A Good Reminder

This will be a very different series.

With a few days of time to reflect, we can be honest – the Philadelphia 76ers kind of quit on their series vs. the Boston Celtics. That is one of the reasons the Celtics were able to advance. But it also is a stark contrast to how the Miami Heat play. The Miami Heat never quit on anything. The Miami Heat are always ready. And the Miami Heat will strike the nanosecond you turn your head.

Tonight, Boston was not ready. They lost this game in the third quarter when they fell asleep, and once Miami gets a decent lead, it is hard to wrestle it away from them. You have to force them to go cold, and Boston just never locked in defensively. The only player on the Heat who didn't shoot 50% or better was Jimmy Butler, and he shot 48%. That is just not an acceptable defensive performance, and no on Boston's roster can hide from that, especially not its coach, Joe Mazzulla.

Ultimately, this game was a good reminder that this series will be different. This Celtics team goes as Jayson Tatum goes, and if Tatum has one thing he still needs to tighten up, it's his complacency and arrogance when things go his way. Far too often, he assumes that just because things are going a certain way that they will stay that way. The C's got a double digit lead in the second quarter on Tatum's back, and at the start of the second half, it seemed like his and the team's attitude was that that was enough, and they could now coast to victory. That may have been true against Philly, who folded in Games 6 and 7 when presented with adversity. It will not be the case against Miami. Tatum and the C's should have known that, and that's what made this game frustrating. But hopefully this was a good reminder and wake up call.

Jimmy, Flowing

In my last newsletter, I pointed out two stats about Jimmy Butler and the Heat:

• Entering Game 1, the Heat were 13-3 in the playoffs when Butler scores 30+ points. Tonight, he scored 35, so that rises to 14-3.
• Entering Game 1, the Heat were 14-4 in the playoffs when Butler attempted 11+ free throws. Tonight, he attempted 10, so the C's didn't do terrible in this regard, especially when you drill down to see the details. The seventh and eighth came on a play in which Butler completely grifted a foul call on Derrick White on a rebound attempt. The refs were not really a problem tonight, but they (I believe it was Ed Malloy) blew that call. The ninth and 10th attempts were when the C's were purposefully fouling at the end of the game. Another two came on and-1's. So Butler only got to the line twice on plays where he missed a shot attempt. That's pretty good, in a vacuum. But a lot of the times, it seemed Butler was able to get clean looks on jumpers because the C's were being a little too cautious about not fouling him. So it's hard to see this as a win. Ultimately, Butler got the production he needed.

Rotation Questions

The Celtics are a deeper team, but Mazzulla did some funny things tonight. One thing that caught my attention – Malcolm Brogdon played the final 20 minutes of this game. When Brogdon entered the game with 8:02 left in the third quarter, it was a tie game. For the remainder of the third quarter, the Celtics got outhustled and out executed. Brogdon got an old-fashioned three-point play toward the end of the quarter, and then an assist on the following possession. But Miami had started hunting him defensively, and by the end of the quarter, the C's were down 12. For some reason, he stayed in the game.

He notched another field goal in the first minute of the fourth quarter, and then proceeded to do nothing on offense until the 2:31 mark. He drove hard and got fouled by Butler, and hit a free throw to bring the C's to within four points. But then he missed the second free throw, badly front rimming it, and the C's never got any closer.

I don't mean to pick on Brogdon here, but rather Mazzulla. I have not missed a Celtics game this year, and I am hard pressed to remember a time when Brogdon played for 20 straight minutes during regulation. Overtimes? Sure. But not during regulation.

Another odd decision was the lack of double bigs. The double big lineup of Al Horford and Robert Williams III started the game, and played together for the first five minutes. We didn't see it again until there was 43.8 seconds left in the half, and re-inserting Rob at that point was less about a double bigs strategy and more about making sure Tatum didn't pick up his third foul. We then saw it again for the first 4 minutes of third quarter, and then not again after that point. Rob sat down with eight minutes left in the game, and remained on the bench. He was 6-for-6 from the field, and every bucket he got was easy. Furthermore and most importantly, sitting him down allowed Miami to ignore the middle of the floor and push out to try to take away three pointers, which really helped them sew up the game late.

The feeling I got watching the game was that Mazzulla was letting Erik Spoelstra dictate the game's pace and personnel. It's a feeling that will be hard to shake, as Spoelstra was again at his very best in this game. Mazzulla wasn't.

The Pivotal Third Quarter

This is the fifth time in the last seven games where the third quarter has seen the biggest swings in terms of point differential. Tonight's third quarter was by far the worst of the 56 full quarters the C's have played this postseason, and the the third quarter has become a flashpoint for the C's this postseason overall:

As you can see, the C's are winning the first, second, and fourth quarters more than half the time. But they've only won the third quarter four times in 14 playoff games. The two times they did so emphatically, they walked away with wins. But the third quarter is becoming the pivotal quarter, and right now the C's are losing it. They have to find a way to come out stronger in the third quarter. I would try starting White in the third. There is no rule that says the game's starters have to start the second half as well.

Marcus Smart Is My Point Guard

Just so many beautiful reminders tonight of Marcus' passing brilliance. The C's were down seven when Marcus left the game with 2:32 left in the third, and went back to the locker room. The Heat hit threes on two of their next three possessions, and that was all the separation they needed to keep Boston from climbing fully back into the game.

The Jaylen Plays

Jaylen Brown wants the world to believe he is a smart person. Most of the time, the world agrees. But the balance of far too many Celtics games tips on what I'm starting to think of as "The Jaylen Plays." Silly, foolish turnovers that come from a lack of concentration, awareness, and/or smarts.

• In the first quarter, he threw a foolish outlet pass that Caleb Martin stole, and then he immediately compounded that by letting Martin blow right by him on his subsequent lay-up attempt. Martin actually should have been called for a backcourt violation here, but that doesn't excuse Jaylen's poor decision.
• In the third quarter, he just plain dropped the ball. It looked like he was starting to shoot before he caught the ball. Bam Adebayo would notch two free throws down the other end, and that started Miami's big run.
• Later in the third quarter, he jumped in the lane before he had made up his mind whether he was going to try to alley oop to Rob Williams or take a shot. Jaylen is particularly bad at throwing alley oops, and should just stop trying to throw them unless the player he's throwing them to is wide open, which was not the case here. Or rather, Rob was wide open for a second, but Jaylen took one more dribble into the lane and Kevin Love recovered.
• In the fourth quarter, he just fell down driving to the hoop. No one touched him. This was a backbreaker. First, it almost got him and Rob hurt on the same play. Second, the C's had all the momentum at this point. They had started the quarter on a 7-0 run to draw back within five points. But Jaylen slipping and falling led to a jump ball, which Miami won, and Gabe Vincent came down and drilled a three to push Miami's lead back to eight points, and kill Boston's momentum.
• With 4:15 left, Jaylen bricked an incredibly ill advised three pointer. A couple of things to point out here. One, Jaylen almost never takes threes after dribbling to his left like he did here. Two, Jaylen's momentum after these dribbles was taking him away from the basket, which is the opposite of how you want to do things. Three, there was still 11 seconds left on the shot clock, there was plenty of time to figure out a good shot. Miami would not score on any of its next three possessions. Had the Celtics scored here, they might have really come back and won it. But Jaylen forced an uncharacteristic shot that had very little chance of going down.

Jaylen Brown is an incredible basketball player, and 90% of the time, he is a joy to watch. But for someone who prides themselves on being cerebral, who is in his seventh year in the league, he just cannot be making five foolish, unforced errors like that in a playoff game. But this is just who he is. After tonight's game, which was his 99th all-time playoff game, he only has nine more playoff assists than turnovers. Tonight's game was the fourth in those 99 in which he has six or more turnovers. The Celtics have only won one of those four games (Game 1 this year vs. Atlanta). Tonight, those six turnovers marred an otherwise stalwart performance. Jaylen led the team in rebounds, and was second in points and assists. But he was also first in turnovers, and they really hurt the C's.