If this was 1692, Erik Spoelstra would have been arrested after Game 2, taken up north to Salem, and tried for being a witch. Frankly, I’m thinking someone should stop the Heat team plane at Logan and at least ask him a few questions just to be sure.
The Heat had a handful of adjustments that most NBA observers could sniff out. They came into Game 2 against a Celtics team that looked unstoppable in Game 1 and executed all of them, and executed them perfectly. The Heat went from a struggling eighth seed that limped into the playoffs without their best player to an unstoppable shooting machine setting 3-point records.
They shot 53.5% from 3 in Game 2. This follows a series a year ago where they put up games of 51.6%, 54.3%, and 50% from deep.
Why is it that a team that shot 37% from 3 this year (12th in the NBA) and 34.8% last year (27th in the NBA) finds not only success against Boston, but four of the best playoff shooting nights in their franchise’s history?
"That's a great question,” Jayson Tatum said. “Maybe a coincidence, maybe it's not. It's something we've got to figure out, honestly. You know, they hit some tough shots from the 3-point line, and some were open. Maybe some of those easier ones earlier in the game got them a little more comfortable, and then some of those tougher shots become a little bit easier when you're already in a rhythm. But it's something we're going to talk about."
The rational side of me wants to believe what I think is obvious. Miami is a streaky shooting team that bought into the need bomb away from 3 and got hotter than ever before. The Celtics, meanwhile, had the game within two possessions in the fourth quarter and they just couldn't hit a shot. They made some mistakes that were uncharacteristic of this season, and when those two things combine, you get a 10-point loss.
The optimist will say it can’t happen again. And even if it does, the Celtics just have to clean up their own execution and they will still win.
“It’s unfortunate that losing a game is adversity,” Joe Mazzulla said after the game. “I would say it’s just the nature of the playoffs, which is adverse itself. So to think that you’re not going to have ups and downs throughout a run, you’re not being realistic. You just have to go back and look at what we did well and what we didn’t, and then figure out the areas that we can improve upon.”
The other side of me looks at this game and thinks “oh, not again.” Miami might be the best-coached team in the world right now, and when they make an adjustment, they commit so hard to it and run it so well that it’s almost impossible to believe.
It’s hard not to feel a pit in your stomach watching Miami beat Boston the same way all over again. When a team plays as hard as Miami does gets going, they're tough to stop. The Celtics have better players all over the floor, and they were right there with a chance to steal this game even though they weren’t playing nearly as well … but they didn’t.
Having the better players hasn’t always mattered, and that's something that has to change. The Celtics have to make it matter.
And let’s be clear about this, it’s 100% on the Celtics to do so. As much as Miami has a say in how the games go in this series, the Celtics have the final say on how the series ends. They have the talent and the resume this season. They have the skill and the ability to take big punches from anyone and respond.
That doesn’t mean all these games will be easy, but it does mean that Boston’s ability to play at a certain pace and not get dragged into another team’s game plan should override just about everything else. Getting the ball to Kristaps Porzingis shouldn’t be an adventure, nor should what he does with it afterwards. Miami switching everything shouldn’t be the bait that draws Tatum and Jaylen Brown into doing all the work all over again while Derrick White and Jrue Holiday either watch or force things.
Miami only has one way to win these games, and they were able do it in Game 2. Boston is supposed to have all the options and all the answers. It’s up to them to impose their will. Miami isn’t going to just hand Boston anything.
“Come back, be the harder-playing team the next game, and execute,” Brown said. “Everything else will take care of itself. Gotta win the fight.”