Three things the Celtics can clean up heading into Game 2

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Celtics and Warriors both feel pretty good heading into Game 2. The Warriors certainly feel an added sense of desperation, but their experience in the NBA Finals is keeping them pretty cool under the circumstances. 

Boston feels pretty good, too. In the immediate aftermath of Game 1, Ime Udoka said some of the Celtics issues were “nothing we can’t clean up” heading into Sunday night’s Game 2. Here are a few things that can be cleaned up:

STAY WITH STEPH

The first of those is the first quarter debacle against Steph Curry. 

The Celtics won, so you can watch the video of all those 3’s without feeling too nauseous. 

Most notably, this breakdown between Derrick White and Payton Pritchard should not happen:

“It was a lot of transition and non-communication between the guards,” Udoka said. “That's not going to change regardless if we do something with the bigs. It was a lack of communication there.”

So step one for the Celtics, and this is the easiest, no analysis necessary, very simple thing that Boston can do to start Game 2. 

Everyone should know what they're doing. Are you switching? Who is guarding whom? 

I said in my preview that Game 1 would be a bit of a culture shock for the Celtics. This is one area where that was the case. 

“I think everybody had nerves today from our side,” Pritchard admitted after the game. “It's our first time being here. But it's more being excited and ready for the moment.”

Game 1 is in the books. The early first-quarter jitters should be gone. The focus should be there. The team should know who they're guarding and how. That doesn’t mean some switches might not get messed up along the way. Defending the Warriors is tough and mistakes will be made. But the egregious errors like this need to stop. 

On that same note, the drop coverage the Celtics chose to employ against Curry was outrageous, and another culture shock moment for Boston. This is not how to play Curry.

That's why Marcus Smart said this to his teammates: 

The Celtics adjusted later in the game. This play is exactly what Smart was talking about when he told the bigs to come up high so the guards can chase. 

Curry can hit the floater, even though he didn’t there, but that's a much less dangerous shot. 

THE THIRD QUARTER

Everyone knows Golden State is a big third-quarter team. That's their thing. Boston’s third quarter defensive rating is five points worse than their overall playoff rating, which is a bad combination. 

“We've just got to be more aware,” Jayson Tatum said on Saturday. “It's one thing to talk about it, but we've got to go out there and do it and just not ease our way into the third quarter that we do a lot of the times. We just can't ease our way into the third quarter and wait to get warm and wait until we're down X amount of points to be like, Oh, (expletive), we got to figure it out and start playing faster and things like that.”

So they're aware of needing to be more aware. Solid step. Now they need to take the next one. 

When everyone in the world knows the Warriors come out with a better second-half focus, the Celtics need to do the same. 

On this play, Robert Williams takes himself completely out of the defense by being a little overzealous. 

He’s on Andrew Wiggins because the Celtics feel fine with him helping off that matchup, but that doesn’t mean he can be left wide open like this. Williams does a good job sliding over and stopping Klay Thompson. At that point, his job is done. Thompson’s drive has been stymied, and Williams can either continue with a double team or slide back to Wiggins to prevent the pass or an open shot. 

It’s a bit of an old habit for Williams to overdo things a touch, and he needs to understand that the stop in the lane is actually rim protection because the progress that way has been stopped. 

This also falls under KYP - Know Your Personnel. The Warriors love to move the ball. Oftentimes, a stop like this one on Thompson will result in a quick pass -- just like on this play.

Come out of halftime with focus and composure

LOONEY ON THE BOARDS

The Celtics have a choice to make. They either go small and play Kevon Looney off the floor, or they box him out when they're big. Giving up SIX offensive rebounds absolutely cannot happen again. 

Just watch Robert Williams running back and forth there.

The Celtics have had a bad habit of giving up offensive rebounds all season long. It has been especially prevalent in the playoffs, where Boston has given up the fourth-most offensive rebounds per game.

That's all about effort. It’s about wanting to keep yourself between the player and the rim. It’s hard work, but it’s necessary work. 

There will be some rebounds, especially with the volume of 3-pointers the Warriors take, that go long and can’t be corralled. So be it. 

But the rest are preventable. 

Grant Williams was right when he sat at his locker and said this team has more it can do…

Clean up these mistakes, and Boston has a real chance to come home with a 2-0 Finals lead.