Frustration boils over for C’s
Blow big lead to Heat in falling behind 2-0
There were multiple reports of the sound of furniture being thrown inside the Celtics locker room, and the sight of Marcus Smart storming out as he uttered some choice words.
Brad Stevens, eyes peering out from over his green mask, probably felt the less said about that, the better.
HEAT 106 CELTICS 101
“Guys were emotional after a hard game, hard loss,” said the Celtics coach.
Said Jaylen Brown: “We’re going to have a meeting tomorrow regardless just to watch the film and go over the game plan with coach, but at the end of the day, emotions are going to fly. Obviously we wanted to win this game and we didn’t, but this series is far from over and we’ve got to get ready for Game 3. That’s how it goes. In families there’s ups and downs, there’s fights and emotions, but that’s exactly what we are: a family. We’re going to hold each other accountable, and we’ve got to do what it takes to come out and execute next game.” Kemba Walker shrugged. “It was nothing,” said the Celtics point guard, who, when pressed on the subject, said, “Ain’t nothing happened in the locker room. I don’t know what you’re talking about, to be honest. We’ll be fine.”
Except that they’re not fine, not after falling into an 0-2 hole in the Eastern Conference Finals with Thursday night’s 106-101 Game 2 loss to Miami.
The loss was again testament to what has ailed the Celtics this season. Leads aren’t safe, and third quarters are the stuff of painful video.
Walker responded with his best game since the first round with a 23-point performance, and it wasn’t enough. The Celtics, after leading by as many as 17 points and 13 at halftime, were undone by a 37-17 third-quarter run by the Heat.
That stretch clearly clouded Stevens’ thoughts.
“We pulled apart and we didn’t play well. And they did a good job,” Stevens said. “We’re not beating this team if we’re not completely connected on both ends of the court. Gotta get back to being that, which we’ve been at times, but right now they’re a better team, and we’ll have to fight to get into this series.”
After admittedly losing hold of Game 1 due to a fourth-quarter collapse, the Celtics returned to their more traditional period of collapse in the third.
In the process of being outscored by 20 points in the quarter – easily their worst of the playoffs – the Celtics’ 13-point (60-47) halftime lead was flipped to an 84-77 Miami advantage.
Bam Adebayo alone was 7-for-8 in the third, when the Heat center scored 15 of his 21 points, and once again treated the Celtics like rag dolls in the paint.
And make no mistake about it, though the Celtics came back to take a fivepoint lead on Walker’s pullup 3-pointer with 4:25 left, their momentum had been drained. A pair of Goran Dragic step-back jumpers, including a late-clock 3-pointer over Daniel Theis for a 100-95 lead with 1:45 left, broke their backs.
“They outplayed us. That’s the long story short. They outplayed us,” said Jayson Tatum. “That’s tough. Offensive rebounds, some key turnovers, miscommunication. They hit some big shots. I mean, a lot of things went wrong, but got to get ready for the next one.”
But only after they clean up that locker room, where Tatum insists they were simply holding a discussion.
“We’re 0-2, we’re frustrated. That’s team sports. We’re not supposed to be happy,” he said of the post-game commotion. “Nothing out of the ordinary, just talking about the game.”
Zone this: Tatum only attempted four shots in the second quarter, and only one 3-point attempt – a miss. Jaylen Brown buried a pair of big 3-pointers late, but was subdued early. Miami, it seems, plays an even better brand of zone than Toronto.
“I wish I knew. I gotta look at the film,” Tatum said of what the Celtics can do better against the Miami zone, sort of an inverted setup with the guards low and the big men at the top of the zone.
“We’ve got to have better spacing, I think,” said Tatum. “Most of the time, we just weren’t in the right spots. Whether against man or zone, that’s not going to help. We’ve got to have the right spacing in order to create good movement, create a good shot. When your spacing is messed up against a good team, a good defensive team, it’s tough.”
Miami is only getting hotter: The Heat are now 10-1 since the start of the playoffs, and remain the hottest team in the bubble. Adebayo and Dragic alone shot 20-for-35 and combined for 46 points.
“That’s the thing about this team. You never know who is going to have a good night,” said Adebayo. “Going into the second half, everybody thought I was checked out. You know, several people in our circle and our staff and our team, they just keep telling me like, you know, it’s go time, turn that switch on. I turned that switch on in the second half.”
Letdowns, at this time of year? Stevens may not have any other answer for how badly his team played in the third quarter.
“We’ll go back and look at it, figure out if it’s a technical thing a pace thing or an execution thing, or just a not as focused on the important stuff things,” he said.