In losing Game 1, the Celtics learned once again that the unseen forces of basketball—momentum, confidence, and intensity—are all under their control.
Game 1 tends to feel a lot more slick, and although the Celtics have faced the Heat in two of the last three Eastern Conference Finals, these versions of the teams are different from years past.
The main players are the same. Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown continue to make headlines in Boston. Jimmy Butler and Marcus Smart are still members of the mutual crush club. Al Horford, Bam Adebayo, and Robert Williams remain wildcards in the frontcourt. Head coach Erik Spoelstra remains one of the greatest tacticians and motivators on the NBA sidelines.
However, there is a new face on Boston’s bench. Despite some familiarity with Spoelstra and Heat dating back on the bubble, this is the first time Joe Mazzola has been in the driver’s seat after Brad Stephens and Emi Odoka were at the helm in Orlando and the Championship last year respectively.
And after losing Game 1 that included a 46-25 run in the third quarter, the Celtics coach had a lot to answer for after his team not only gave up the home-court advantage, but seemed shell-shocked after two straight series as they seemed to fumble away games, especially in TD. garden.
“There were moments when we played well. There were moments when we executed and there were moments when we didn’t,” Mazzola said after a long photo session and light practice on Thursday. “This series is a test of discipline, a test of mentality, and we have to be more detailed in our efforts and our consistency.”
Mazzola emphasized his team’s attention to detail and the spaces between them, not the lineup on the ground. After pressure from personnel decisions such as bringing Payton Pritchard into the rotation and not returning to Grant Williams, Mazzola was wary about the move.
“We’ve developed the identity this year to play a bunch of different ways. We can’t look at it as ‘this way versus that way’. We have a lot of depth. We have a lot of variety and diversity. We have to be able to use that and have fun with it.”
We can all guess about Mazzola’s decisions. It’s easy to think that the path the Celtics didn’t choose would have led to victory and that the easiest player is the one who didn’t play. We’ll never know what the butterfly effect would have been like if Williams had seen Earth, but Mazzola clearly had his reasons.
“I love his shooting. I love his aggression,” Mazzola said of Pritchard’s use as a third goalkeeper off the bench. “I love his ability to change momentum and energy when he’s in the game. I think he brings a level of physicality to our defense that plays an important role in this series.”
Tactically speaking, there are areas they can tackle as well. Defensively, they went strong and assigned Al Horford and Jason Tatum to defend Butler instead of going with Marcus Smart and/or Jaylen Brown. Transitional defense and finding shooters in the half court were areas of concern.
And after scoring 40 points in the paint in the first half, Boston hit more threes in the second half with a more familiar shooting profile they’re used to.
“They switched defenses, they changed more in the second half, and switching defenses slows you down,” Mazzola said of the adjustments between the first and second half on Wednesday.
But the head coach knows it’s more about intent and execution.
“You have to fight for your distance. You have to fight for advantages. You have to fight for creating separation. To be able to make the adjustment to how we play versus one defense versus switch defense is important and we just have to fight for that. We can generate these triples by creating this separation, by creating advantages.”
In the end, if Game 1 is a reconnaissance mission, it’s probably the most important intelligence Boston has collected on themselves. Miami-Boston III is a mental war, but you have to wonder how much of a fight is going on inside their heads. Horford realized this when training got a little loose before the opener and they gave up some ground. Derek White saw it on the floor on Wednesday.
“It’s all connected. You let anyone see the ball go a few times on easy stuff – their confidence is high,” White said.
Players and coaches have admitted that they only respond when they stand up against the proverbial wall, and tonight’s game will be more of an inside check than anything else.
The common narrative is that the Celtics are simply more talented. They are younger, more athletic, and if they try harder, they will win against underdog heat. Sounds Bites fits within the framework of that story so far and some of that may be true. A higher level of focus could have affected a handful of possessions and perhaps even the outcome of the first game.
However, that’s a dangerous mindset to have because of all the guts about the Heat and Jimmy Butler, Boston culture It just has to be better, a period. Mindset definitely goes a long way, but in the end, just win the game.