There are a lot of very smart people out there in the basketball media world and they're all writing and saying very detailed things about games like this loss to Miami on Saturday night. There's going to be a lot of digging and postulating and scheming with charts and graphs and videos.
Frankly, a lot of that is ... work for the sake of doing work.
Because this game, through all its complexities and fancy analysis, can be boiled down quite simply sometimes.
“When you turn the ball over 24 times and gift them 33 points out of that, you dig yourself a hole,” Ime Udoka said after the Game 3 loss. “Credit, we fought back and got it to a one-point game and made some mistakes and more turnovers. But you dig yourself in that big of a hole due to playing in a crowd … and get yourself in tough situations instead of relying on your teammates. That's the result sometimes.”
This game wasn’t about wild adjustments that threw Boston off. The turnovers weren’t about some crazy wrinkle the Heat threw at Boston.
Aside from one offensive foul, all of Jayson Tatum’s turnovers were bad passes and getting straight ripped.
“Six turnovers and no field goals in the second half, that is unacceptable,” Tatum admitted. “Honestly, I've got to play better. I feel like I left the guys hanging tonight. That's on me.”
Jaylen Brown’s night was worse. Six of his seven turnovers were simply him getting his pocket picked.
“Did a s--- job today taking care of the basketball,” Brown succinctly said. “They let a lot of stuff go tonight, especially when I feel like I drive and I get to the basket, I feel like it's two hands on me all the time. I never get those hand-checking calls. But I don't make excuses. We get better. I did a s--- job taking care of the ball today. I've got to do better.”
It’d be one thing if these were one-offs, but they're not. Both Tatum and Brown have been leading the turnover charge for too long in this postseason. This was Brown’s second seven-turnover game of the playoffs. Tatum has had five games of six or more turnovers in 14 playoff games.
It’s actually kind of amazing that the team has gotten this far with Tatum being so loose with the ball.
And, as usual, the turnovers are the result of trying to do too much.
“I'm trying to be aggressive, trying to make a play for our team,” Brown said. “We were down 25. We was playing with a lack of emphasis. We need to play with some heart, some aggression. I tried to come out in the second half, especially, and just be aggressive and just ignite our team. Some of them led into turnovers, some were unforced, some were from fatigue. But you don't make excuses, you get back and you be better for the next game.”
This is understandable. Hell, it’s even admirable in a lot of ways. Brown and Tatum are the team’s stars and we want stars to be able to take over. That's what we love about star players. And when they do it, we celebrate their ability to make bad shots or complete plays that we call “overpenetration” or “playing in a crowd.”
When one of these guys has a game where they do all this same stuff but they make shots, we celebrate. When those plays become turnovers, we shake our fists and scream about ball movement and making plays for others.
For me, it boils down to the simple thing again.
I’m all for being aggressive, but at some point you have to understand that the aggression is working against you, and you need to try something different.
“Disappointing at times when we over-penetrate when we don't have to,” Udoka said. “A simple pass, the team loads up, and we've seen it all playoffs how others can be the recipient off of that. We took a step back as far as that, but at the same time, we obviously use them as screeners a lot of times. Try to find them in the pocket, move them around a little bit differently. If they're still loading up on them, they have to obviously catch it, be tough with it in there, had quite a few turnovers on pocket passes, and then make the play from there.”
There's a natural doubt that creeps in after games like this. Miami is very disciplined and they generally do what they do very well, so it makes you wonder how ready the Celtics really are for this moment. It’s easy to forget how young these guys are and how much they're still learning. It’s easy to forget that, despite their experiences, they are still young enough fall back into some bad habits.
“That's possible, playing extremely fast, trying to get it back,” Tatum said “But every time we came to the huddle, we talked about we can't get it back in one play, that we've just got to keep playing the right way. It's not going to just happen at the snap of our fingers. But obviously human nature plays a part. You're down so much, you just want to get back so bad that you can just kind of move a little too fast sometimes.”
They will learn the lesson eventually, or they should, at least. It happens often enough right now that it’s clear they still have yet to fully figure out when to push and when to back off; when to assert themselves and when to trust others. They're better at it, perhaps the best that they’ve been.
But they need to be better. They have to be if Boston is going to cash in on this golden opportunity.
“They do a lot of things for us. We put a lot on their shoulders - score the ball, make plays for others, pass, defend. It's just a lot of things that go on,” Al Horford said. “It's not easy. It's a lot being thrown at. It's a lot to kind of in the moment kind of figure out. But I have the most confidence in my guys. Time and time again this year, they figure it out. Jayson figures it out, Jaylen figures it out. Those guys are battle tested, and I believe they'll be fine.”
