Celtics set tone with defense in Game 1 win over Heat but see room for improvement

Juices were flowing at the start of Game 1. The Boston Celtics kicked off the game with a Jayson Tatum miss and an offensive rebound which led to a Jaylen Brown three. On their very next possession, Brown got the ball again, spun baseline around Jamie Jaquez Jr., and threw down a thunderous slam.

TD Garden erupted.

A 9-0 run to start the game forced Erik Spoelstra to call an early timeout. As shot after shot fell for Boston, the crowd got louder and louder. But their early-game shot-making wasn’t what led the charge.

It was their defense.

As the Celtics offense hummed, everything the Heat got on the other end was difficult. Bam Adebayo was forced to take contested middies, Tyler Herro jacked up step-back threes from two feet behind the arc, and Jaquez drove into a contested paint, getting blocked along the way.

Joe Mazzulla has stressed the importance of holding teams to 25-point quarters all year. In Game 1, the Heat tallied 21, 24, and 14 points in the first three frames, respectively.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s just the process. Those are just a range of numbers, and it’s just a process of how to get those,” Mazzulla said. “Keeping them out of transition, keeping them off the glass, keeping them on the free-throw line, [and] having good offensive execution. So, again, it’s about doing the most simple things under higher duress, and that’s the key to winning.”

Through three, the Heat only had four fastbreak points, four offensive rebounds, and six free-throw attempts. Meanwhile, Boston was shooting 33/69 (47.8%) from the field and 19/43 (44.2%) from deep.

The Celtics’ defensive dominance was a team effort, but Jrue Holiday stood out. He made Tyler Herro’s life impossible by preventing him from getting to his spots and pulling up. Herro finished the night shooting 4/13 from the field with two turnovers.

“Jrue’s ability to just stick to a game plan but, at the same time, use his instincts is huge for us,” said Mazzulla. “And so, he did a great job on that throughout the game, staying with him, and making it difficult. And we need him to continue to do that. So, [we] got off to a great start defensively with his effort.”

Miami’s 14-point third quarter was the highlight of Boston’s efforts, as the Heat shot just 6/21 (28.6%) from the floor and 2/14 (14.3%) from distance.

Their rotations were crisp, their communication was beautiful, and their close-outs were almost perfect. Even when they slipped up and allowed an open three to Nikola Jovic with around four minutes to go in the third, they made up for the misstep on the very next possession by forcing a 24-second violation.

From the opening tip to the end of the third, everywhere the Heat looked, there was a Celtics defender in their face.

But when the fourth came around, Boston was met with a challenge.

As they rested on the laurels of a 32-point lead, the Heat made a late charge. The Celtics’ defensive intensity waned as Miami shot a scorching 13/14 to open the frame.

The Heat got within 14 points, but that was it. The Celtics bent but never broke.

“I think it was important how the third quarter went for us. I think that was a big key for us. Of course, again, we can find moments like in that fourth, right? We weren’t perfect,” said Kristaps Porzingis. “We kind of, maybe, took our foot off the gas just a little bit, and any team is dangerous [if] they start making shots. And then it’s like, ‘Okay.’

“But we stayed calm, and we managed to put the game away and keep that separation that we had built up throughout the game.”

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Learning from mistakes is the only way forward. That’s the approach Boston has taken when they’ve faced any type of adversity this season, and that’s what the fourth quarter provided them with.

Miami couldn’t miss in the fourth quarter, but at the same time, the Celtics’ heads weren’t in the game the same way they were through the first three quarters.

“Well, we had four turnovers and then had seven in the fourth quarter, so I would say that points off turnovers [led to that],” Mazzulla said. “Six points on off-ball defense communication, and some of them, they made some shots there. So, I would say 70/30 [was stuff that] we can control.”

And while their defensive pressure may not have been ideal, their offensive process maintained its composure.

“I thought we kept a level of poise,” said Mazzulla. “And even after some of those runs, [we] just [kept] getting to our spacing. You can always tell if you manage a run well by the shots you take at the other end, and I thought we took really good shots even throughout most of that run.

“We come out of the timeout, Derrick hits a three, Al hits a three, and I think we got a layup that we missed, which is good execution, [we] just didn’t make it. So, to me, managing runs has to do with just figuring out where it’s at defensively and then fighting for the good shot on offense. So, I thought we did that pretty well.”

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Boston’s defense earned them a 1-0 series lead. They shot the three-ball well, but their ability to control Miami’s offensive flow completely dictated the outcome of the game.

With Jimmy Butler sidelined, the Heat don’t have a go-to offensive failsafe. Adebayo is an All-Star, but he’s not a renowned shot-creator. Holiday enforced his will onto Herro, mitigating his effectiveness. Jaquez had an efficient scoring night, but Boston would be more than comfortable letting his contested layups be Miami’s best source of offense in this series.

But for as great as the Celtics played, they still want to get better. They still need to get better. And that’s what matters more than anything.

“The balance is having the ability to do it even better,” Mazzulla said of the Celtics’ overall approach. “So, eleven turnovers, got them on the shot margin, didn’t foul, and held them to five offensive rebounds. So, the adjustment is [to] do it better. Do it with more physicality. You gotta be ready to do that.”

Delon Wright’s fourth-quarter three-point barrage quieted the vigor of Boston’s defensive showing. Miami never got close to mounting a full-on comeback, but the momentum they gathered was enough to create a moment of pause for the TD Garden crowd.

As the Heat showed flashes of the same team that took down the Celtics in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, the collective heart of Boston stopped for a brief moment.

But that’s not how the Celtics themselves interpreted the moment.

In reality, the Heat hit some shots, and Boston took their foot off the gas. The former is out of the Celtics’ total control, but the latter is not. And they plan to utilize Miami’s run to their advantage.

“I think we have to take that moment when they [started] to make that comeback [and] use that as that driving force for us going forward,” Porzingis said. “Like, they can make shots, they can throw some punches back, too, and they’re dangerous too.

“So, we cannot just take it for granted and be like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna just be able to walk past them.’ So, just maintaining that healthy edge for us going forward is going to be very important.”