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The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make?

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The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#1 » by OldCeltics » Thu Sep 17, 2020 4:51 am

Ainge comments on Game 1:
https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2020/09/16/danny-ainge-celtics-criticism-eastern-conference-finals-heat

The Heat have 5 players shooting near 40% from 3 (Crowder/Hero/Butler/Robinson/Dragic). We have one of the best 3pt defenses in the league. We should be good right? No, because the Heat have Bam on the inside and Butler/Dragic and others drive, distribute and get us in foul trouble. Their bench clearly outplayed us, and they did trap Kemba quite effectively.


Adjustment Blueprint:

1. Butler is certainly an all-around offensive weapon but its Dragic that initiates most of their offense. Double him, trap him, put Smart and 1 other player on him, whenever he thinks about driving the lane. Similar to what their doing with Kemba.

2. Collapse the defense on drives, always have Theis/Williams guarding the rim, and zone the 3pt shots, and if they get open looks, just have to live with it. Let them live and die by the 3.

3. On offense Kemba needs the ball in his hands to get going. This guy can easily go off for 40+ points, and 8 assists. Set multiple picks, let him run plays. If they double team him, pass out of the double team, everyone cut to the rim.

4. Get back on defense. Heat like to run and get easy buckets. This is all effort.

5. On offense, less 1 on 1, and more passing, ball moves faster than players, and passing around gets the opponents tired. Also drive to the rim more. Get Bam in foul trouble. Don't let him intimidate you.

6. Stevens going small late in the game just didn't work. It worked against Toronto, but it will not work against the Heat. Not with Bam in there, not with their driving ability. We need an interior presence at all times. If that means resurrecting Enes Kanter for 15 min as 3rd big then do it.

7. Hayward can give us a scoring boost off the bench, but he won't be in game shape right away and not available yet.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments will Stevens make? 

Post#2 » by The Corey's » Thu Sep 17, 2020 6:09 am

Boston in 6. Gotta believe.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#3 » by captain green » Thu Sep 17, 2020 9:35 pm

It's crowder that needs to be contained brown played Butler pretty heads up. Can't sag off the shooters. But overall Make your shots
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#4 » by jfs1000d » Thu Sep 17, 2020 9:49 pm

Didn’t find them scary at all.


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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#5 » by wco81 » Fri Sep 18, 2020 1:53 am

No answer for the Dragic and Bam pick and roll in the third quarter.

Robinson had hit 3 or 4 3-pointers in the first half so Brown stuck to him out on the corners or wings.

That means Bam dived to the basket pretty much unchallenged.


Then two big hustle plays with Butler getting deflections and chasing them down. On the first one, there were 4 Heat players across half court and only one Celtic back.

Kamba had a good shooting game but worked to create that shot and Tatum still likes to take difficult contested step back or side step jumpers.

But once Miami went zone, Celtics couldn’t consistently penetrate. They did it once or twice. But Heat caught up playing 2man game on one end and zone on the other end.

Tough losses for Celtics to lose two close games.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#6 » by nbalive2005 » Fri Sep 18, 2020 2:28 am

For the Bam pick and rolls we just have to give them different looks. Blitz them, drop them, hedge them, switch them sometimes.

Ideally, we need more communication so we can ICE those PnRs and give their guards an open midrange jumper, much better than a Bam dunk or an open three in the corner.

I would even try and put Brown or Tatum as the primary ball defender on Dragic, this would allow us to switch the Bam pick and rolls much easier since they can do a decent job defending Bam's roll. I would live with Kemba permanently on Crowder and Robinson since they're not threats to put the ball on the floor or post up. Just have to make sure Kemba's locked in and chasing them around screens
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#7 » by Green89 » Fri Sep 18, 2020 2:48 am

We played better with Grant at the 5 early in the fourth, and then things fell apart when Theis came back in. More Grant would be nice. He apparently has a lot of experience against him, too.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#8 » by hugepatsfan » Fri Sep 18, 2020 3:03 am

Overall defense has been fine. Can’t play Kanter against Bam because they just P&R us to death like everyone else.

I think the biggest adjustment could be Ainge getting some more offensively passable bench players. It’s just a lot of work chasing Miami around screens. That’s tiring. If we could shorten the stunts of guys on the court I think that would help. But you can’t run lineups that have a bunch of non shooters out there which is all we got.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#9 » by WeLikeOurGuys » Fri Sep 18, 2020 3:09 am

We really need Hayward in that middle of the zone,
He can shoot that midrange shot or make the right play.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#10 » by celticfan42487 » Fri Sep 18, 2020 4:02 am

The Bam pick and roll proved unstopable for Theis and Kanter.

The only adjustment is to replace Robert Williams block head with Grant Williams "I've played basketball before" head.

Then you'd have someone athletic enough to "sag" against Bam on the roll and get in his jumping zone for the alley oop so he can't actually elevate BUT ALSO athletic enough to fly and still put in a good contest on Dragic when he counters that sag defense with his standard floater or layup.


The counter is waiting a year and giving Stevens options off the bench in the end. Can't get water from a rock. He needs half of the options that Nurse and Spo are enjoying going against him in these two series.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#11 » by Celtic Esquire » Fri Sep 18, 2020 4:44 am

None. This isn’t college ball anymore and Steven’s is in over his head.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#12 » by threrf23 » Fri Sep 18, 2020 9:37 am

Should we be trying to make Jae Crowder beat us?

The Heat were 5-16 this season when Jae attempted more than six threes. This is despite that he shot 40% from 3 during these games.

They were also 3-6 when he hit more than 3 free throws, and 9-23 when his usage percentage was above 16%.

In the postseason so far, when his usage percentage is above 20%, the Heat are 0-1 and lose by an average of three points (Jae shot 6-12 from 3 in that game). Between 18% and 20%, the Heat are 2-0 and win by an average of 2.5 points. When his usage percentage is 16.6%, the Heat are 2-0 and win by an average margin of 7. When his usage percentage is below 16.6%, the Heat are 6-0 and win by an average margin of 11+ points.

Basically, statistically, Jae's offensive usage directly correlates with the Heat's success (or lack thereof). Why? I guess the Heat's offensive prowess relies on passing, and making the right decision. Jae's not a selfish player but he's a role player, doesn't have the offensive intangibles of Duncan Robinson, and doesn't have the talent of his teammates.

It's a stretch to propose that we ignore him completely, but IMO, our weakest defender should be assigned to him, and we shouldn't switch anyone onto him if he sets a pick. It seems unintuitive, since he will occasionally make us pay, but maybe it takes them away from what is more effective.

Otherwise...turn around point in tonight's game was in the third, where Bam was scoring at will, where we lost what otherwise might have been a relatively easy win. It is easy to blame Kanter, but they weren't picking on him so much as they were picking on whoever would switch onto Bam. And Bam was similarly getting easy buckets in the paint first half of game 1, with Kanter on the bench.

It feels to me like Bam would be averaging 40 ppg the way we are defending him, but that Spo is holding out on that strategy until he feels it is needed. Brad needs to be prepared to adjust to that on a dime IMO.

celticfan42487 wrote:The Bam pick and roll proved unstopable for Theis and Kanter.

The only adjustment is to replace Robert Williams block head with Grant Williams "I've played basketball before" head.


You can play the pick and roll differently, even if you keep the same personnel.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#13 » by Darthlukey » Fri Sep 18, 2020 9:55 am

nbalive2005 wrote:For the Bam pick and rolls we just have to give them different looks. Blitz them, drop them, hedge them, switch them sometimes.

Ideally, we need more communication so we can ICE those PnRs and give their guards an open midrange jumper, much better than a Bam dunk or an open three in the corner.

I would even try and put Brown or Tatum as the primary ball defender on Dragic, this would allow us to switch the Bam pick and rolls much easier since they can do a decent job defending Bam's roll. I would live with Kemba permanently on Crowder and Robinson since they're not threats to put the ball on the floor or post up. Just have to make sure Kemba's locked in and chasing them around screens

Agree with this, seemed like a waste having brown on robinson
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#14 » by djFan71 » Fri Sep 18, 2020 10:33 am

Darthlukey wrote:
nbalive2005 wrote:For the Bam pick and rolls we just have to give them different looks. Blitz them, drop them, hedge them, switch them sometimes.

Ideally, we need more communication so we can ICE those PnRs and give their guards an open midrange jumper, much better than a Bam dunk or an open three in the corner.

I would even try and put Brown or Tatum as the primary ball defender on Dragic, this would allow us to switch the Bam pick and rolls much easier since they can do a decent job defending Bam's roll. I would live with Kemba permanently on Crowder and Robinson since they're not threats to put the ball on the floor or post up. Just have to make sure Kemba's locked in and chasing them around screens

Agree with this, seemed like a waste having brown on robinson

Seems similar to what we did successfully against Siakam and Lowry.
I think the idea was to see if Romeo could stick with Robinson but he got hurt again before we could find out.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#15 » by Maple Green » Fri Sep 18, 2020 12:27 pm

Miami expose the weakness of Celtics, that is No prominable center and no player can guard Adebayo at this series.
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The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#16 » by jfs1000d » Fri Sep 18, 2020 12:52 pm

We need to destroy that zone with 5 shooters in the floor.

Walker
Smart
Hayward
Tatum
Brown

Hell. Go zone ourselves with that team out there. Zone defense see is ridiculous. Good job by Spo using it because they can’t guard us in man to man.


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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#17 » by nbalive2005 » Fri Sep 18, 2020 10:57 pm

jfs1000d wrote:We need to destroy that zone with 5 shooters in the floor.

Walker
Smart
Hayward
Tatum
Brown

Hell. Go zone ourselves with that team out there. Zone defense see is ridiculous. Good job by Spo using it because they can’t guard us in man to man.


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We can't play five out with the heat's zone. Passing lanes are too crowded with Heat's length and there'd be even less spacing with 5 guys out. We had multiple possessions with Smart, Brown, Tatum and Walker on the 3pt line and we were getting killed just passing the ball around the perimeter like a hot potato.

This series is really showing the weakness of not having a viable big man who can put pressure inside. Kanter can but he's almost unplayable on defense.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#18 » by OldCeltics » Sat Sep 19, 2020 3:46 am

nbalive2005 wrote:
jfs1000d wrote:We need to destroy that zone with 5 shooters in the floor.

Walker
Smart
Hayward
Tatum
Brown

Hell. Go zone ourselves with that team out there. Zone defense see is ridiculous. Good job by Spo using it because they can’t guard us in man to man.


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We can't play five out with the heat's zone. Passing lanes are too crowded with Heat's length and there'd be even less spacing with 5 guys out. We had multiple possessions with Smart, Brown, Tatum and Walker on the 3pt line and we were getting killed just passing the ball around the perimeter like a hot potato.

This series is really showing the weakness of not having a viable big man who can put pressure inside. Kanter can but he's almost unplayable on defense.


The answer to that is simple, drive the lanes, and create shots for yourself or team mates.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#19 » by nic4747 » Sun Sep 20, 2020 4:29 am

OldCeltics wrote:
nbalive2005 wrote:
jfs1000d wrote:We need to destroy that zone with 5 shooters in the floor.

Walker
Smart
Hayward
Tatum
Brown

Hell. Go zone ourselves with that team out there. Zone defense see is ridiculous. Good job by Spo using it because they can’t guard us in man to man.


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We can't play five out with the heat's zone. Passing lanes are too crowded with Heat's length and there'd be even less spacing with 5 guys out. We had multiple possessions with Smart, Brown, Tatum and Walker on the 3pt line and we were getting killed just passing the ball around the perimeter like a hot potato.

This series is really showing the weakness of not having a viable big man who can put pressure inside. Kanter can but he's almost unplayable on defense.


The answer to that is simple, drive the lanes, and create shots for yourself or team mates.


That seemed to be the answer,

1. Drive to the hoop in the spaces between the zone defenders.
2. Drive against Duncan Robinson and be physical with him.
3. Tons of activity on the baseline, cutting, driving, etc.
4. Using Hayward's excellent passing on the nail to under the hoop and out to the 3 pt line.
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Re: The Heat look scary on offense. What adjustments can Stevens make? 

Post#20 » by zoyathedestroya » Sun Sep 20, 2020 9:40 am

Read on Twitter


Scheme-wise? Not much. So I won't credit Stevens for the game 3 win just like I didn't criticize him much for the 2 losses. The mentality and approach of the players on offense changed. That's it. Attack, attack, attack. Attack early and find the gaps in the defense, whether with or without the ball. Make the defense shift with the dribble, pass, and body movement. Find the next open guy. Don't settle for jumpers. None of that are X's and O's.

On defense, I thought we focused our attention on Dragic more by putting Smart on him and hiding Kemba on Crowder. We were able to switch everything with Hayward and Grant. Didn't mind Bam beating us as long as the rest of their offense didn't hum. Without Herro's absurd 2nd quarter and Robinson's late game heroics, this would've been more than an 11-point win. But again, this was mostly better effort, focus, and communication between the players on the floor and not some major scheme shift cooked up by Brad.

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