Talk about the series between the Heat and Celtics.
When the Heat won two straight games on the road and one home game to make it 3-0, everyone thought the series was over — 150 series in NBA history when they led 3-0, and no one ever turned it around.
However, the Celtics survived, first "dodging the bullets" at home in Miami, and then returning to their home court to play a hearty victory.
With Vincent spraining his ankle and Love straining his calf, people suddenly began to worry about the Heat.
This concern is justified.
Before the East Conference finals began, a fan asked me what I thought of this round of the series under the public account, and I said: "The Green Army is theoretically the advantageous side, but the Heat and Butler, the children of miracles." ”
Rao is that I did not expect that the Heat's "miracle children" could be magical to 3:0 Celtics - but "miracle" is "miracle".
I mean, the Heat do need to worry about the next two games.
I'm not denying Butler's toughness, the Heat's resilience and their perfect team basketball.
They even asked Jaylen Brown to say, "The Heat are paced a lot like the Warriors." ”
This is enough to prove how well they are at the point of all-people - you know, Jaylen Brown is talking about the 2022 championship Warriors - that is basically the pinnacle of the Warriors' passing system and team basketball. (In 17-18, although the Warriors were more powerful, their "team" attribute was somewhat weakened)
The Heat played really well in the first three games, even in the first half of the fourth.
But I don't think anyone would deny that the Celtics were 3-0 down, with their own reasons for underperformance or even "death".
The first is Jaylen Brown, an All-Star for the Green Army, who made 2 of 20 three-pointers in his first three games, averaging 20 shots per game but only averaging 16 points per game.
Then there's Horford, who was equally cold in his first three games, shooting 3-of-13 from three-point range — you know, he shot 44.6 percent from three-point range in the regular season and averaged 2.3 three-pointers per game.
Even star Tatum has fallen into a dip — shooting 33%, 30% and 14% from three-point range in the first three games.
In addition to the player's performance, what is more important is the coach's decision-making mistakes.
G1, Mazura first the incomprehensible DNP Gwee, and Pritchard, who has not played much since the playoffs - took the initiative to send a short man of 185cm to Butler, so that Butler could easily find the touch.
Rao was so, the Celtics also took a double-digit lead in the first half, but when the Heat played an offensive climax and the Green Army was clearly at a loss in the third quarter, Mazura did not choose to call a timeout for half a quarter, watching the team be reversed by the Heat and let the opponent play momentum.
G2, the Celtics also had a double-digit lead - this time they even carried the lead into the fourth quarter, but we all know what happened later - Gwee provoked Butler after hitting a three-pointer, directly motivating Butler to turn on "Jordan Mode", and Mazura watched Butler score 8 points on Gwe's head as if he didn't believe in evil.
And the Heat played two home games in a row, and returning to the Miami home court was even more imposing, and the huge psychological gap between the two sides was reflected in the shooting feel - Boston three-pointers were 11 of 42, shooting 26%; Miami shot 19 of 35 from three-point range, 54 percent from the field.
The 30% three-point shooting gap completely wiped out what Mazura called "improving the execution of details" — and the 3-0 desperate situation came.
Obviously, the Celtics in the first three games have huge room for improvement in all aspects (set-up, execution, rotation), and it depends on whether the Heat give a chance.
As a result, the G4, G5 - Heat gave the Green Army this opportunity.
G4
G4, the Heat played a good ball in two quarters, and although the Green Army picked up offensively (Horford, White hit consecutive three-pointers), they still couldn't prevent Vincent, Martin and other Heat role players - at the beginning of the third quarter, the Heat played a wave of small climax to stretch the gap to 9 points.
Seeing that the Green Army is about to collapse again?
At this critical juncture, Tatum stepped forward.
The first three-pointer.
The ball didn't catch the Heat's attention. Vincent took all three of his previous shots and began to play in front of Jaylen Brown.
Brown had just been broken through by Vincent in the previous round, and this round was full of defensive aggression to press Vincent, but instead of choosing to pass, Vincent dribbled in inside for a throw.
Nope. And going back:
Tatum scored his second 3-pointer.
The Heat still didn't call a pause, and it was still simple:
Love hit White with his back low and turned around and missed the shot.
Instead, it was Mazura who called a timeout when Jaylen Brown saw that he was about to be forced to stop the ball:
Coming back from a timeout, Tatum took another feint, Smart took the ball inside to attract the defense, shifted the ball in succession, and White hit a three-point shot in the bottom corner.
So far, the Green Army has played 9-0 in one minute, but the Heat still choose to trust role players to lead the offense:
Strus blocked a breakaway and was tackled, and the Green Army countered to score.
The next round, Butler passed to Vincent, and again he was directly tackled.
Tatum hit a dozen and stopped mid-range and then mid-range.
Then attract the bag clip Smart, three-point shot.
A wave of 13:0 – almost every goal is directly related to Tatum.
After this goal, the Heat took a timeout, but the timeout ended, they still did not let Butler stand up to stabilize the situation, but let Vincent block with the ball, and after another mistake to give the Celtics two points, Butler finally stepped up to take over the game.
So the second half of the third quarter almost became a personal performance of Butler and Tatum - Butler Lee suddenly shot + assisted, scoring 15 points and 1 assist in a single quarter; Tatum, who found the feeling of the game, was no less, scoring 14 points and 3 assists in a single quarter. (The role players of the Green Army have also regained their confidence and have not wasted opportunities frequently)
As a result, Butler's half-quarter "rush" failed to recover the score, and the Celtics led by nine points into the fourth quarter - which gave them a very valuable "error tolerance".
Early in the fourth quarter, neither Tatum nor Butler chose to fill up time and both took a break from the court, and the Celtics were put on a 4-0 run by the Heat — and this time, Mazura showed his progress — and he knew it was called a timeout.
After a timeout, Tatum returned to the field, and the effect was immediate.
Tatum returned in the first round and broke the Heat's joint defense with a catch that mentioned the free throw line.
Next, the Green Army's players also fought the defensive end, blocking the Heat twice in a row.
The second of them, Gwe's one-on-one cap Butler, avenged G2's "one-shot revenge".
And turning back:
Tatum was again caught in a two-man bag against the Heat, and the brilliant pass found Smart to cut through and scored a layup.
Then the Heat's offensive round suffered something worse than losing the G4 victory:
Gabe Vincent reached his left ankle as he tried to get the ball back after being blocked by Tatum...
The small man had to quit the game after defending Tatum for the next round (he was hit for a three-pointer).
And we now know that he will miss the G5 due to an ankle sprain, and his absence has become one of the biggest reasons why the Heat lost the G5.
G5
G5, Vincent as the main point guard is absent, and the Heat don't seem to consume too much physical strength like Butler started with the main attack - so the task of the main offense fell more to Adebayo, another star of the Heat:
The first attack of the Heat G5 opening, Adebayo forced Horford with his back - this trick actually worked well in this series, under Horford's defense, Adebayo shot 12 of 21 in this series, shooting 57%.
But this round, the Heat did not achieve the results they expected, Smart was very aggressive to swipe the card to assist the defense, directly knifed Adebayo's ball.
Next, the Heat tried to get Adebayo to attack in a different way - Lowry blocked with Adebayo, Lowry obviously had no intention of shooting, and gave the ball to Adebayo, although Horford returned quickly, but Adebayo still used his personal ability to score on the head of the guy with speed and power.
The Heat, on the other hand, learned the Heat of this series, opening with a weak side block after clearing one side - due to Tatum's second-half killing in the last game, the Heat significantly increased his defensive intensity, and Love delayed to prevent Tatum from shooting - but the result was that Love's slow return speed allowed Strus to over-assist the defense, and finally Smart started in the middle to score a layup.
Next, the Heat continued to try to play Lowry and Adebayo's set of blocks, but White squeezed through cover very well, not only sealing the pass route to Adebayo, but also seizing the opportunity to jump to destroy Lowry's jumping pass, directly forming a steal.
At the same time, the Green Army defensively also learned the lessons of G1 and G2, no longer easily changed defenses when Butler blocked, tried to put Brown on him, and let Butler shoot difficult two-pointers in the middle range - but Butler still shot.
When defending Butler's block, Horford tried to sink as far as he could, inducing Butler to shoot from mid-range while not letting him drive Adebayo.
The Heat also tried the last four games where they had to try several of Love's low-post singles against White — but alas, luck wasn't on their side.
The "tactic" of Love's low-post singles, now at Löw's age, can only be "icing on the cake", and cannot be "charcoal".
And the combination of Love and Lowry has become an obvious loophole in the defensive section:
If Tatum accidentally caught this set of misalignments, he can only watch his opponent dunk one by one.
And Tatum also showed a tough attitude on the defensive end as soon as he started:
When the Heat played double cover blocking, the Green Army chose to switch defenses directly - they dared to defend like this, one is that Lowry's speed is not as fast as Vincent, which makes Horford's speed no longer a misplaced target for the Heat; The other is - Tatum has the confidence to stand up to Adebayo.
As you can see, Tatum used his torso very well, toughly confronting Adebayo, pushing him to the bottom line and not letting him have a layup angle.
Tatum used his threat to lure the Heat to the Heat and successfully passed the bottom corner opportunity again, and Brown hit a three-point shot - obviously, the Heat didn't want Tatum to cut a high score, but the Green Army's warm hand from outside the three-point line cost them.
Then, the Heat offense again allowed Adebayo to attack Horford, causing a foul.
The Heat replaced Strus with a block, but the Green Army significantly raised the defensive level of Strus's projection, and Horford directly grabbed a strong delay, not only did not allow Strus to get a shot, but also caused a mistake.
Lowry initiated the block, which was again judged by the Green Army to cause a mistake.
Tatum did not seek a lot of blocks this time, but directly broke through one-on-one, attracted the pinch and then came out of the ball, and a very beautiful assist Smart hit a three-pointer.
Butler borrowed the dismantling of Spur White and was also defended.
Tatum's conversion once again attracted the attention of the Heat's multi-person defense, diverting the ball "second assist" bottom corner Smart hit a three-point shot.
Pay attention to the speed and awareness of Tatum's movement of the ball this round – I think he is ready for the Heat to pinch himself today and put more defensive attention into himself, so from the beginning he always pays attention to the position of his teammates when attacking, emphasizing the transfer of the ball after attracting the defense.
This round once again created a bottom-corner three-point gap for Smart.
Smart missed, but Horford grabbed the rebound in front and gave it to Tatum, who himself hit a shot from beyond the three-point line.
Boston led by 13 points.
After the Heat's timeout, Butler held the ball to block, the Celtics continued to sink defensively, and Butler missed a jumper.
On the contrary, White's one-on-one Strus on this side can also hit with a difficult turn and back.
This round Adebayo and Strus ran a cross cover, making it difficult for the Green Army to tell whether Adebayo was covering Strus's cut shot or Strus covering Adebayo's breakthrough, resulting in hesitation in whether to switch defenses - in the end, the Heat's actual intention was the latter, and Adebayo successfully scored a layup.
And Brown's low-post singles in this game can also attract the Heat to contraction - Brown used this to assist White's three-pointer.
(A little confused: Did the Heat overreact to the singles of the double scouts in this game?) ）
However, the Green Army's defensive execution is not always in place - this round against Strus's blocking, Horford did not delay in place, so Strus made a three-pointer.
The Heat also learned from the previous round, which did not over-assist Brown's singles, and Brown missed a shot against Lowry.
Then the Heat replaced Zeller in the connecting segment, and this round Zeller also failed to stop Tatum, who first avoided Zeller with a small change of direction, and then took a European step to avoid Martin, who wanted to create an offensive foul.
Defensively, the Green Army continued to use the high-position double cover to dismantle the Heat.
The Heat's own defense is also somewhat lax, and this round Zeller seems to have predicted in advance that Tatum wants to go to the right?
But apparently he misjudged, Lowe changed his back cover to left cover, Tatum went straight to the basket without hindrance, and the Heat's follow-up defenses after he started were powerless to stop it.
(Again, is the Heat too wary of Tatum's three-point shot?) This round even before Tatum made a move, Zeller was delayed above the cover, isn't this "put" Tatum to dunk? ）
That's the big part of the Celtics' first quarter — and this quarter is actually extremely representative.
As we can see, there are two main problems presented by the Heat's game:
1. Its own offense is very inefficient because of Vincent's absence or tactical choices, especially Lowry's personal offensive desire is very low, in which case his passing is easy to predict (this is also the reason why Butler will yell at him: "shoot the basket");
2. The Heat seem to have overreacted to Tatum's ball-carrying offense in G5 because of Tatum's G4 explosion - they delayed or pinched Tatum too many times, and Tatum has gradually adapted to this defense as the series progresses, and this game has a playoff high 11 assists.
(If there's a third point, it's the obvious damage to the Heat on the defensive end by the combination of Lowry and Love.)
Butler didn't show as much offensive desire as he did in the third or fourth quarter of G4 — he only made 10 shots in the game — compared to an average of 21 shots in the previous four games.
To be honest, I don't understand the reason for Butler's G5's low desire to shoot - the Celtics are not very fierce in limiting his catch or shot, more because he himself did not choose to take over the attack.
But in the absence of Vincent, the Heat did not have a good enough offensive starting point besides him - in this game, the Heat's most offensive effect turned out to be Duncan Robinson, after shooting through the Green Army's defense in the first three games, and then catching the Green Army off guard with a back door cut, he was even able to break through the ball and provide assists for teammates in this game...
On the one hand, we marvel at the magic of the Heat's ability to develop players, and on the other hand, it also reflects the shortage of the Heat's manpower - it has been reduced to the need for Duncan Robinson to be the first offensive initiator...
On the contrary, in addition to Tatum's continued good aggressiveness, Jaylen Brown also ushered in a recovery in the second quarter - he continued to unreasonable singles, scoring 12 points in a single quarter to further pull the score apart. In addition, Smart and Derrick White's "response shot" three-point level in this game is also extremely high - as long as the Heat invest a lot of defensive attention on Tatum and Brown, the rest of the Green Army can make the Heat pay.
This is very important.
The Heat and Celtic's G6 will kick off tomorrow.
Vincent may be back, but in my opinion, it is somewhat dangerous for the Heat to pin their hopes solely on Vincent's comeback and Butler's increased aggressiveness - the Celtics are a strong offensive team, maybe the first three games, they were a little confused by the Heat's defense, but in the last two games, they have gradually regained their offensive form.
The Heat must do a better job of defense, find a set of defensive logic that works to limit Tatum and Jaylen Brown, show the same defensive despair as the first three games, and at the same time, they need to find aggression and a sense of "all" team on the offensive end - hopefully, as Butler said: "Two games are not our true level." ”
And more important — this series isn't just about the showdown between Butler and Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Adebayo — it's Spoostra and Masura.
Obviously, the Celtics are more talented, Spall must have a "stroke of God" to smooth out the talent gap between the two teams, and Masura's task is much simpler - he just needs to make no mistakes - is a great help to the Green Army.
Let's wait and see.
Tomorrow, is the Black Eight Miracle? Or is it the first time in history that a 3:0 reversal continues to be in progress?