The Celtics can’t allow these two stats to happen again vs. Heat in Game 2
A brutal third quarter doomed the Celtics in Game 1, but these two stats didn't help.
First of all, allow us to take this opportunity to remind Celtics fans to breathe.
The Celtics lost Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals to the Heat on Wednesday, falling 123-117. If we’ve learned anything about this year’s Celtics team, we know that dropping a game is not the end of the road. The Celtics lost the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals to the 76ers just over a week ago. They lost the first game of the Eastern Conference finals last year … also to the Heat (who were better as a whole than this team, although this year’s version of Jimmy Butler is a sight to behold).
But the Celtics need to be better, and certainly more consistent than they were in Game 1.
They can’t allow 46 points in a quarter. They can’t get outscored by 21 points over a 12-minute stretch. They can’t melt down late.
And specifically, they can’t allow two stats to replicate themselves in Game 2 if they hope to even this series and put themselves in a position to reach the Finals for the second consecutive year.
No. 1: 6 steals for Jimmy Butler
Every steal is immensely costly for the team that surrenders it, because every steal is a live-ball turnover.
That’s doubly true when the person stealing the ball is Butler, who is once again proving himself to be a perfect antithesis to James Harden — a player who only bothers to be a transcendent superstar in the absolute biggest moments of the season.
Butler recorded six steals in Wednesday’s win. All six were preventable, and all six were costly.
The first was a mistake by Malcolm Brogdon, who got caught in the air and tried to pass out of it but found Butler waiting in his passing lane.
The second was the first of Jayson Tatum’s four turnovers. Tatum tried to drive between two players and got stripped, a play reminiscent of last year’s series in ways that Celtics fans might prefer to forget.
But the Celtics really allowed Butler to get going in the second half. Marcus Smart started the third quarter by lobbing a pin-point pass over Bam Adebayo to Robert Williams for a dunk. He tried to do the same thing to Butler a few minutes later, but Butler — who never lost sight of the ball throughout the entire play — leapt and tapped the pass away. Incidentally, the play itself was something Smart did to Adebayo in the first half. Butler has a little bit of Smart in his game.
Butler’s fourth steal came when Jaylen Brown got loose with his handle trying to post him up. Almost casually, Butler reached in and swatted the ball away.
His fifth was similar to his first — Al Horford found himself in a compromised position after grabbing an offensive rebound with three minutes remaining down by five, and he launched a pass that Butler intercepted with ease.
And finally, with the Celtics still down by five, Butler picked off Tatum again – this time trying to find Jaylen Brown after he found himself swarmed and in trouble. That was part of a deeply frustrating stretch for the Celtics, who held the Heat scoreless while trailing by seven for more than three minutes of game time late in the fourth and made up just three points during that stretch in part due to Butler’s defensive brilliance (and in part due to their own offensive struggles, which we will get to momentarily).
Butler is a menace on the defensive end, but a player who collects six steals in a game likely did so with some help from the other team. Handing the ball to Butler, especially late, is a familiar recipe for a dish that tasted bad for the Celtics last year and could be poisonous this year if they don’t find a way to dispose of it quickly.
No. 2: 4 field goal attempts for Jayson Tatum in the second half
At a glance, Tatum’s box score looks fine. He finished with his requisite 30 points and took 11 trips to the free-throw line. Digging a little deeper, Tatum’s usage rate was solid — second only to Jaylen Brown’s — and he took eight of his 11 free throws in the second half.
But the Celtics are at their best when Tatum is in control of the game, and against the Heat, he should have plenty of opportunities to be in control. Miami has a number of defenders who are prime candidates to be targeted, and Tatum should be able to get by them comfortably — either looking to score or forcing double teams that create advantages. For a sputtering offense, a healthy amount of Tatum’s scoring and offensive play-making is often enough to get the engine going again.
Instead, Tatum took just four shots in the second half and recorded zero assists. The free throws mitigated, but the late turnovers aggravated. In the first half, Tatum helped the Celtics eviscerate Miami’s zone and forced the defense back into man-to-man, which should also be an advantage, but aggressive defense and a lack of composure disrupted the Celtics’ spacing in the second half.
The Heat are a very different team than the Hawks and 76ers. They are composed, collected and aggressive on both ends. Even their weakest defenders seem to know exactly what they should be doing, and they execute the game plan at a high level.
Still, Tatum needs to be more involved down the stretch, especially when he’s playing well. On Wednesday, Tatum looked ready to dominate … if the Celtics could just slow down and get into their offense. Figuring out how to do that is one of the toughest challenges teams face against the Heat, but the Celtics will need to pull it off in Game 2.
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