Lowry declared out for Game 2; Celtics expect to get Smart back
The Heat will be without Kyle Lowry for an eighth time in postseason, and a fourth game in a row, when Miami meets Boston in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday (8:30 p.m., ESPN).
Lowry was listed as out for the game. He didn’t practice Wednesday but did “light shooting” on the side, according to Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. The Heat is 7-0 without him in postseason.
Swingman Max Strus and point guard Gabe Vincent are listed as questionable with hamstring injuries, but players listed as questionable by the Heat almost always play in postseason.
Meanwhile, the Celtics listed power forward Al Horford (COVID protocols) as doubtful and guard Marcus Smart (mid-foot sprain) as probable.
The Celtics are optimistic that Smart can play after missing Game 1 due to an injury sustained in Game 7 against Milwaukee on Sunday.
With regard to Horford, the NBA isn’t requiring mandatory testing of vaccinated players. Horford has suggested he’s vaccinated but hasn’t said so definitively.
Players who are vaccinated can request to be tested if they don’t feel well. Horford might also miss Game 3 on Saturday in Boston, but the
Celtics wouldn’t confirm that.
“Obviously, we weren’t prepared to be without Al,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said. “We definitely weren’t prepared to be without Al and Smart. It’s not an excuse; we’ve got to be better. We still had control of the game in the first half.”
Meanwhile, Celtics coach Ime Udoka wasn’t made available to reporters Wednesday because of what the team identified as a non-COVID illness.
COVID continues to disrupt pro sports 26 months after the pandemic began.
“It’s disappointing,” Spoelstra said. “Every single time we think all right, this is kind of getting behind us, it’s not. It’s frustrating for all of us.
“You want to play against their best and beat their best with our best. It’s just not the world we’re living in right now. It has been three years of this.”
BUTLER’S STEALS
Jimmy Butler’s epic 41-point Game 1 also included two key steals of Jayson Tatum in the third quarter, which he converted into a threepointer and a dunk as part of a 39-14 Heat rampage in the quarter.
On the topic of gambling like that for steals, Butler said Spoelstra “doesn’t like whenever I do it. Luckily, I was 2 for 2 on those particular shoot-the-gap passing lanes. But I don’t get them all the time, and then you see [Spoelstra] give a look over there. But I think I can get 10 out of 10. It doesn’t always work that way. It helps us go on a little run.”
THIS AND THAT
The Heat has outscored teams by 93 points (345 to 252) in the third quarter of playoff games. What’s surprising is that Miami has done it even though it has shot just 30.2 percent on threes in the third quarter (35 for
116).
But Miami is shooting 48.2 percent overall in the third quarter, with 128 rebounds, 67 assists, 41 turnovers, 33 steals and 14 blocks.
The defense has been feeding the offense in those third quarters, which have included third-quarter opening runs of 19-4 in Game 6 against Philadelphia and 22-2 against Boston in Game 1.
“I feel like that’s the biggest thing,” Tyler Herro said of the Heat getting out on the break in the third quarter. “Being able to get halfcourt stops and then being able to run in transition, we want to live like that. Coach doesn’t want us to run plays. Just get in transition and go.”
Several Heat people said that Spoelstra barely talked during halftime of Game 1; the Celtics led by eight at the break.
At halftime, Udonis Haslem’s “voice was heard a lot,” Vincent said. “P.J.’s voice [Tucker] heard a lot, Jimmy,
Kyle. Other guys chimed in; everyone said something. All 17 said something. It was very playerled. Spo came in and cleaned up the details.”
“Pepas,” a Spanish song composed by Puerto Rican singer/songwriter Carlos Efrén Reyes Rosado, has become the Heat’s victory celebration anthem of sorts at FTX Arena.
Spoelstra was asked if it bothered him that the song was played with four minutes left in Tuesday’s game, with the outcome not totally resolved.
“I didn’t even know it was played last night,” Spoelstra said. “So your question is should I have yelled at someone for playing it that early? At that point, I thought the game was very much in the balance.”
Then Spoelstra cracked “I will talk to the appropriate people.”
Regarding the song in general, Spoelstra said: “It took me five games in the regular season, when our players were getting all hyped up in the huddle, looking around, [I’m thinking], ‘Hey focus’. And then everybody told me to get my head out of the sand. And I realized what it is.”
Celtics center Daniel Theis said the evidence that “we can beat this team” lies in the fact that “we won three out of four quarters [in Game 1].”