The Miami Heat swept the Indiana Pacers, rocked the Milwaukee Bucks and returned to the Boston Celtics in the first leg of the Eastern Conference Finals. Miami started the streak at the wrong end, 8-0, and lost a whopping 13 points in the first quarter, looking utterly bewildered offensively. Nonetheless, he continued to act and ultimately escaped a 117-114 overtime win following Jimmy Butler’s clutch and Bam Adebayo’s incredible block.
Butler attacked the basket against Jason Tatum and scored through his outstretched arms, earning a foul in the process and giving Miami a two-point lead with 12 seconds left. On the next possession, Tatum went against Butler and dunked, but Adebayo met him at the edge of the goal and hit the ball. Then Tatum missed a desperate three-point buzzer.
With 22 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Butler took a corner 3 to give Heath a one-point lead, but after a time-out, Derrick Jones Jr. committed a reckless foul on the ball before the Celtics blocked him. In overtime, Kemba Walker stepped back 23.2 seconds before Butler and Adebayo saved Miami’s position.
Butler finished with 20 points on 7/14 shots, but Goran Dragic was the most important hitter for most of the night with 29 points on 11/19 shots. Miami beat Boston 35–35 in the final frame and 11– 8 in extra time.
Tatum scored 30 points on 10 of 24 shots, while Marcus Smart added 26 on 9 of 18 shots, but Walker shot 6 of 19 for 19 points. Miami tried to get Walker out of rhythm with a combination of 2-3 zones, trapping and switching. This time it worked out well enough.
Here are three conclusions:
1. Everything you need
One of the favorite phrases of Miami coach Eric Spoelstra is “everything you need.” He loves to talk about how playoff competitions test you and make you react when things go wrong. That’s why I think this will be his favorite playoff hit win. Miami got stuck in the mud early on, dealing with defenses that function very differently than Milwaukee’s. After the break, he stumbled again in the attack, but remained in place.
If you are tired of hearing about “heat culture” and how much these players believe in themselves, I completely understand. But they bought into it all, and no team will come back like this without a certain degree of confidence. At the beginning of the second quarter, Dragic was the only Miami player to achieve something, but later on, almost everyone present made an important contribution.
Again, Jae Crowder punished the opponent almost every time he remained open behind the arc. The striker finished with 22 points while shooting 7/11, including 5/9 from depth. Tyler Herro also made a pair of 3s at the end of the fourth quarter, and Butler and Adebayo’s winning games were a combination of quick wits, strength and sheer determination.
In his post-match conference, Zoom Spoelstra indicated that Adebayo wasn’t even in a good attacking stream, but still found a way to leave his fingerprints on the game.
“It could be a poster dunk,” Spoelstra said. “And a lot of people don’t want to, don’t want to play this game and prove themselves there when Jason Tatum gets to the launch pad. He just did a big save for us. corner and it looked like it had an open path to the rim. And sometimes, when you have so much competition, you just have to play in a way that you can’t even really explain. “
2. This dramatic thing is not new.
In the regular season, Goran Dragic averaged 16.2 points with 57.3 percent accurate shooting, 5.1 assists and 3.2 rebounds. He played 28.2 minutes per game as the Heath’s sixth player, but he was just as productive in the minute as when he hit the All-NBA third team in the 2013-14 season with the Phoenix Suns.
In the first two rounds of the playoffs this year, Dragic averaged 21.1 points on 56.2 percent accurate shooting, plus 4.7 assists and 4.4 rebounds in 34.7 minutes. It may have seemed lately that Dragic has gone to another level, but in fact he has essentially kept his level of play in a larger role. Rather than forcing him to host the show when Butler goes to the bench, Spoelstra made a defensive score for him, Butler, and Adebayo at the same time from the start, making each of them much more dangerous.
In the second quarter of Tuesday, Dragic scored 11 points on a 5-for-6 strike, keeping the Heat afloat as the Celtics were firmly in control. This gave Miami some time and allowed the team to calm down.
“It was really important because we were not successful,” said Spoelstra. “And it goes a lot to protect them. They took us out of our normal rhythm. This is not about us; this is what they do. And Goran was able to shake himself a few times and put a few points on the board. It just gave us a little more confidence in second quarter “.
It was not as memorable and spectacular as the games of Butler and Adebayo, but three and a half minutes before the end of overtime, Dragic fouled Boston’s big man Daniel Tise under the basket. The hit has yet to score in an extra frame and the Celtics are up four after Walker took a step back. Dragic not only killed Boston’s momentum, but also knocked Theis out of the game.
“A lot of fans don’t understand what kind of contender he is and what he has been like throughout his career,” Spoelstra said. “And I’m talking about the United States, but also overseas. [FIBA European] In the championship two summers ago, you need guys who know what it is, how difficult it is, and especially when we have young players that we rely on, you need veterans, experienced winners who can somehow help you. And that’s who Goran is. “
3. The Celtics attack came back to life.
This will likely be lost due to how the game ended, but after seven rock fights against the Toronto Raptors, Boston found some offensive rhythm. The Celtics averaged 116.5 points per 100 possessions on that loss, according to Clear Glass, better than they could in any second round game and better than their regular season record. This is no small feat against the Heat team, which have shown phenomenal defenses throughout the playoffs.
Boston was lucky with Smart’s hot shooting, but more significant was the return of Tatum’s three-pointers. He shot 4 of 12 from deep, and the most significant number is 12 – unlike the Toronto series in which he was often chased by smaller guards, Tatum could create space against Miami defenders with relative ease.
The Celtics have a little something to figure out, mainly in terms of how they want to fight the 2-3 zone and the Adebayo versus Walker switch. Overall, however, their offense looked healthy and if Gordon Hayward returns for Game 2 on Thursday things should be a little easier.
