Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals was a perfect representation of the two teams involved.
One one side there was a super-talented team that flexed just how good they could be. They didn’t play great, But they played good enough, for long enough, to put up 66 points and lead by nine at the half. Then they felt good about themselves, got too cute with the game, and lost it.
“I think we were up seven or nine at the half and then didn't come out with urgency and then it just carried over the rest of the quarter,” Malcolm Brogdon said.
On the other side, there was a team that had played fairly well but struggled through portions of the first half before taking stock and coming out of the half with fire. Even when they cooled off later in the game, they dove for loose balls and made all the defensive plays they needed to make.
“We have a great video group, and they put up all the stats at half. Basically show us where we were wrong and how we can improve in the second half,” Bam Adebayo said. “So after watching it and talking to the coaches, we are honest with one another, look each other in the eye and say how we feel and what we need to get done.”
Whether it’s true or not, the Celtics continue to take the floor way too often looking like a team that feels entitled to wins. And no matter how often it burns them, the Celtics continue to approach leads like the trailing team like the deformed and incapable Ephialtes in the movie 300. Invariably, they become more like King Leonidas as he racks up improbable win after improbable win.
The Celtics have let go of more ropes than Tarzan swinging through the jungle, and their latest cost them another playoff game at home. When asked what happened in the third quarter in which Boston was outscored 46-25, Joe Mazzulla said Boston “lost our offensive purpose, lost our game plan discipline, allowed them to get out in transition, get second-chance shots, (and) didn't guard the three-point line.”
Aside from that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
Somehow the Celtics, playing against the Miami Heat, a regular Eastern Conference Finals opponent with this same reputation for hard work and effort that they’ve had forever, decided a nine-point halftime lead was enough for the team who blew more leads than anyone else in the NBA this season. They figured 24 minutes of decent effort was good against a team with Butler, Adebayo, and coached by Erik Spoelstra.
“It's a choice. It's a decision. Just come out and play with a different mentality,” Jaylen Brown said. “We came out too cool. It was just almost like we were just playing a regular-season game. It's the Eastern Conference Finals. Like, come on.”
How many of you were saying “come on” in that third quarter? Everyone knew Miami would come out and make a run. Everyone knew Boston would have to fight back and answer. No one should have been caught by surprise.
The Celtics? Meh, whatever. It’s cool.
“We get tired of doing the little things sometimes,” Marcus Smart said. “We've got to make sure we do those little things, and we can't get bored with those, and we've got to realize what has got us the lead or what was working for us.”
Meanwhile, the Miami Heat continue to be the anti-Celtics. Where Boston is full of guys who consistently break from the plan to say ‘I’ve got to make a play,’ Miami is a team full of guys who know who they are, know what they're supposed to do, and understand there's one superstar and the whole thing flows off him.
There's a reason the writers of Ted Lasso chose “believe” as the team’s inspirational motto early on. Because belief is actually powerful. Miami believes in itself in a way Boston doesn’t. Miami isn't as talented as Boston but its confidence makes them so incredibly dangerous.
“We still don't care what none of y'all think, honestly speaking,” Jimmy Butler said after the win. “ We know the group of guys we have in this locker room. We know that Coach Spo puts so much confidence and belief in each and every one of us. Coach Pat as well … We pump constant confidence into everybody. We go out there and we hoop and we play basketball the right way, knowing that we've always got a chance.”
The Celtics don’t really believe in what they're doing, or else they’d do it all the time. What they believe in is their individual talent, which is so great that they might still win a championship because of it. You can tell that because of their constant mismatch-hunting and how they devolve into stagnant basketball.
The Heat aren’t as loaded, so they’ll still probably struggle through large portions of these games if their shot isn’t falling. But I can tell you without a doubt that if they go down, it’ll be because the other team beat them, and not because they beat themselves.
Boston is a .500 home playoff team. There is no home-court advantage here. The home crowd has been lackluster because they probably know not to get too hyped about any leads. Everyone in the build knows not to trust this team, so they're still quietly nervous when other arenas would be rocking at full volume.
Why isn’t the crowd as engaged? It’s because everyone in the building has been conditioned to expect the worst when things are at their best. They have good reason.
“You've still got to play the games. You've still got to make plays, regardless if you're at home or away,” Jayson Tatum said. “The court is the same, it's one ball, three refs and two baskets. I don't have an exact answer why we're .500 at home. We've just got to be better.”
We’ve known that for a long time, but they're only better when they need to be. But against a team like Miami, they need to be better all the time.
“The only thing we need to adjust to is picking up our physicality and playing some damn defense,” Smart said. “That's the only thing they switched. They didn't change anything from the first half that they weren't doing, they just upped their physicality and that's it. There's nothing tactical, X's and O's, it's just come out and guard your yard. They scored 46 in that third, and they got going, and they made us pay.”