Takeaways from the Miami Heat’s first double-digit loss this postseason. What went wrong?
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 117-106 loss to the Boston Celtics on Saturday in the Eastern Conference finals at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista. Miami, which is 10-2 this postseason, still holds a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series:
Miami Heat falls to Boston Celtics in Game 3 of East finals, but still leads series 2-1
The Heat tried to mount another comeback, but it didn’t work out this time.
In Thursday’s Game 2 win over the Celtics, the Heat rallied from a 17-point deficit.
In Tuesday’s Game 1 win over the Celtics, the Heat rallied from a 14-point deficit.
In a Sept. 8 Game 5 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round, the Heat rallied from a 13-point deficit.
In a Sept. 4 Game 3 win over the Bucks, the Heat rallied from a 14-point deficit.
In an Aug. 31 Game 1 win over the Bucks, the Heat rallied from an 11-point deficit.
But after rallying from a double-digit deficit in five of its past six playoff wins, Miami couldn’t do it again Saturday.
The Celtics led by as many as 20 points in the second half of Game 3, and the Heat attempted to put together another comeback. After falling behind by 20 points with 7:13 to play, Miami used a 24-9 run to cut the deficit to just five with 55.9 seconds to play.
But the Celtics ended the Heat’s comeback hopes, closing the game on an 8-2 run to earn the much-needed win and avoid a 3-0 series hole.
“They came out, Boston did, with great force in this game and you do have to credit them for that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They sustained it for the better majority of the game. We were on our heels most of the game.”
While the Heat has shown the ability to overcome double-digit deficits behind its explosive offense and suddenly solid defense to win games this postseason, falling behind early is a trend Miami wants to end.
“I think it gets old, playing from behind consistently,” Heat wing Jimmy Butler said, “especially against a great team like Boston and what they bring to the table.”
The Heat has been outscored by 26 points in the first half over the first three games of the conference finals, while it has outscored the Celtics by 20 points in the second half during the series.
“We got to start the game how we start the fourth,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “I feel like we’re not the type of team where we can go through the motions and try and figure out everything in the first half, and then in the third or fourth, we just try to turn it on. It’s not like that. We are not that type of team.
“They jumped out on us, and I guess they got tired of us being down 13 and coming back and winning. We just got to do a better job of not letting ourselves get in a big deficit.”
Defense is a big reason for the uneven performances.
Miami is allowing 126.2 points per 100 possessions in the first half of its first three games of the East finals, compared to allowing just 102.8 points per 100 possessions in the second half.
Defense was also a big reason for the Heat’s struggles in Game 3.
The Celtics absolutely dominated the Heat around the basket, outscoring Miami 60-36 in the paint. It’s the most paint points the Heat has allowed this postseason and just the fourth time it has allowed 60 or more paint points this entire season.
Boston was relentless, attacking the basket whether Miami was using its man-to-man or zone scheme. The Celtics shot 30 of 52 from inside the paint, with 61.2 percent of their shots coming from that area of the court.
“I think everybody can see that the dribble attack penetration in the paint, we weren’t able to contain the ball all night, and you have to credit them,” Spoelstra said. “They were playing with great force.”
Forward Jaylen Brown led the charge, scoring 18 of his team-high 26 points from inside the paint. Those 18 paint points tied a season-high for Brown.
Forward Jayson Tatum contributed 14 paint points. Tatum was an all-around force, finishing the win with 25 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists.
Guards Marcus Smart (10 paint points) and Kemba Walker (eight paint points) also helped out.
The Celtics’ quarter of Brown, Tatum, Smart and Walker combined to score 92 of the team’s 117 points on 52.4 percent shooting.
In addition, Boston forward Gordon Hayward made his return after missing the previous 12 games because of a sprained right ankle he sustained in the postseason opener. Hayward finished Saturday’s win with six points, five rebounds and four assists in 31 minutes off the bench.
While the initial plan was for Hayward to leave the Disney bubble for the birth of his fourth child, he indicated Saturday that his plan is now to remain with the Celtics through the end of their season because he was able to spend unexpected time with his family after leaving Disney for his ankle rehab.
Saturday marked the Heat’s worst defensive performance this postseason in terms of defensive rating, allowing 117 points per 100 possessions in Game 3. It resulted in Miami’s first double-digit loss of the 2020 playoffs.
“We just got to stay in front of our man,” Butler said. “Simple as that. I think we put too much on Bam to always be there, and he can’t save us every single time. He’s great at help defense and he’s great on the ball, but he already does enough for us. You can’t just get beat and expect for Bam to come and save you every time.”
Heat veteran guard Goran Dragic has been fantastic this postseason. But the Celtics made an adjustment in how they defended him Saturday, and Dragic could not get on track.
After averaging 27 points on 55.3 percent shooting from the field and 46.2 percent shooting on threes in the first two games of the East finals, Dragic finished Game 3 with 11 points on 2-of-10 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting from three-point range, to go with five assists and five turnovers in 28 minutes.
Dragic finished Saturday’s loss with a team-worst plus/minus of minus-29. The Heat actually outscored the Celtics by 18 points when Dragic was not playing in Game 3.
Dragic’s worst game of the playoffs coincided with the Celtics throwing Smart, who made the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team this season, on him.
Walker was Dragic’s primary defender in the first two games of the series. But Boston switched Smart onto Dragic in Game 3, and it worked.
According to NBA tracking stats, Dragic has scored just three points on 1-of-5 shooting in the 32 possessions he has been defended by Smart in the conference finals.
“Marcus’ ball pressure on Dragic is obviously something that we need to continue to look at,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said following Saturday’s win. “Dragic is a great player and he’s a guy that’s playing the best I’ve ever seen him play. So we’ll just continue to accept matchups and do our best, but everybody’s got to guard hard. Marcus did a good job early.”
A big reason for Miami’s success this postseason is the fact that Dragic has been playing like the Heat’s third All-Star alongside Adebayo and Butler. The 34-year-old Dragic is averaging 21.3 points on 46.3 percent shooting, 4.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists in the playoffs.
But Saturday, Dragic just could not find his offensive rhythm and the Heat’s offense suffered because of it. Miami shot 38.8 percent from the field and 12 of 44 on threes in the loss.
“You just got the feel that we were trying to make shots to be able to stay in the game and skip steps,” Spoelstra said. “This is the conference finals and we’re playing against a really good team. You cannot lack in the areas of toughness, physicality, detail, force. They won all of those battles plus the easy transition ones. Maybe if we had shot a better percentage, it would have been closer. But they did enough things to put themselves in a great position to win this game.”
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Adebayo and Tyler Herro were two bright spots for the Heat in the double-digit loss.
Adebayo recorded his eighth double-double this postseason, setting a new playoff career-high with 27 points to go with 16 rebounds, three steals and two blocks in 38 minutes. The Heat’s All-Star center dominated Boston’s switching defense, taking advantage whenever he had a smaller defender on him.
Adebayo is averaging 22 points, 10.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists, two steals and 1.7 blocks in the conference finals.
Meanwhile, Herro finished the loss with 22 points on 8-of-18 shooting, three rebounds, four assists and one turnover off the bench. Herro scored 16 of his points in the second quarter, which is the second-most in a playoff quarter by a player at age 20 or younger since play-by-play began in 1997 (Kobe Bryant scored 17 points in the fourth quarter of a playoff game against the Utah Jazz on May 8, 1997), according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Butler finished with 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 37 minutes. Butler was not in the game for the final 46.9 seconds because Spoelstra said the Heat was “just trying to get something quick right there at the end” with Butler on the bench.
What’s next for the Heat and Celtics? Three days off.
After playing a game every other day to begin the playoffs (other than breaks in between series), the NBA inserted a three-day gap between Games 3 and 4 of the East finals. Game 4 of the Heat-Celtics series is Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.
The mini-break solved two issues:
1) ESPN’s inability to televise a Monday NBA game in prime time because of its commitment to televise a Las Vegas Raiders-New Orleans Saints game on the day of the 50th anniversary of Monday Night Football.
2) The NBA’s concern that the East finals could end significantly sooner than the West finals, which continues with Game 2 on Sunday night. By the time the Heat and Celtics play Game 4 on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets will be three games into their series on the other side of the bracket.
Following this three-day pause, the East finals return to an every-other-day schedule. Game 5 will be played Friday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN and Game 6, if necessary, will be played Sunday, Sept. 27 at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.
The NBA has not set a date and time for a possible Game 7 yet.
