Takeaways from another Heat playoff win to take 2-0 lead over Celtics in East finals
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 106-101 win over the Boston Celtics on Thursday in the Eastern Conference finals at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista. Miami, which is 10-1 this postseason, holds a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series:
The Heat found itself trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half. But after an awful first two quarters, Miami rallied to match its largest playoff comeback win in team history.
The other time the Heat rallied from a 17-point hole to win a playoff game came in a victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 of the 2012 NBA Finals.
How did Thursday’s comeback happen?
Miami entered halftime trailing 60-47, and it wasn’t particularly good on either end of the court. The first-half numbers were pretty hideous for the Heat ...
“Felt like we were down 30 and we looked up, and it was 13,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the halftime deficit. “It was like, ‘OK, let’s see if we can get control of this game.’ That’s how well they were playing and it felt like that’s how poor our defense was.”
▪ The Heat shot 38.3 percent and the Celtics shot 58.1 percent.
▪ Boston outscored Miami 32-18 in the paint.
▪ The Heat’s All-Star duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler combined for 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting.
▪ The Celtics quartet of Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 41 points on 56.3 percent shooting.
▪ The Heat finished the first half with a defensive rating of 122.4, according to Cleaning the Glass. Miami only finished three games all season with a worse defensive rating than that.
“Boston was really getting us on our heels in the first half,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t think anybody was in any kind of rhythm or disposition defensively, and a lot of it was them.”
But all the Heat needed was one quarter to overcome all of that, outscoring the Celtics 37-17 in the third quarter to turn a 13-point halftime deficit into a seven-point lead entering the fourth quarter. It’s only the sixth playoff quarter in Heat history that it has won by 20 points or more.
Everything Boston was in the first half, Miami was that in the third quarter. The Heat shot 58.3 percent from the field and 5 of 12 on threes, while the Celtics were limited to 4-of-12 shooting from the field and 0-of-4 shooting on threes in the period.
Another edge Miami had in the third quarter? The Heat finished the period with 12 more shot attempts with the help of seven Celtics turnovers that Miami turned into 16 points.
Adebayo was the catalyst behind the comeback, recording 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting in the third quarter. He converted five dunks and shot 6 of 6 from inside the restricted area in the period, continuously getting to the rim as the roll man in pick-and-roll sets against Boston’s defense.
Adebayo finished the game with 21 point on 10-of-16 shooting, 10 rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block.
“Bam was really assertive in the pick-and-roll and that kind of loosened up some things for us,” Spoelstra said. “But games are long and you just have to figure out different ways to impact winning and Bam, he understands that.”
After a strong first half, the Celtics quartet of Walker, Smart, Tatum and Brown combined for 14 points on 3-of-9 shooting in the third quarter.
The Heat recorded an outrageously good offensive rating of 160.9 and defensive rating of 73.9 in its dominant third period.
Five of Miami’s past six playoff wins have come in games that it has had to rally from a double-digit deficits.
“We got grit. That’s about all I can tell you. We got grit, man,” Adebayo said of the Heat’s recent comeback wins. “I’m happy to be on this team with these guys because everybody here has a different story. We all come from nothing and that’s what’s beautiful about this team, some guys that come from nothing and guys that have a vision, we’re just trying to oversee that vision.
“But, we don’t want to keep doing that. That is not our goal to be — to keep being down 12 or 13 points.”
But Adebayo wasn’t the only catalyst behind the Heat’s third-quarter surge. Miami’s zone defense really worked to bother Boston in the period.
The Heat used its 2-3 zone scheme during stretches in Game 1 of the East finals and even for a few possessions in the first half of Game 2. But Spoelstra made the adjustment to rely heavily on the zone to open Thursday’s second half after its man-to-man defense struggled in the first two quarters.
“It’s a different look,” Heat forward Duncan Robinson said of the zone. “A lot of teams aren’t used to it. Not a lot of NBA teams play it and then also we kind of do it in an unorthodox way. We put our length up top and just really try to be disruptive, so we play it as a disruptive defense to try to disrupt flow and rhythm and that sort of thing and tonight it worked, so we kept running with it.”
The Celtics scored just 25 points and committed five turnovers on 32 possessions against the Heat’s zone defense in Game 2, according to Couper Moorhead from Heat.com. That’s 0.78 points per possession.
For context: The NBA’s top defense, the Milwaukee Bucks, allowed 1.04 points per possession in the regular season, according to Cleaning the Glass.
“It was great. We got what we wanted to get out of it,” Butler said. “... I think we’re really good in that zone because we have guys that have long arms and can get in in the passing lane. I think we’ve just got to do a better job of rebounding.”
Zone is nothing new for the Heat. Miami used its 2-3 zone look for a league-high 802 defensive possessions in the regular season, with Spoelstra admitting in the past that it was an option he turned to when the man-to-man scheme was struggling.
“I feel like we’ve mastered that zone,” Heat guard Goran Dragic said. “We know that when you zone you need to run more, and we communicate well, we shrink the floor and try to make it tough on them. Basically, they’re not running their stuff, it’s more iso and passing and it’s been a great coverage for us. I think Spo did an amazing job to change the coverage.”
Miami’s man-to-man defense really struggled in the first half Thursday and the zone was the perfect remedy in the second half. It’s also important to note the Heat barely used its zone defense in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
“There wasn’t much that we liked about what we were doing defensively, man or zone,” Spoelstra said. “I know everybody wants to talk about a scheme. But for us it’s disposition, effort, making multiple plays and multiple efforts, regardless of the scheme, and we were more committed there in the second half.”
Even after that dominant third quarter, the game still came down to the final minutes.
The score was tied 95-95 with 3:03 to play, and the Heat again closed the game strong on an 11-6 run.
Dragic was huge down the stretch, scoring seven of Miami’s final 11 points on 2-of-2 shooting during this game-winning run.
With the score tied at 95, Dragic scored seven of the Heat’s next nine points — two free throws to give Miami a 97-95 lead with 2:21 to play, a step-back three-pointer to give Miami a 100-95 lead with 1:42 to play, and a 21-foot step-back jumper to give Miami a 104-98 lead with 57.1 seconds to play.
“Goran, you know, the defense is really good. It’s really good,” Spoelstra said of the Celtics. “They can flatten you out, and sometimes that’s what is needed for some games. You just have to create something out of nothing, and Goran was able to do that down the stretch.”
Dragic finished with a game-high 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 shooting on threes.
Butler was also important late in the game with three fourth-quarter steals. Two of them came in the final 1:28 of the game, as the Heat scored 26 points off 20 Celtics turnovers in the win.
“Jimmy only had 14 points, but boy were they impactful,” Spoelstra said. “Obviously the steal at the end and the deflection, there’s not many guys in this association that can make each of those plays, at the top of the zone and at the back of the zone. Just great, great plays.”
With Butler on the court in the fourth quarter, Miami is allowing just 95.9 points per 100 possessions this postseason.
Butler finished the Game 2 win with 14 points on 4-of-11 shooting, four rebounds, three assists and four steals in 36 minutes.
Miami now owns a 7-1 record in “clutch” games during the playoffs after finishing the regular season with an 18-18 record in those situations. A “clutch” game is defined as one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
One rotation note: Forward Derrick Jones Jr. logged eight minutes of playing time in Game 2, all in the second half after not playing in the first half. This was in part because Heat forward Andre Iguodala was unavailable in the second half because of a “tight back,” according to Spoelstra.
Guard Kendrick Nunn also did not play during the final two quarters Thursday after playing five minutes in the first half.
After the loss, the Celtics reportedly had a loud and animated conversation in their locker room that could be heard from the arena hallways.
“It was nothing,” Walker said. “It was nothing.”
Tatum added: “We’re frustrated. But that’s team sports. Not supposed to be happy we’re down 0-2. But that’s nothing out of the ordinary. Just talking about the game. It’s cool.”
It was only a matter of time before Robinson went off for a big game. It happened Thursday.
After finishing Game 1 of the conference finals with just six points on 2-of-7 shooting on threes in 17 minutes as he battled through foul trouble, Robinson bounced back in Game 2 to score 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting on threes.
“His routes were very assertive,” Spoelstra said of Robinson. “Whether he’s making shots or whether they are chasing him off, that’s critical to our offense, and it opens up other things. It gives a little bit more variety to our menu. He was much more aggressive without the ball. He was burning more calories for sure.”
Robinson was especially good in the first quarter, with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting on threes in the opening period.
Robinson finished the regular season tied with Portland’s Damian Lillard for the third-most made threes in the NBA at 270, and only Houston’s James Harden (299 threes) and Sacramento’s Buddy Hield (271) finished with more. In addition, among the 28 players who averaged seven or more three-point shot attempts per game during the regular season, Robinson finished with the league’s top three-point shooting percentage at 44.6 percent.
Before Thursday’s win, Robinson was shooting 38.2 percent from deep this postseason as opponents have worked to limit his quality three-point looks. That’s not a bad number, but below the world-class standards he set for himself during the regular season.
After Thursday’s win, Robinson is averaging 10.8 points on 40 percent shooting on threes in the playoffs.
Spoelstra has repeatedly said he wants Robinson to keep shooting even if the shots are going on. That advice paid off in Game 2, and the math says it should pay off more often than not.
“Everybody was saying to him to shoot the ball,” Dragic said of the Heat’s message to Robinson. “Don’t pump fake. Don’t pass the ball. We want you to shoot 10 threes a game. And that’s his job, he’s a tremendous shooter. And we want to give him a lot of confidence because we know what he brings to this team. And when he when he makes shots, he opens up the game for me, for Jimmy, for Bam, for everybody else and it’s much easier to play.”
If history is any indication, the fifth-seeded Heat is on track to eliminate the third-seeded Celtics and advance to the NBA Finals for the sixth time in franchise history and the first time since 2014.
After winning the first two games of its series against Boston, Miami is in a very good spot. The Heat owns a perfect 16-0 all-time record in playoff series that it has taken a 2-0 lead in.
The last time a team seeded fifth or lower made it to the NBA Finals came in 1999, when the eighth-seeded New York Knicks represented the East in the championship series.
“We haven’t done anything. We haven’t,” Butler said. “We can’t get excited that we’re up 2-0 because as good as it is to be 2-0, it could easily be 4-2 Boston. So we’re going to come into the same way knowing that we’ve got to be better and stay humble about it.”
The winner of the East finals will advance to the NBA Finals to take on the Western Conference champion, with the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets beginning their West finals series on Friday.
Bonus item: A relatively large contingent of Heat front office brass was in attendance for Game 2 of the East Finals.
Heat owner Micky Arison and CEO Nick Arison joined team president Pat Riley and general manager Andy Elisburg at Disney to watch Thursday’s win over the Celtics. Riley and Elisburg have been attending games since the start of Miami’s second-round playoff series against the Bucks.
Like Riley and Elisburg, the Arisons are not residing inside the league’s bubble. That means they all watched Game 2 from a distance, and they have separate hotel accommodations than the team’s bubble setup.
NBA owners, such as Arison, and team executives, such as Riley and Elisburg, who are not residing in the Disney bubble are permitted to attend games. But they must use separate entrances and exits in the arenas while remaining socially-distanced at least 25 feet from the court/players and coaches in the traveling party and wearing a mask at all times.
Assistant general manager Adam Simon remains the lone Heat executive inside the NBA bubble.
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 12:39 AM.
