The Miami HEAT host the Boston Celtics Wednesday night at AmericanAirlines
Arena. Get your tickets now! The HEAT fell to the Celtics 96-90 in their last
meeting on Oct. 28. Tip-off is set for 7:30 PM. Television coverage on FOX
Sports Sun begins at 7:00 PM. You can also listen to the action live on 790 The
Ticket.
1: With the loss to Indiana behind them, what aspect of the game do you expect
Miami to get back on track?
Couper Moorhead: It was pretty clear, both immediately after the game and in the
days after, that neither the players nor the coaches were pleased with the
effort level and attention to detail against the Pacers. And that, even more so
than shots falling on a given night or a particularly strategy being employed,
is most crucial to this Miami HEAT team. This team is, by design, meant to be
one of the top defensive teams in the league and you don’t get there without
working harder and longer than your opponent on the majority of NBA nights.
Fortunately, a night like Sunday is more of a blip on the radar than a trend of
any sort, so we should reasonably we able to expect one of the hardest-working
teams in the league – not as much of a throwaway line as it sounds – to get back
to being that.
Joe Beguiristain: In the days since Miami’s loss to Indiana on Sunday, the team
has talked a lot about needing to improve on both ends of the floor. Not only
were turnovers an issue once more against the Pacers, but also the HEAT gave up
120 points on 60 percent shooting. That said, some guys did play well, but those
performances were few and far between.
The good news about all this is that Miami has acknowledged its problems and has
put in work at practice to fix them. It doesn’t get any easier with the hottest
team in the NBA coming to town, but the HEAT are definitely up to the challenge.
2: What has been the common thread throughout Boston’s 16-game winning streak?
Couper: Absolutely dominant defense. Boston is No. 1 defensive team in the
league allowing 95.8 points per 100 possessions, and they’re even better in the
second half when they’ve allowed 93.7. Boston hasn’t dominated each of those
games as far as winning by 15-20 points, either. They’ve even found themselves
trailing by 15 in a number of games, including against the Warriors, but each
time they’ve pulled themselves back into the game by putting a stranglehold on
the other team’s scoring.
What’s so unique is that other than Aron Baynes, the Celtics don’t play many
true, big, traditional centers. Al Horford is of course capable of defending
bigs, as he is with just about any position on the floor, but even if they don’t
play huge in the middle they’re otherwise big everywhere else, with the strength
and length of players like Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart and even
Semi Ojeleye providing endless options for switching on the perimeter and
contesting shots all over the floor. Not to mention that Kyrie Irving might be
having the best defensive season of his career and Smart, even as he’s shooting
26.7 percent from the floor, is on the league’s All-Winning Plays team.
Joe: As Coup stated above, it’s all about defense for Boston. That shouldn’t be
surprising with Brad Stevens at the helm, but the Celtics have taken things to a
whole other level. While Marcus Smart and Al Horford have played very well on
the defensive end as usual, newcomer Kyrie Irving has stepped up his game on
that end of the floor. In fact, the 25-year-old has tallied a 97.4 defensive
rating this season (which is far and away the best of his career) and has held
the opposition to 0.9 percentage points lower than their usual field goal
percentage. Irving has always been a dynamic offensive player with some of the
best handles in the league, but this latest transformation has put him in the
upper echelon.
Because of Irving and the team’s strong defensive play, Boston has been able to
respond to adversity and grind out wins lately. Take Monday night’s game against
Dallas as a perfect example. The Celtics held the Mavs to just 9-of-28 shooting
in the fourth quarter and overtime period combined, while Irving scored 17
points during that span to come away with the win after being down by 13 points
in the fourth.
Long story short, Boston knows how to get the job done.
3: What did we learn from the first matchup with the Celtics?
Couper: That game lived up to most of what Boston has relied on consistently
throughout this winning streak, namely defending (Miami had scoring quarters of
19 and 18) and allowing Irving to close things out in the final minutes. What
stood out the most on Boston’s end, however, was the play of Tatum. Even the
most heralded prospects generally aren’t expected to contribute as an overall
positive in their first seasons but Tatum has at times looked like a multi-year
veteran, soaring to the rim with his long arms and putting moves on some of the
league’s best defenders all while shooting well from the outside. There were
understandably questions about Boston’s rotations when Gordon Hayward went down
on opening night but between Tatum and the poised second-year play of Brown the
Celtics have been getting dynamic minutes from their wing spots.
It’s also worth noting that Hassan Whiteside did not play in the first Boston
matchup. The Celtics are typically a tough matchup for him and any other bigger
center because of how Boston is able to spread the floor while still defending
size, but Whiteside still has a length advantage in the paint that could lead to
plenty of rebounds and interior touches if the offensive execution is crisp.
Joe: With that matchup being so early into the season, we started to see just
how strong the Celtics were defensively. In particular, Boston clamped down in
the third quarter and held Miami to just 36.8 percent shooting in the period.
That said, the HEAT stormed back in the fourth behind Goran Dragic’s spectacular
play (11 points on 4-of-6 shooting) and cut the deficit to two with 2:16
remaining. Unfortunately, Irving took over from there. Despite the loss, it was
still encouraging that Miami had a chance to win it in the end without Hassan
Whiteside.
While things look tough on the surface for Wednesday night since the Celtics
have won 16-straight games, you would think that the HEAT are hungry and ready
to bounce back from their tough outing against the Pacers. After some grueling,
intense practice sessions, it’s finally time to see how Miami responds. We’ll
see how it all pans out.
Highlights:
Oct. 28 – Celtics at HEAT
Mar. 26 – HEAT at Celtics
Game Notes:
Efficiencies (Rank):
Player: Goran Dragic
Player: Hassan Whiteside
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