Celtics
The Celtics kept turning the ball over and couldn’t take advantage.
Bam Adebayo was surrounded by Jaylan Brown and Al Horford under the basket on Saturday. Jim Davis / Globe Staff
The Celtics have amassed some tough, tenacious victories since the start of the postseason, but nothing like what Heath did in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday.
Heath were without Jimmy Butler in the second half after Butler sat down with a sore knee (after the game Chris Haynes said Butler was fine, which seems at least unlikely, given that a maniacally competitive player spent 24 of the biggest minutes of the match season). Employees gave the Celtics a 30-14 lead in free throw attempts, which was actually even bigger before the Celtics went bankrupt in the area. Heat doesn’t even shoot very well – 11-for-33 from depth after a hot start.
And somehow the Heat still found a way to hold on and win 109-103. The Celtics have won or leveled the last three quarters after a disastrous starting period in which Heath rose by 26 points, but Miami’s lead receded slowly and the Celtics never found a crane to speed it up. Jaylan Brown’s triple at the end of the fourth reduced the Heat’s lead to one, but the Heat had one last answer – Max Strus buried a 3-pointer with two minutes left, Adebayo scored and Kyle Lowry completed a very successful return with clutch theft.
Given that Heath won the match almost entirely thanks to live rebounds, it is tempting to say that the Celtics rejected a winning game, but this minimizes Heath’s reaction after Thursday’s defeat. Both teams are obviously capable of throwing hay and both are clearly capable of swallowing them and retaliating with fists.
During this post-season series, the Celtics were really good at collecting after disappointing losses, which is an essential quality because they missed some really disappointing losses. On Saturday, they were defeated and deceived and lost, although they enjoyed many advantages.
Now they have to reunite.
More places to go home
2. Saturday’s match was a war of attrition, so here’s a summary of the injuries from the podium after the match: Robert Williams is “really” every day for Name Udoka and can return immediately on Monday. Marcus Smart rotated his ankle in a scary scene from cameras on the court, but Udoka guessed he would be fine in the future. The same goes for Jason Tatum, who received a sting.
“My neck was caught in a strange position,” Tatum said. “Obviously I went downstairs and felt some pain and discomfort in my neck and down my arm, then I went to my back, examined it and started to get some sensation and examined it by the doctors and did some tests and decided to try.”
Eric Spoelstra had no health updates for anyone on his team. Both Lowry and PJ Tucker were injured and it is unclear what happened to Butler. He will not receive more MRI.
3. Jaylan Brown scored 40 points, but fought hard against Miami’s defensive pressure and turned the ball seven times. He and Tatum (six) combined 13 of the Celtics’ 21 turnovers. In a game they won by six, Heath outscored the Celtics by 33-9 points after a loss.
“It has happened to us several times in this playoff,” Horford said bluntly. “It’s something we keep fighting and it seemed like every time we put ourselves in position, we turned the ball over.”
Again, the Heat had a lot to do with this, but if the Celtics hope to advance, it is imperative that they stop turning the ball. The fact that they have already solved this problem once in Game 2 makes the performance on Saturday especially strange.
“I did my job today to take care of basketball,” Brown said. “But just to be stronger, to drive them and keep being aggressive, to keep getting to the basket and doing what I do, but to be stronger when I get in there. They play a lot of things tonight, especially when I feel like I’m driving and I’ve reached the basket, I feel like I’m with both hands all the time. I never get these calls for hand checks.
“But I do not excuse myself. We are getting better. I did my job to take care of the ball today. I need to do better. “
Given the discrepancy in free throws, Brown’s comments on officials may remain deaf.
4. Tatum was 3-for-14 and 1-for-7 from deep with his six turns. When he returned to the game in the fourth, after suffering a sting, the Celtics’ run, which finally had a few teeth, immediately fell apart.
“I feel like I left the boys hanging tonight,” Tatum said. “It simply came to my notice then. I admit that. That was difficult. “
When asked about Tatum’s periodic weekends, Udoka said his problems were simply “to understand how [the Heat] they will protect you “, after which they focused on talking about problems in the whole team.
“Everything [the Heat] they talked about improving their fitness, embarrassing at home, and we talked about not being caught unprepared or complacent or happy with the victory in their place and understanding how to keep boys, to be physical, and we didn’t coincide with that from the beginning Said Udoka. “It seemed that we somehow withered under their pressure and started complaining to the referees and they took us out of the game from the very beginning.
If you’re a Celtics fan looking for a little hope on a brutal Saturday, you can do worse than the fact that Tatum is unlikely to be so bad again on Monday.
5. After scoring just 16 points in Games 1 and 2 combined, Bam Adebayo had a great night – 31 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and four steals. Butler was superb in Game 1, but the Heat brought much more than Jimmy Butler to the table.
A reporter told Udoka that the presence of Robert Williams, who missed Saturday’s game due to knee pain, may have made a big difference against Adebayo.
“Adebayo has put some of his shoulder on the guardian’s chest, so Rob can’t save the situation so far,” Udoka said. “The boys have to take ownership of this game and defend themselves as best we can.
6. The Celtics are playing for their season again. The Celtics and Heath signal for Match 4 on Monday at 20:30 on ABC.
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