The East Finals balanced, Boston made a real show of strength in Game 2. The recipe for success can be traced back to the return of two of its best players – the Heat, on the other hand, threaten to lose one of them. the findings.
The Celtics Empire responds smartly with Point God!
Head coach Im Odoka must have been relieved when both Marcus Smart and Al Horford received their second match clearance just hours before receiving their warning. His most important post-bankruptcy adjustment at first came naturally: “It was great coming back from the veterans and their calming effect. It definitely helped.”
Smart and Horford have brought the Celtics back to an almost unbeatable empire that has been spreading fear and terror in the regular season since the beginning of the year. Boston won the last 18 minutes of the first half 62:27, by which time the game was already over. Jimmy Butler summed it up: “They tried to embarrass us. They embarrassed us.”
With all the good action in the first half, Smart somehow had a finger in the cake. Jason Tatum was the top scorer (27 points) in a 127:102 blast, but Smart was the leading figure of the evening both defensively and offensively.
Let’s start with the attack: Smart brilliantly played the role of the playmaker, giving the team the calming effect that Udoka mentioned. The spin problem has disappeared from the first game, but Smart put his teammates in the spotlight with some gems As in this example at the beginning. His 12 passes were compensated for by one loss of the ball.
Meanwhile, it looked like a typical smart game: excellent defense, solid playmaking, but exciting shooting. In the first inning he was off the field at 2/11, blazing only in the third and fourth quarters. So right. On the credit side, there was a shot from above the backboard, anklebreaker plus mid-range jumper And 4 threes in two halves.
Heat vs Celtics: How Boston’s defense dominated Game 2
Defensively, it was no surprise that Smart came into the bout with Butler, who smashed the Celts in the first match. But now he has a lot of problems. to me second spectrum Butler defended the Celtics goalkeeper in 31 moves, the latter only managing 9 points. In addition, Smart would put his hands into heat passes (3 steals), easily switch or work on the boards (7 defensive rebounds and 2 offensive rebounds).
“As usual, set the tone,” Udoka enthused. “There’s a reason he became our best defensive player of the year. We had another good defender to put up against Butler, so we didn’t have to worry about them dissecting for a few games.” That’s exactly what happened to Payton Pritchard in the first game.
Meanwhile, Smart put the entire team’s defensive performance ahead of the curve: “We just wanted to be the toughest team.” They were the Celtics, they dragged Miami’s crime into quicksand and didn’t let it go. Miami barely got open throws. Returning second Horford also played his part, according to his direct opponents ESPN Statistics and Information At 2/9 FG and 4 turns – often in isolation. “It was no surprise how well we defended with these guys back on the field,” said Odoka and was right.
By the way, Smart expressed his utmost respect to Butler, and it seems Game 1 made an impression. “Jimmy is a warrior,” Smart said. “It’s always a tough match, I just wanted to make his life as difficult as possible.” “I promise, I’ll find a solution,” declared Butler, who finished the match so far as Hettel’s best with 29 points (11/18 FG). We can be excited.
Celtics vs Heat: It’s better to get up late than not to get up
With all the praise for the Celtics in the last few paragraphs – in the first few minutes there was really no sign of an explosion of visitors. Instead, Boston fell 8:18 and coach Udoka was forced to stop. His address to the team: “Wake up!”
But it wasn’t just simple words. A few minutes later, midway through the first quarter, he replaced starter Robert Williams with Grant Williams. Robert didn’t get off to a good start, looking lost as a defender at times, but ditching simple passes at the other.
With Grant and thus a smaller lineup, the game turned. The Celtics put most of their first game on a wooden floor, with Grant providing greater distances. For Odoka, this was exactly the reason behind the success of these formations. “We were able to attack a couple of our picks and we managed to get a little bit off Bam Adebayo and PJ Tucker. Of course Rob does his things very well, but he has certain limitations when it comes to distance.”
Not so Grant Williams, who threw two threes in the first quarter and scored a total of 19 points. Pritchard also contributed 3 points and 10 points, and things went so well for Boston that both bench players mocked their opponents with a “too small” gesture.
A side effect of divergence formations is welcome from Boston’s point of view: Adebayo hasn’t been a factor in this game for long, neither defensively nor offensively. “They came out and hit us in the face and we didn’t know how to answer,” she summed up the enthusiasm. By the way: Robert Williams himself made a huge improvement in his overtime