Boston held Miami to just 84 points in Game 3.
The Miami Heat made history in their Game 2 win over the Boston Celtics. They poured in 23 three-pointers, falling just two short of the NBA record for most made in a playoff game.
A mix of outlandish shot-making and poor Celtics defense contributed to the feat, but Boston’s lackluster showing stood out most. They gave Miami far too much space to shoot, and in the end, players who normally aren’t a huge threat from outside handed the Celtics a loss at TD Garden.
Leading up to Game 3 on Saturday, the Celtics were calm. There was no sense of panic. There were no exaggerations. “There’s no reason for us to overreact,” Kristaps Porzingis said at practice on Thursday.
Boston blew the doors off of Miami in Game 3. They earned a 20-point win, holding the Heat to just 84 points in the process. It was an incredible defensive showing that helped the Celtics get back to their Game 1 success.
But Joe Mazzulla doesn’t like the word adjustments.
“Yeah, I mean, that word, it’s just such a trigger word around this time of year,” Mazzulla said post-game. “We didn’t make too many adjustments. We played a little bit harder. We played tougher. We dictated the physicality and the tempo of the game.
“And it’s the simple things that you have to do under a higher level of stress, a higher level of adversity. So, I thought our guys did a great job of dictating that today.”
The Celtics put their all into every defensive decision they made on Saturday.
If their Game 2 choice was a weak closeout on an average three-point shooter, they were sprinting to the line in Game 3. If their Game 2 choice was a sluggish trail over a Bam Adebayo screen, they were almost attached to Tyler Herro in Game 3.
“Just play harder,” Mazzulla said of Boston’s improved defense on Herro. “Be more connected. Be more physical.”
By the definition of the word, the Celtics made adjustments. But they weren’t major changes in their defensive philosophy. Instead, they simply attacked their assignments with a greater purpose. And that was the difference.
“Giving up offensive rebounds, closeouts—we could have had some better closeouts in Game 2,” Jayson Tatum said. “We kind of gave them some walk-up threes and things like that. Just better at contesting. It was kind of an effort thing.”
Right from the start, the Celtics were locked in on defense. The Heat only managed to scrape together 12 first-quarter points. In a quarter where the Celtics scored just 21, they needed the defensive showing they put together.
After attempting 43 shots from beyond the arc on Wednesday, the Heat only took 28 in Game 3 — from 23 made threes to just nine. A 42-point difference between the two games.
Boston trusted the math, but only in the sense that they made a concerted effort to improve their shot profile while simultaneously worsening Miami’s.
The math involving allowing certain players room to shoot was thrown out the window.
“It was a little bit of that. No dare shots. Respecting those guys’ capabilities,” Jaylen Brown said. “They’re NBA players, and they can make shots on any given night. So, treating them accordingly, closing out, just making them uncomfortable. And then on the other side, just executing the offense.”
Jrue Holiday didn’t attempt a shot in the first half, yet he was a team-high +23 in that time. Payton Pritchard battled over every pick he was thrown into. Kristaps Porzingis secured the paint against Adebayo, who dominated the mid-range in the fourth quarter of Game 2.
Everyone up and down the roster made it their mission to level up the defense.
“Individual defense. Team defense,” Mazzulla said. “I thought Jrue was great. I don’t know when he got his first shot, but I thought he dictated the defensive tempo of the game. I thought Tatum answered the call defensively. I thought KP and Al did a great job.
“I thought everybody- I thought our bench came in and really pushed the pace on both ends of the floor. So, just connected, tough, physical, individual defense. Team defense.”