rest of the Celtics were shut down, which limited the best offense in the league to just 101 points.
“They tried to get up into us and make every catch, every action difficult,” Kristaps Porzingis said. “But we also got a little bit, because we value the possession so much, we got a little bit stagnant in trying to get the ball to—we just need to play the same way we’ve been playing and not fall into their game too much.”
So before I move on, I want to acknowledge that simply defending the point of attack and closing out better would have won them Game 2. Playing faster and attacking mismatches without it taking half the shot clock would have won Game 2.
Beyond that, there was an underrated stretch early in the game that could have changed everything if the Celtics had been able to execute better. It’s an example of the little moments in games, especially important ones like these in the playoffs, that require the same level of focus and execution as the fourth quarter and stretch run.
It starts at the 8:44 mark in the second quarter. I can’t imagine a more seemingly innocuous time in an NBA game. If we were to all guess what the most meaningless time was in an NBA game, the average of those answers would probably be 8:44 of the second quarter. But this only serves to highlight my point.
At 8:44, Al Horford hit a left-corner 3-pointer to put Boston up 38-32. It was part of a 13-4 run for the Celtics, and they were starting to get some momentum. Miami had come out hot from 3 but Boston was suddenly building a lead. It was an early “uh oh” moment for the Heat.
Kevin Love forced it in the post against Jayson Tatum and missed (Tatum got credit for a block, but I didn't see it). Love fell out of bounds and the Celtics went on the break, getting Sam Hauser this look from 3:
This is a very make/miss thing, but Hauser got a look that he’s paid to make, and he didn’t make it. I’m not killing him for it, but misses on shots like this can get magnified in the playoffs. Actually, this specific miss got magnified right away.
That's just soft defense from the Celtics. Haywood Highsmith got a similar look as Hauser and drilled it. Instead of Boston setting their defense with a 41-32 lead, they got cross-matched and a hot-shooting Heat team made it 38-35. That's a six-point swing.
After Brown made it 40-35, he went into the post and missed a contested six-footer. The Celtics might have tried too much individual offense out of the post in this game. I’m all for post-play, but I want to see them get it and go, not dribble four times and slow things down way too much.
On the other end, Hauser got lost on defense and it led to Caleb Martin free throws.
So instead of Boston scoring on the mismatch and making it 42-35, we’re at 40-37. It’s a four-point swing.
Later, with Boston up 42-37, the Celtics get a stop and Tatum throws the ball off an oblivious Derrick White.
Miami answered with a 3-pointer from Martin. Miami ultimately went on a 14-4 run in this stretch where the Celtics easily could have extended what was a six-point lead.
Now, obviously if one of the above things goes Boston’s way, the rest of the quarter doesn’t unfold the same way. If Hauser’s 3 had fallen, who knows how the rest of the quarter would have gone. The Celtics got a monster 11-point explosion from Brown to end the quarter and go into the half up three, but this easily could have been a double-digit lead for the Celtics.
It’s stretches like this that change games. For all of the talk about 3-point shooting, this five-minute stretch of the second quarter where the Celtics missed makeable shots, forced others, turned the ball over, and were soft defensively cost them a chance to build a double-digit lead. I don’t know how much that changes things in the long run, but Boston reclaiming control of the game in this quarter and taking a big lead into the half would have forced Miami to rethink some things. If the Celtics had played this stretch like they normally play basketball, they could have taken control of the game early and changed how we see this series.