Celtics-Heat Notebook: Marcus Smart thinks post Game 2 arguments brought C's closer, Heat explore strategy shifts

Marcus Smart spoke publicly with the media for the first time since his locker room spat with teammates after an ugly Game 2 loss on Thursday night and he had an interesting phrase to describe that situation.

"Electrifying, what happened in the locker room,” Smart continued. "We’re a family, a family fights all the time. I fight with my brothers all the time. But at the end of the day, we can fight with each other and nobody else can. It happens between families, especially a family like ours who has been together so long. It’s going to happen.”

"We’ve got a lot of guys who play with their feelings on their sleeves, who play with their heart on their sleeves, play with their heart night in and night out, and we weren’t supposed to be happy down 2-0, especially with those two games that we gave us. We’re playing against a great Miami team and we can’t have those lapses like that. Of course, emotions are going to fly, but we’re a family and it happens.”

The Celtics came back from those heated emotions in impressive fashion in Game 3 Saturday night, leading the Heat from start-to-finish, the first time that has happened against Miami in a game since 2019. The turmoil in Smart’s mind after Game 2 was something that brought the C’s as a team closer together.

“The way that I responded and my teammates responded, it shows that we are as close as ever even though we've gone through adversity,” said Smart. "We still are a family and we are going to need to have moments like that…Before you see the rainbow, it has to storm. For us, that was a storm that we had to go through.”

The adversity was also a bit of a learning experience for Smart personally. He was a guilty party for much of the Game 2 collapse but struggled to handle what he thought was more criticism than he deserved from teammates and coaches. After last week's incident, he believes he's grown from the criticism instead of acting out against it.

"Not only being able to express myself but also being able to listen to my teammates, listen to what they have to say, listen to what my coaching staff has to say and just really taking it to heart and trying to go out there and not let that affect me and how I play. In the past, I would let those comments get into my head and take myself out of the game. Like I said, the way that I responded and my teammates responded, it shows that we are as close as ever even though we've gone through adversity.

“I would have been more worried after that Game 2 loss if everyone was calm, cool, and collected. That would have been a problem. I hate losing more than I love winning. I play with a lot of people who feel the same way, so for us to be able to express that, to get it out, and to build that type of energy for ourselves, because there aren’t as many fans here."

The true test will likely come for the Celtics when more adversity strikes in this series, something that did not happen until the closing minutes of Game 3. Even then, the C’s still remained comfortably in the lead, so they weren't tested. For now, it appears the argument has done nothing to impact Smart’s standing in the locker room as a leader with his teammates.

"He’s our heart and soul,” said Grant Williams. "He’s a guy that keeps us going, keeps us inspired, keeps us competitive. He’s our dog. We just have to look and follow his lead and trust that we have a lot of guys on this team that can do a lot of great things. He’s just going to compete his butt off, and we follow that standard and follow that lead, and I think we’ll be well set off.”

Heat talk changes

One of the C’s adjustments heading into Game 3 was putting the smaller Kemba Walker on Jae Crowder. The move didn’t hurt the C’s defensively at all (Crowder was 2-of-10 from 3) and also freed up Smart to slow down Goran Dragic, which helped put Miami’s offense out of rhythm for much of the night.

"Obviously, I don’t want to give everything away," Crowder said Monday "But, obviously, we’ve got to make adjustments, and that’s what we’ve been doing ...We’ve been practicing, watching film. We’ll continue to do so. But obviously it’ll be a different game plan, different approach moving forward."

Crowder has lived primarily at the 3-point line in this entire postseason and failed to punish the smaller Walker down low. However, that might be a trade-off the C’s are willing to take over giving up 3s to some of Miami’s perimeter players.

Enes Kanter also saw some time guarding Andre Iguodala in the first half to hide him on a non-shooter during his limited minutes. Iguodala expects to be ready for that in Game 4.

“Like I said before,” Iguodala said. “Making the counters to the counters and making sure that we aren't surprised by whatever is happening and knowing what puts us in a good position offensively and the triggers and things we need to do to make sure we're ready for any type of little nuances they throw our way.”

The Heat may be ready for counters in Game 4, but the Celtics also have a few more adjustments they can make as well with their rotations. Grant Williams was the backup center in the second half and continues to shoot well from 3-point range, so he will be an easy addition to the first half rotation if Kanter starts to get targeted more. Erik Spoelstra could simply tighten his rotation as well and leave iffy shooting threats like Derrick Jones Jr or Iguodala on his bench to keep the pressure on Boston’s defense.

Three days of watching film for both coaches should bring some clever adjustments from both sides, so be on the look out for lots of chess moves on Wednesday night in a critical Game 4.

Long rest benefits Hayward

The Celtics and Heat played two Eastern Conference finals games before the Western Conference finals even began last week. Matching up the timing of the two series combined with a Monday Night Football game on ESPN Monday night allowed the Celtics to get three days of rest between Game 3 (Saturday) and Game 4 (Wednesday). That time off will do Gordon Hayward (31 minutes in his return from ankle injury) and the rest of the C’s roster plenty of good from a rest and rehab standpoint.

“It was huge for us to have these couple of days off,” Smart said. “Like I said, we got guys banged up and Gordon is one of those guys. For us to do what we did, to handle Philly quickly to give him more time to rest, for him to come back in Game 3 and really contribute the way he did, we weren't expecting him to be as aggressive as he with that ankle. The work that the training staff did with Gordon helped to get his confidence back up. We are going to need Gordon and when he's out there, we are at the best that we can be. Having these days off are very, very important for him and his standpoint of helping us get him back and get back into rhythm."