The Heat are an annoying team because it always feels like they're over-performing their talent. Whatever you think of them or how good they should be, they're always just better enough than that to make non-Miami fans pull their hair out (this is not why I’m bald, but it might have been if I had hair during the Erik Spoelstra-as-coaching-god era).
Part of that is because he not only gets the absolute best out of most of his players, but also because he and his staff are wizards at game planning for opponents. They know weaknesses as well or better than most teams, and they find every possible way to not only exploit them, but to bait players into playing right into the teeth of what they're planning.
This is how they consistently have tripped up Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown at the worst possible times. And beyond knowing tendencies, they know what outlets Boston has had to alleviate the pressure on their two stars.
Now there's a new wrinkle to Boston’s attack: Kristaps Porzingis.
“He just makes us really hard to guard,” Tatum said after Boston’s blowout win over Miami. “Somebody his size, obviously can shoot, take advantage of mismatches. You gotta make a decision. Are you going to switch and you put a small on him and we throw it to him? Are you going being in drop an he drags a big out and we throw it to him and he shoots a 3? So I think just having him out there just presents so many challenges for other teams.”
Miami found that out in this game, and all without a ton of creativity from the Celtics outside of reading and reacting to situations.
Let’s just start with Porzingis’ first shot of the game.
It’s a miss, but look at Bam Adebayo.
With Derrick White attacking Tyler Herro, Adebayo’s job is to back up a lesser defender and protect the rim. But he’s also guarding Porzingis, who is 12 feet away and very capable of hitting that shot. The shot is off, but the Celtics can plainly see that in man-to-man, Adebayo is worried about Porzingis. And you can see how worried on the very next play.
He takes a jab step at Tatum but never leaves Porzingis. There's no double and there's no dropping into the paint. With three other shooters on the floor and Tatum’s passing ability, the other three guys are a threat spaced out behind the 3-point line. As soon as Adebayo shifts so he’s square to Porzingis, Tatum knows he can just back Haywood Highsmith down without worrying about anyone intervening.
Adebayo is the rim protector. In man-to-man, he can’t protect the rim with Porzingis on the floor.
“Nights like tonight, you can see it a little better, especially in the first half,” Brown said of Porzingis’ impact. “Him just being out there as a threat, teams have to respect it. His 3-point shooting ability, and then he's seven foot three at the rim, so it just allows me, Jayson, everybody else on our team to have freedom.”
With the Celtics able to attack more with Porzingis stretching the defense, Miami tried switching, which Porzingis also crushed.
Again, attacking to force the issue, combined with good spacing to keep the floor spread gave Porzingis the obvious size advantage. A nice pass over the top forced help, but Porzingis used his height to bury the nice hook shot.
If he wanted, he also had White and Jrue Holiday wide open for 3-pointers.
Side note: That purple squiggle by Brown is me telling Jaylen that he should have relocated to the corner to give Porzingis a third outlet instead of standing and watching. It didn’t matter, but with Adebayo’s head turned, that should be an easy read. You never know when Porzingis will be in a passing mood.
The Celtics then decided to really put some pressure on the Miami defense with a double-big configuration after Tatum sat. Miami countered with Jimmy Butler on Porzingis shooting right over the top of Butler.
Again, the threat of Porzingis hitting the 3 is the key to this move because Butler’s momentum is taking him out to contest the shot. The little shoulder fake sells it, and it gives Porzingis the clearance he needs at his size to get a dribble move off around a defender like Butler.
Also, Porzingis obviously knows his limitations because he didn’t try to dribble too much. He did just enough to get to a good spot and shoot over the top of a smaller defender.
Miami then countered with a zone, leaving Porzingis wide open.
He missed, but for no other reason than he just missed. That's a shot Boston will take 100 times out of 100. When the Heat watch that on film, they’ll just breathe a sigh of relief.
And finally, there's the traditional drop coverage, which is impossible against Porzingis lineups.
If Porzingis is hitting that shot, it’s lights out.
“It starts with trust,” Joe Mazzulla said of Porzingis’ impact on games. “I think just those guys building trust with each other, just having an understanding that we have different ways that we can play.
“Every night calls for a different way, every segment of the game, depending on the matchups in the way teams are guarding you calls for a different frequency. … We've seen different coverages on Kristaps, different matchups. And I think tonight we noticed them quicker and we built a level of trust amongst the guys.”
It’s hard not to trust a guy in spots like this. And it will be hard for Miami to guard Boston if they have Porzingis on the floor.
This was a statement game by the Celtics because they showed Miami that Boston now has an answer for just about everything Miami can throw at them. And that answer wears the number eight.