Heat Scorch C's From 3! Game 2 Loss vs MIA 4/24 (Series tied 1-1)

[The Corey's]

You're right, but I think the fact that it was a home game is the issue here - at least for me. They finished regular season with an impressive 37-4 at home and I expected them to defend their home court for a while - in my opinion that's what title contenders are supposed to do. Instead they dropped it against injury depleted 8th seed. It's frustrating and disappointing. If they had gone up 2-0 or 3-0 and then dropped one away game I don't think reaction would be as strong as it's right now.

Bingo. It’s the fact this team always losses home games throughout the playoffs which is why each series goes 6-7 games. They couldn’t take care of home court against the hawks after making it a priority last season to protect home court. This season they talked about protecting home court and did so during the regular season but right away in game 2 they already dropped one against an 8th seeded team which is a concern for the later series if the Celtics even advance.

Celtics haven’t had a winning record at home in the playoffs since 2018

2023: 5-6
2022: 6-6
2021: 1-1
2019: 2-2
2018: 10-1

We’ve dropped a home game in 10 of our last 12
playoff series (excluding the bubble) with multiple losses in 6 of those 10 series

It’s baffling how much this team struggles

They lost 4 games at home all year...

It would be a legendary failure to not get out of the first round.

One that would cost just about everyone their job for Any other team but business as usual here guaranteed.

Edit*

To clarify I'm saying that it would be horrendous for them to lose at home in the playoffs at the previous pace you mentioned given their massive success this year at home.

[Hal14]

I know everyone is justifiably upset at the loss, believe me I am too. But I never expected the Celtics to sweep the Heat even without Butler & Rozier, the coaching advantage is just too lop-sided in their favor and this team is known for playing up/down to their competition

But just to put into perspective: Since the NBA switched to the best of 7 1st round series in 2003, only 5 of the 21 championship teams swept their first round opponent. In other words, almost 80% of championship teams over the last two decades have dropped a game in the 1st round

Yes this is pure copium off an embarrassing loss but gotta chalk it up and move on to the next

You're right, but I think the fact that it was a home game is the issue here - at least for me. They finished regular season with an impressive 37-4 at home and I expected them to defend their home court for a while - in my opinion that's what title contenders are supposed to do. Instead they dropped it against injury depleted 8th seed. It's frustrating and disappointing. If they had gone up 2-0 or 3-0 and then dropped one away game I don't think reaction would be as strong as it's right now.

I don't think that should really matter.

I mean, if you win a series in 5 games...5 games is 5 games. 1 loss is 1 loss. i could care less whether the 1 loss was in boston, Miami or in Tokyo.

MIami beat us in both games 1 and 2 last season in Boston. So this is an improvement

[OpiumDose]

I know everyone is justifiably upset at the loss, believe me I am too. But I never expected the Celtics to sweep the Heat even without Butler & Rozier, the coaching advantage is just too lop-sided in their favor and this team is known for playing up/down to their competition

But just to put into perspective: Since the NBA switched to the best of 7 1st round series in 2003, only 5 of the 21 championship teams swept their first round opponent. In other words, almost 80% of championship teams over the last two decades have dropped a game in the 1st round

Yes this is pure copium off an embarrassing loss but gotta chalk it up and move on to the next

You're right, but I think the fact that it was a home game is the issue here - at least for me. They finished regular season with an impressive 37-4 at home and I expected them to defend their home court for a while - in my opinion that's what title contenders are supposed to do. Instead they dropped it against injury depleted 8th seed. It's frustrating and disappointing. If they had gone up 2-0 or 3-0 and then dropped one away game I don't think reaction would be as strong as it's right now.

I don't think that should really matter.

I mean, if you win a series in 5 games...5 games is 5 games. 1 loss is 1 loss. i could care less whether the 1 loss was in boston, Miami or in Tokyo.

MIami beat us in both games 1 and 2 last season in Boston. So this is an improvement

I mean statistically it does matter. It is harder to win on the road than it is at home - that's statistically proven fact. So of course it matters. It might not matter against injury depleted 8th seed (and I'm not 100% sure even about that) but it sure as hell will/would matter against any serious opponent that's also capable of defending their own home court - one dropped home game could easily decide the whole series.. So to me it matters - if we're dropping home games already against the 8th seed then it doesn't bode well for the future..

[zoyathedestroya]

You're right, but I think the fact that it was a home game is the issue here - at least for me. They finished regular season with an impressive 37-4 at home and I expected them to defend their home court for a while - in my opinion that's what title contenders are supposed to do. Instead they dropped it against injury depleted 8th seed. It's frustrating and disappointing. If they had gone up 2-0 or 3-0 and then dropped one away game I don't think reaction would be as strong as it's right now.

I don't think that should really matter.

I mean, if you win a series in 5 games...5 games is 5 games. 1 loss is 1 loss. i could care less whether the 1 loss was in boston, Miami or in Tokyo.

MIami beat us in both games 1 and 2 last season in Boston. So this is an improvement

I mean statistically it does matter. It is harder to win on the road than it is at home - that's statistically proven fact. So of course it matters. It might not matter against injury depleted 8th seed (and I'm not 100% sure even about that) but it sure as hell will/would matter against any serious opponent that's also capable of defending their own home court - one dropped home game could easily decide the whole series.. So to me it matters - if we're dropping home games already against the 8th seed then it doesn't bode well for the future..

If we even reach the Finals, dropping 1+ at home and trying to win Finals games in Denver’s altitude would be quite the challenge. (I do expect Nuggets to come out of West again.)

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

I didn't think Boston was going to sweep but I also didn't expect them to split at home to a play in team with 2 starters missing.
I feel like Boston never took this game seriously which has been an issue all year when they play teams that are missing guys and are worse than them.

Boston simply should not be dropping home games already to an undermanned 8th seed team especially with they themselves are completely healthy. Bostons home record in the playoffs is legit an issue and last nights loss should be a bit concerning.

[smith2373]

I didn't think Boston was going to sweep but I also didn't expect them to split at home to a play in team with 2 starters missing.
I feel like Boston never took this game seriously which has been an issue all year when they play teams that are missing guys and are worse than them.

Boston simply should not be dropping home games already to an undermanned 8th seed team especially with they themselves are completely healthy. Bostons home record in the playoffs is legit issue and last nights loss should be a bit concerning.

Based on the postgame comments it seems like the entire gameplan was to force the Heat to beat them from 3, and once the Heat actually started doing that, they had no plan B or adjustment. It’s like they said “Well these guys aren’t supposed to be good shooters so they’ll cool off” and it never happened

The fact that Joe and the players seem to think there was nothing wrong with their 3pt defense is deeply concerning. 37 wide open 3s in one game is nuts

[chrisab123]

2nd year in a row I'd rather have Caleb Martin than Jaylen Brown when it counts. How do the Heat keep finding guys like him and Robinson?

Caleb Martin is a horrific player vs other teams in the playoffs.

I agree but he gets up for the Celtics and becomes an allstar. Its a thing. If he played 82 games vs Boston, he'd be a max player.

[zoyathedestroya]

2nd year in a row I'd rather have Caleb Martin than Jaylen Brown when it counts. How do the Heat keep finding guys like him and Robinson?

Caleb Martin is a horrific player vs other teams in the playoffs.

I agree but he gets up for the Celtics and becomes an allstar. Its a thing. If he played 82 games vs Boston, he'd be a max player.

If you trade for him, he won't play against the Celtics anymore. Except in practices.

Are you trading for him so he can't hurt us any longer?

[ThePigeon]

This team is going to make me fall out of love with basketball.

This
Couldn't say it better

I am on the other side of the globe, waking up in the middle of the night to watch most Celtics games.
I can't stand it when they play soft and stupid. They have all the talent in the world but no game plan, sense of urgency and mean streak
80's team had it all

[FrodoFraggins]

Tatum just isn't that guy. No shame as he is still a great player but you at least need a coach who will hold his feet to the fire like Ime to get the best out of him. Not some JV coach who is on the spectrum

Tatum has no business ever being in the same sentence as Bird. He's soft and accepts losses too lightly. He's pretty much never fired up and can't motivate or carry the team.

Mazzula will never help the team overcome diversity or win games. He's not that guy either.

[BK_2020]

80s team dropped games in the first round against 36, 37 win teams all the time.

[Fencer reregistered]

I didn't think Boston was going to sweep but I also didn't expect them to split at home to a play in team with 2 starters missing.
I feel like Boston never took this game seriously which has been an issue all year when they play teams that are missing guys and are worse than them.

Boston simply should not be dropping home games already to an undermanned 8th seed team especially with they themselves are completely healthy. Bostons home record in the playoffs is legit issue and last nights loss should be a bit concerning.

Based on the postgame comments it seems like the entire gameplan was to force the Heat to beat them from 3, and once the Heat actually started doing that, they had no plan B or adjustment. It’s like they said “Well these guys aren’t supposed to be good shooters so they’ll cool off” and it never happened

The fact that Joe and the players seem to think there was nothing wrong with their 3pt defense is deeply concerning. 37 wide open 3s in one game is nuts

I'm generally a Mazzulla supporter, but this game is evidence for his critics.

If your gameplan fails for 2 quarters, make some changes to it at halftime. If not before.

[chrisab123]

Caleb Martin is a horrific player vs other teams in the playoffs.

I agree but he gets up for the Celtics and becomes an allstar. Its a thing. If he played 82 games vs Boston, he'd be a max player.

If you trade for him, he won't play against the Celtics anymore. Except in practices.

Are you trading for him so he can't hurt us any longer?

Pretty much. But who knows. The dude is tougher than anyone on this team so maybe he'd still be decent. They can't get past him so its addition by subtraction. Would I do Jaylen straight up for him? No. But Brown and Tatum has trouble vs this organization.

[chrisab123]

80s team dropped games in the first round against 36, 37 win teams all the time.

However those teams didn't drop those games to teams that routinely own them.

Ime is the only guy who solved the Miami issue. Miami owns Stevens and Mazzula. The Heat are more or less what the Pistons were to Jordan. They have to finally get over the Heat hump. Ime is no longer here.

[BK_2020]

80s team dropped games in the first round against 36, 37 win teams all the time.

However those teams didn't drop those games to teams that routinely own them.

Ime is the only guy who solved the Miami issue. Miami owns Stevens and Mazzula. The Heat are more or less what the Pistons were to Jordan. They have to finally get over the Heat hump. Ime is no longer here.

Are you kidding? Ime's team had some of the sloppiest games against Miami and it came down to Jimmy missing a wide open three.

[chrisab123]

80s team dropped games in the first round against 36, 37 win teams all the time.

However those teams didn't drop those games to teams that routinely own them.

Ime is the only guy who solved the Miami issue. Miami owns Stevens and Mazzula. The Heat are more or less what the Pistons were to Jordan. They have to finally get over the Heat hump. Ime is no longer here.

Are you kidding? Ime's team had some of the sloppiest games against Miami and it came down to Jimmy missing a wide open three.

Still did what the other two couldn't.

[PierceFan4ever]

Read on Twitter

**** like this pisses me off from Tatum sometimes. You’re the star, this is your team. Be better, be aggressive, be confident. Not gonna win anything with this style from our best player who disappears from time to time.

[CelticsPride18]

Read on Twitter

**** like this pisses me off from Tatum sometimes. You’re the star, this is your team. Be better, be aggressive, be confident. Not gonna win anything with this style from our best player who disappears from time to time.

Superstars wins games like last night games.

[celticgreenie]

My concern is not that they lost, but how they lost.

Several things, most touched on already:

Joe's seeming inability to react in real time:
We're facing a scrappy, dirty opponent - so why not find time for our scrappiest players? Oshae would help level the intensity/physicality deficit. Xavier, Springer, even Queta for limited minutes. But we'll live and die with 8.

Joe's inability to react extends to off/defense schemes. Others have spoken to this.

Joe not putting his players in a position to succeed - with respect to the schemes above, if players loses confidence in them and there are no adjustments then their intensity will flag. It's human nature when you feel like you're just shoveling sand against the tide.

Last thing I'll touch on is the weird passivity towards Miami dirty play, all 'stiff upper lip' ****. Why shouldn't Joe make a media discussion/storm out of Miami's questionable play? Put them and the league under the spotlight. If I were Joe I'd have catapulted on to the court when Bam wiped out DWhite on yet ANOTHER moving screen in game one, nevermind Martin's hipcheck.

The star players can be stoic, but the coach should be highlighting the illegal screens every chance he gets, for the press, the fans, the refs and the league - in part to have his players's back. I'll date myself but I remember Phil Jax claiming (falsely) that Dikembe deliberately put his face into Shaq's elbows to draw fouls - 'Deke leads with his beak.' Make Bam an issue, the podcasters will love chewing it over and it will trickle into the framing of the games. Highlighting Bam's moving screens has the additional virtue of being true.

I'd rather have a coach complain too much about the refs (Nick Nurse) than too little. It's gamemanship.

[The Corey's]

Y'all must of forgot that Miami thinks Brown can't dribble to his left.

Does Joe even have strategies that come from reviewing tape? I'm guessing it's bombs away all the way.