The Heat is on, ECF here we come!

benhogan

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Kanter would be a nightmare on the floor for us. If you think that the Heat were targeting Kemba in the paint on switches now they would have another easy 2 or an open 3 virtually every time down the floor.

It’s Game 1 and as I wrote the other day, Miami is going to get clean looks from 3 at the start of the series until the defense becomes accustomed to how and where they are getting these shots. We were going to have a ton of trouble winning the first two games for this reason. If we don’t adapt to what they are doing then the Heat likely will continue to hit 40-45% of their 3’s however as the series progresses they shouldn’t have nearly as many open looks as last night.
Agreed. Kanter would be a disaster. Theis & Grant (and a bit of TL) should be able to hold down the 5.

Kemba while bad on offense was even worse on defense. You were right, we'll see Wanamaker take some minutes from Kemba as this series lingers on. It's a knee/injury thing and playing him the same amount of minutes as Tatum/JB/Smart shouldn't happen going forward. Brad will have to pick his spots to play Kemba. Until Gordo comes back Tatum/JB/Smart should be playing big minutes. They are young and not traveling, not sure Tatum even breaks a sweat before 40mpg

ALSO you were also correct on Miami's comfort on shooting 3s in the Orlando bubble (Although Jimmy's # of 3PA is still nothing to worry about).

Well played, hopefully, you cleaned out the BOOKS on the OVER.

I'll stay positive and expect Miami not to continue shooting 45% from 3, while the C's adjust defensively.
 
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benhogan

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As I mentioned in the game thread, the C's should probably cut ties with Kanter this offseason, no matter how great he is in the locker room. When a key member of your regular-season rotation is unplayable against many/most playoff opponents, that's a major issue.
He's cheap and very playable against classic bigs (see Portland 2019 playoffs). Kanter and the Celtics cheap 5s aren't an issue.

Plus Kanter owns the option and 5s won't be in demand so its not Danny's call
 

joe dokes

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One thing getting Hayward back should help, even if he isn't close to 100%, is that he is an excellent reader of the defense and makes quick decisions with the ball. Part of the problem against the zone has been that the Celtics are slow to move the ball around and punish the zone by finding the open man once penetration takes place. Even Tatum struggles with making the quick and easy pass to the open shooter. Hayward, even if he can't jump very high or explode off the dribble, is great at getting the ball and making the right pass quickly. I expect that to really help punish the Heat if they overcommitt in the zone.
They were moving the ball fine until around the 47th minute of the game. its one thing to take a look at an iso to see if the defense opens up the middle, but one guy pounding the ball until 8 seconds left on the 24 puts no pressure at all on the defense to move/rotate and possibly leave someone else open. if they had been doing it all game and just getting lucky with hero shots, that would be one thing. But they weren't, until the end.
 

128

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It's one thing to take a look at an iso to see if the defense opens up the middle, but one guy pounding the ball until 8 seconds left on the 24 puts no pressure at all on the defense to move/rotate and possibly leave someone else open.
Especially when that one guy is Kemba, who wasn't really a threat to break down his defender.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Sure, but that's like saying Philly and Toronto needed to improve their play after going down 2 games to none in the prior series. Toronto did and forced a Game 7 they easily could have won if a few things went their way. Philly didn't and got swept.

Ultimately, although you never want to lose Game 1, it's not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. We all know that the Cs beat Milwaukee in Game 1 (in convincing fashion) and then proceeded to be humiliated from there. And just in this playoffs we've seen Milwaukee lose Game 1 to the Magic and the Lakers lose Game 1 to the Blazers (and then the Houston) before dominating the rest of those series, the Nuggets losing Game 1 to the Clips before ultimately prevailing, and a bunch of other teams (Toronto, Utah, OKC) losing Game 1 before ultimately forcing a Game 7 that was tight the entire game and could easily have gone the other way.

Even if the Celtics go down 0-2 I won't be panicking - just in this playoffs alone we've seen I think 4 teams come back from being down two games in a series to at minimum force a game 7 (granted two of those are the same Denver team in consecutive series).
One of the reason that teams come back after losing is because losing teams (non-Budenholzer coached) generally make adjustments and winning teams don't.

One of the adjustments that the Cs need to make is that when the ball goes down low, everyone on the team can't end up in the paint. I would have thought they had learned that from TOR since TOR repeatedly gets the ball into the paint with the sole purpose of collapsing the defense and finding an open shooter, but there were multiple times when it seemed like every C defender was in the paint and some MIA shooter had a wide open look.
 

BaseballJones

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In a close game featuring two evenly-matched teams, small changes can produce different outcomes. One missed shot here, one lapse in defensive intensity there, etc., can completely turn a loss into a win, or vice-versa.

That said, I'd do this if I was Brad: if Kemba isn't going to be productive offensively, I'd play more Wanamaker. Gives much better defense and in fact his offense has been more efficient as well lately.

Playoff Stats (last 2 series)
BM: 17.9 min, 45.9% fg, 6.4 points, 1.6 ast
KW: 40.6 min, 40.4% fg, 17.3 points, 6.1 ast
 

shoelace

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I keep reading that Kemba's knee must be really bothering him. I understand the logic in that premise because he looks slow and is having trouble keeping his footing a lot of the time. But if he was hurt, would Brad be running so much iso for him?

It almost looks like Brad knows he needs to play better and is trying to get him going. If he was hurt I'd think they'd change the way they use him to hide his weaknesses.
Yeah, I just can't see the logic of playing Kemba if he's hurt at a coaching or organizational level given the amount of money that is owed to the player after this season. I think Brad knows that Kemba sucks lately, which might be fatigue related because he's never really faced this kind of intense defense consistently where has to grind for every hoop, but he can't bench Kemba because he wants Kemba to get going and he's reluctant to bench a max player in the playoffs for sucking. 52, 44, 43 minutes the last three games for Kemba.

They should come out of the gate on Thursday and run some plays for Kemba to see if he can get off to a hot start, and if he can't, just sub him for Wanamaker early and try to bring his minute totals down. Wanamaker had a strong game, and I think he's played well lately. If Kemba is the great teammate and ultra coachable dude we hear he is, this shouldn't be an issue. Brad can frame it to him as keeping him fresh, and it might pay dividends if he gets his legs back a bit and gets his shit together. As an organization the Heat really emphasize conditioning with their players (Miami Herald says Kelly Olynky has cut his body fat percentage in half and dropped 26 pounds since signing with the Heat) and it's a credit to them, they aren't a good team to be tired against.

All that said, the Celtics can win this series, especially if Gordon comes back at even like 75%. I don't feel super mad or worried. Also, the Heat are good as hell. They're a great organization (despite our collective distaste for them), and their best players made some amazing plays last night. Sometimes you have to tip your cap and move on, and this type of loss does not seem like the kind that needs to be narrativized into talk radio level bullshit about momentum and mental toughness. Anyone doing that has already constructed a narrative about this team in their head and are trying to force this game into that narrative, it's absolutely not a thing. I mean, if Tatum comes out and is like 2-18 and refuses to go to the rim because of Bam's block tomorrow night, maybe I'd give some credence to that, but let's wait and see what happens before we overreact to a one possession loss that the Celtics controlled for the majority of the game.
 

teddykgb

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It seems to me that if Kemba can’t generate dribble offense against the zone he’d likely be one of our best wing or corner 3 shooters and could thrive in that role. I remember IT at times being played more off the ball for similar reasons and don’t see why we need to continue to ask him to drive into the defense.
Everything about the 4th Quarter execution over the last two games need to be scrapped. They generate offense by having a ton of big wings who move and create mismatches via switches. They give away their advantage when they restrict to a 2 man isolation game.
 

the moops

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It seems to me that if Kemba can’t generate dribble offense against the zone he’d likely be one of our best wing or corner 3 shooters and could thrive in that role.
Perhaps. But to expect Stevens to institute an entirely new offense in the 1 day they off sounds difficult to accomplish
 

RedOctober3829

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In a close game featuring two evenly-matched teams, small changes can produce different outcomes. One missed shot here, one lapse in defensive intensity there, etc., can completely turn a loss into a win, or vice-versa.

That said, I'd do this if I was Brad: if Kemba isn't going to be productive offensively, I'd play more Wanamaker. Gives much better defense and in fact his offense has been more efficient as well lately.

Playoff Stats (last 2 series)
BM: 17.9 min, 45.9% fg, 6.4 points, 1.6 ast
KW: 40.6 min, 40.4% fg, 17.3 points, 6.1 ast
Yeah that just isn't going to happen. Kemba is a leader of this team and they will continue to start him as long as he's healthy enough to do so. Brad Wanamaker is never going to start a game.
 

OurF'ingCity

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I'm not sure Baseball Jones said anything about starting Wanamaker?
Yeah, it's less a question of whether Kemba starts and more a question of bumping up BW's minutes by 5 min a game or whatever and reducing Kemba's by 5 min a game. And it doesn't have to be static - if Kemba comes out on fire in the first quarter obviously he should get more playing time, whereas if he's clearly still struggling or the game looks to be a defensive, low-scoring affair he should get less playing time. Kemba's still going to be in there at crunch time regardless, but managing his minutes a bit better could have large dividends in a series like this that's so close (and would have the added benefit of keeping Kemba a bit fresher if they do make it to the Finals).
 

teddykgb

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Perhaps. But to expect Stevens to institute an entirely new offense in the 1 day they off sounds difficult to accomplish
Well they’re already starting Smart so I would presume they could run their regular sets with Marcus initiating. Might help Kemba get that extra half step to shoot if he’s dealing more with rotational close outs

I’m not a big shot mechanics guy but it looked to me like Kemba had some side spin in some of his shots last night. Some players just spin it a bit and I don’t know if that’s normal for him but it could also just be that his shot is a little off and we’d allworry about him less if more of the shots he normally makes fell
 

CreightonGubanich

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Man, three bad games for Kemba and people want him benched for Brad freaking Wanamaker. If he's hurt, sure, he shouldn't be playing 40+ minutes. If he's just in a funk, you let him play himself out of it, because the Celtics title aspirations are dead in the water without him anyway. Wanamaker is a marginally better defender, a dramatically worse shooter, and no threat to create his own offense.

I think the C's can make schematic tweaks to offset Miami's treatment of him here. Remember, Toronto started off dedicating most of their defensive attention to Tatum - and Kemba torched them. Eventually, they shifted a bit, started breaking out the box-and-1 to slow down Kemba, and Tatum et al picked up the slack. Miami is selling out to trap Kemba right now; I expect Brad to use Kemba a bit more off the ball, maybe dial in a few more of the double-screen action they'd been using to free him up, and harp on the rest of the starters to move the damn ball once Kemba gets it out of his hands. What I don't expect is for Brad to cut bait on his star point guard and give significant minutes to a 31 year old journeyman at his expense.

Again, this all changes if Kemba isn't healthy. But there's been nothing to indicate that's the case beyond pure speculation.

Edit: there's some middle ground here that I didn't acknowledge. If the theory is that Kemba's not hurt, per se, just fatigued after coming back from being on a minutes restriction to now playing 40+ minutes a game, then sure, dialing down his minutes by 5 or so to try to keep him fresher makes sense, but I also don't know that it moves the needle very much. However, that's different that benching Kemba for significant stretches if he doesn't come out hot in the first quarter. That's not how NBA coaches handle star players.
 

benhogan

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Yeah, it's less a question of whether Kemba starts and more a question of bumping up BW's minutes by 5 min a game or whatever and reducing Kemba's by 5 min a game. And it doesn't have to be static - if Kemba comes out on fire in the first quarter obviously he should get more playing time, whereas if he's clearly still struggling or the game looks to be a defensive, low-scoring affair he should get less playing time. Kemba's still going to be in there at crunch time regardless, but managing his minutes a bit better could have large dividends in a series like this that's so close (and would have the added benefit of keeping Kemba a bit fresher if they do make it to the Finals).
After the amount of recent use against Toronto, his age, and knee issues expecting Kemba to play fewer minutes then Brown/Tatum/Smart isn't a stretch
 

the moops

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Well they’re already starting Smart so I would presume they could run their regular sets with Marcus initiating.
Smart and Walker started 27 games together in the regualr season this year and every game but 1 in the playoffs. It's not so much the personnel, but the roles they play. There are plenty of times where Smart is the initiator, but Walker has never really been a stand in the corner and wait for a kick out corner three kind of guy
 

BigSoxFan

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Man, three bad games for Kemba and people want him benched for Brad freaking Wanamaker. If he's hurt, sure, he shouldn't be playing 40+ minutes. If he's just in a funk, you let him play himself out of it, because the Celtics title aspirations are dead in the water without him anyway. Wanamaker is a marginally better defender, a dramatically worse shooter, and no threat to create his own offense.

I think the C's can make schematic tweaks to offset Miami's treatment of him here. Remember, Toronto started off dedicating most of their defensive attention to Tatum - and Kemba torched them. Eventually, they shifted a bit, started breaking out the box-and-1 to slow down Kemba, and Tatum et al picked up the slack. Miami is selling out to trap Kemba right now; I expect Brad to use Kemba a bit more off the ball, maybe dial in a few more of the double-screen action they'd been using to free him up, and harp on the rest of the starters to move the damn ball once Kemba gets it out of his hands. What I don't expect is for Brad to cut bait on his star point guard and give significant minutes to a 31 year old journeyman at his expense.

Again, this all changes if Kemba isn't healthy. But there's been nothing to indicate that's the case beyond pure speculation.
I dunno. Kemba is noticeably slower and less explosive and had a semi-recent tweak after having knee problems for several months. I think it’s pretty clear that he’s not 100%. He hasn’t been for quite some time. The only real question is if he’s closer to 70% or 90%. In his defense, he looked much better in Philly series so maybe it ebbs and flows. Who knows. All I know is that yesterday’s version of Kemba was incredibly depressing to watch.
 

BaseballJones

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I'm not sure Baseball Jones said anything about starting Wanamaker?
Yeah, no, nothing about starting Wanamaker. Just bumping up his minutes *if Kemba continues to be ineffective offensively*. If in the first five minutes Kemba is looking good, obviously you keep him in there more. But an inefficient-on-offense Kemba is actually a worse overall player than Wanamaker, given BM's defensive advantage.
 

BigSoxFan

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Yeah, no, nothing about starting Wanamaker. Just bumping up his minutes *if Kemba continues to be ineffective offensively*. If in the first five minutes Kemba is looking good, obviously you keep him in there more. But an inefficient-on-offense Kemba is actually a worse overall player than Wanamaker, given BM's defensive advantage.
Agreed. I don’t think anyone wants to start Wana. The Celtics need to see each and every game which Kemba is showing up. However, if “bad” Kemba looks to be there on a given night, I’m fine giving more minutes to Wanamaker. Hopefully, some of those minutes will be going to Hayward soon.
 

pjheff

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The Heat stayed in the game by playing better as a team for 53 minutes, which the C's did in fits and starts through the first and third quarters. Far too often, they devolved into hero ball, trying to play individually outside of a team concept. And for all of his great counting stats, Tatum came up small here. While Miami's All-Stars were making winning plays at the offensive (Butler) and defensive (Adebayo) ends, Tatum took an ill-advised 26-footer when we only needed a point at regulation, got bullied under the basket when trying to check Butler, and got his dunk attempt rejected with the game on the line. Jones reported on the broadcast that Tatum claimed to have learned the importance of closing out games after the Toronto series, but he tried to prove his individual ascension to superstardom at three pivotal moments last night and came up disappointingly short each time.
 

the moops

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I had no problem with Tatum's three at the end of regulation. It was a good look and brought the clock down to zero. Tatum played better defense on Butler than Butler did on Tatum when he blew by Butler and got a great look at a dunk, but got thwarted by a guy who made an awesome play.

This was a great game and the Celtics came up just a hair short. On to game 2
 

Captaincoop

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Yeah. It’s not despair but the Celtics likely need 1 of 2 things to happen to win this series:

1. Kemba unfucks himself, which may not be possible due to his knee

2. Hayward comes back by Game 3 and makes immediate impact

All of my pessimism is centered on Kemba. I think he’s absolutely cooked, at least for this year.
Neither of those things happened, Miami shot the lights out, and game 1 was a total coin flip. I'm not sold on any of the above.
 

NomarsFool

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I had no problem with Tatum's three at the end of regulation. It was a good look and brought the clock down to zero.
I disagree. The Celtics didn't try and run a play at the end of regulation. The best "play" they had was to hold the ball, pounding it into the court, and then have Tatum put up a contested three from a few feet past the arc. That was not a high percentage play. Yes, he sometimes makes those. But, they could've done better. That was basically playing not to lose instead of playing to really try and win, I think.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Some of these takes are...takes. The C's adjustments are subtle - its not like they got smoked or anything. The outcome and margin was not significant at all.

They need to adjust their defense first and, perhaps, adjust ballhandling duties. Kemba Walker not playing well isn't ideal but if they simply play their season average defense, they likely win the game. If they play to their defense in the playoffs, its almost a certain win. My sense is that they should assume Walker will not be a factor going forward and adjust accordingly.
 

BigSoxFan

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Neither of those things happened, Miami shot the lights out, and game 1 was a total coin flip. I'm not sold on any of the above.
That’s fine. This is just my feeling after watching Kemba. I don’t think they can win 4 out of 6 against this team without Kemba being better or Hayward coming in and producing. In a 7 game series, a team like Miami is going to get hot so there will probably be a double digit win for them at some point. Most of these games are probably going to be coin flips so now we probably need a disproportionate share of them, similar to Toronto after Game 2.

I, of course, hope to be 100% wrong here.
 

the moops

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I disagree. The Celtics didn't try and run a play at the end of regulation. The best "play" they had was to hold the ball, pounding it into the court, and then have Tatum put up a contested three from a few feet past the arc. That was not a high percentage play. Yes, he sometimes makes those. But, they could've done better. That was basically playing not to lose instead of playing to really try and win, I think.
When the game is tied, you need to run the clock down to not give the other team a chance. Every team in the league does this and runs some sort of quick action but mostly an ISO for their best guy. Maybe Tatum could have driven the lane, although we saw that happen at the end of OT. He got a clean look on his side step three that has been a huge weapon for him.
 

CreightonGubanich

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When the game is tied, you need to run the clock down to not give the other team a chance. Every team in the league does this and runs some sort of quick action but mostly an ISO for their best guy. Maybe Tatum could have driven the lane, although we saw that happen at the end of OT. He got a clean look on his side step three that has been a huge weapon for him.
This is correct. We've been having the same discussion dating back to when Paul Pierce used to attempt fall-away 18 footers at the buzzer. Every team in the league does this, and rightly so. You just cannot give the ball back to the other team, via rebound or turnover, whether you score or not. The only way to prevent this is to clear out and iso your best player. That's actually a pretty high-percentage shot for Tatum, given the constraints of that particular possession.
 

benhogan

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When the game is tied, you need to run the clock down to not give the other team a chance. Every team in the league does this and runs some sort of quick action but mostly an ISO for their best guy. Maybe Tatum could have driven the lane, although we saw that happen at the end of OT. He got a clean look on his side step three that has been a huge weapon for him.
agree. Although it's kind of funny that's the moment we'd want JT to take one of those inefficient long 2s that he practiced on all last season. :rolleyes:
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Also, for people who haven't watched much of Miami or really just started following the Celtics during the playoffs, its worth nothing what Miami is doing to Boston defensively. In short, Toronto had a great deal of success attacking the ballhandler - more often than not Walker - right inside of half-court. The also went small a lot (Anunoby at the five - as a side note, he is going to be a problem for the Celtics and league for years to come). Because Miami is essentially a rotation of big wings who can play defense, they are already hedged against some of the PnRs Boston likes to run for Kemba and given the success the Raptors and now Miami had getting to Kemba/ballhandlers early, the Cs need a counter there.

Once again, I see the most delta to be gained on defense. Absent Tatum going off or some brilliant adjustment by Stevens, its hard to see Boston lighting up this incarnation of the Heat.
 

SteveF

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There's a good chance Monday* gets skipped to allow the WCF to catch up to the ECF. So there could be a 3 day gap between games 3 and 4. That's part of why I suspect they may be targeting game 4 for Hayward.

*Plus football. MNF is ESPN and ESPN is an NBA partner so... Neither ESPN nor the NBA wants to do anything to hurt the ratings of either event.
 

128

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Wait, Tatum traveled at the end of regulation? On his side step three? That’s a play that just about every guy in the NBA does now but now they’re saying it’s a travel?
I think the travel came immediately after the catch.
 

SteveF

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I'll be tracking the 3 point shooting in the Heat-Celtics series here for those interested.
 
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chilidawg

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Stevens' post game comments recognized the horrible offensive flow down the stretch, but Brad why weren't you doing something about it?

One think I noticed was that they played with little urgency on the offensive end. Routinely taking 5-6 s to get across the line, then aimlessly dribbling down the clock. Another of Stevens lines is to "play fast", and there was little of this. Tired? They had 3 days off, but maybe still mentally wrung from the Raptors series.

Here's to a redemptive game 2, I think they''ve got it in them.
 

OurF'ingCity

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Once again, I see the most delta to be gained on defense. Absent Tatum going off or some brilliant adjustment by Stevens, its hard to see Boston lighting up this incarnation of the Heat.
Another way of looking at it is that the Celtics scored 106 points in Game 1 in regulation. If they had scored 106 points in regulation in each game of the Raptors series, they would have won all seven games.
 

SteveF

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By rating, they were 114.8 on offense and 117.8 on defense. They were better on offense (+1ish) than the regular season but markedly worse on defense (+10ish).

Some of that was 3 point shot making, some of that was the number of shots they gave up at the rim, and some of that was the fourth quarter fouling. Miami was in the bonus with over 7 minutes to go.

That said, I'm still not 100% sure where the lowest hanging fruit is. The last 3-4 possessions of regulation were bad for reasons in their control. Whether the opponent makes 3s is out of your control to a large degree.
 

chilidawg

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I'll be tracking the 3 point shooting in the Heat-Celtics series here for those interested.
That's great info. If the Heat hit their tight, WO, and Open shots at their season averages, they'd of made 3 fewer shots, 9 fewer points. C's were pretty right on their averages, although much better in tight coverage than expected and worse at wide open shots. Both teams shoot very similar percentages against each coverage category, so it seems it might come down to who creates more good shots. Kenny Smith will be happy with these conclusions.
 

NomarsFool

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CBS is generally regarded as well above average when it comes to designed plays. I'm still perplexed why they didn't come up with something. Dribble the ball for 20 seconds and then run a 4 second play.
 

HomeRunBaker

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CBS is generally regarded as well above average when it comes to designed plays. I'm still perplexed why they didn't come up with something. Dribble the ball for 20 seconds and then run a 4 second play.
In a twisted form of irony, it may have been the Smart flop, and the ensuing dead ball foul by Jones, that cost the Celtics the game. If we were down 1 on that final possession, rather than being tied, the drawn up play would have been an aggressive attempt coupled with Celtics crashing the offensive glass. What’s the saying.....ball don’t lie?
 

BroodsSexton

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CBS is generally regarded as well above average when it comes to designed plays. I'm still perplexed why they didn't come up with something. Dribble the ball for 20 seconds and then run a 4 second play.
Is it conceivable that they didn’t want to run a play too early, and leave the chance for a steal or return score if they missed, given that they had been winning all night—they preferred to take the chance in OT where there is less variability in more time? Or is that just dumb talk? Admittedly, they had just given away the lead, but it’s the only thing I could think of.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Is it conceivable that they didn’t want to run a play too early, and leave the chance for a steal or return score if they missed, given that they had been winning all night—they preferred to take the chance in OT where there is less variability in more time? Or is that just dumb talk? Admittedly, they had just given away the lead, but it’s the only thing I could think of.
That is every teams final possession in a tie game. It’s been going on for decades back when the Pierce elbow jumper at the buzzer was mocked by many. In a playoff game it is going to be even more pronounced with so much more at stake. You don’t want to be penetrating in this spot as the refs generally swallow their whistles and you certainly don’t want to be running a play where illegal screens, charges or turnovers give the final shot to your opponent. Yes, you’d like to see Tatum get something a little better but I don’t place any blame on Stevens for this as once the ball is in Tatums hands for this possession it is out of the coaches hands.
 

BaseballJones

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That is every teams final possession in a tie game. It’s been going on for decades back when the Pierce elbow jumper at the buzzer was mocked by many. In a playoff game it is going to be even more pronounced with so much more at stake. You don’t want to be penetrating in this spot as the refs generally swallow their whistles and you certainly don’t want to be running a play where illegal screens, charges or turnovers give the final shot to your opponent. Yes, you’d like to see Tatum get something a little better but I don’t place any blame on Stevens for this as once the ball is in Tatums hands for this possession it is out of the coaches hands.
They didn't swallow the whistle on Butler's and-one that gave Miami the lead with 12 seconds left in OT.
 

Light-Tower-Power

ask me about My Pillow
SoSH Member
Jun 14, 2013
15,947
Nashua, NH
The L2M report is a useless product and can kiss my ass. It’s utterly pointless for the league to release a report highlighting minute, ticky tack stuff like Tatum’s “travel” that’s never called while completely glossing over legitimate issues like Nick Nurse stepping on the court and receiving a pass in the middle of play.
 

CoffeeNerdness

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 6, 2012
8,711
CBS is generally regarded as well above average when it comes to designed plays. I'm still perplexed why they didn't come up with something. Dribble the ball for 20 seconds and then run a 4 second play.
The play was so telegraphed that there was little to no threat of anything else happening, which has to make it easier to defend. IIRC Spoelstra even subbed in a longer guy who played 5 minutes total to contest the three. Damn smart move.