POST GAME MIAMI HEAT - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Dominant 95-78 Win Over Heat Gets Boston Back On Track

See what happens when good defense is played?


NESN by Alexandra Francisco

The Celtics needed Thursday night’s win over the Orlando Magic to get back on track, but following it up with a 85-78 win over the Miami Heat on the second night of a back-to-back? The world might not end in Boston now.

Boston improved to 4-5 with the win, while Miami falls to 6-2.


ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Those losses to bad teams were adding up, and this was the perfect trap game for the Miami Heat.

Despite Jayson Tatum not hitting his first field goal until the fourth quarter, he was the perfect analogy for what the Celtics can accomplish when they lock in on the other side of the ball. The Heat are one of the best teams in the NBA, especially on the defensive side, and Boston was able to match that energy and get out to as much as a 24-point lead. They had huge contributions from the bench, too, with Romeo Langford and Aaron Nesmith taking advantage of extra minutes with Josh Richardson out.

A big road win against a great team should do wonders for their morale.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Jaylen Brown left the game early with hamstring tightness but led a balanced offense with 17 points, five rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.

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— Al Horford remains a main-stay in this section, though he didn’t record a double-double for only the second time this season. He was close enough, though, with 10 points, seven rebounds, an assist and two blocks. And seeing him make this type of impact? Has age 35 ever looked better?

— The third star of the game could be awarded to a few players, with both Marcus Smart and Dennis Schröder playing great, but Langford and Nesmith both took advantage of extra playing time and the Celtics don’t win this game without the bench. Nesmith offered 13 points with three rebounds and an assist. Langford, meanwhile, had 12 points, two boards, an assist and had a single-game plus-minus of +25.

WAGER WATCH
If you thought Boston finally would have a bounce-back game against Miami, you had great odds. The Celtics were underdogs at +215 entering the game, so a $100 bet would have paid out $215, via DraftKings Sportsbook.

More Betting: NFL Week 9 Picks: Can Packers Upset Chiefs Without Aaron Rodgers?

UP NEXT
The Celtics continue their road trip and head out to Dallas to face the Mavericks on Saturday, with tip-off at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Balanced scoring and defense is a winning formula every time!

Growing pains are difficult to experience but eventually they all lead to the promise land!

Great job, keep it up!

112288

Brown with 17 points.
Tatum with 10 points.
Celtics win by 17 over a very good Miami team!

Celtics playing defense the way we thought they could. What a difference!

6 players in double figures = balanced attack

112288

The defense took over the game in the 2nd quarter, just smothered them and our guards and wings stayed on top of them for the most part and bigs did a great job clogging the lane. Horford and RWill had a lot of good plays providing good help defense and RWill getting his hands on alot of balls, 10 boards, 5 offensive in 24 minutes against Bam, a worthy all star was very encouraging. We took away everything their offense basically was used to doing, had no open lanes and we stayed right on them on perimeter, whenever whoever you passed to, was hard to even complete the pass and we would be right on them.

Shout out to Nesmith and Romeo, both playing fast and hard and adding to the defense and hitting a few key shots adding to the lead. If we can see these 2 kids playing fast and Romeo got a nice initiation against still loaded wing Jimmy Butler and didn’t back down, even had a nice block that they gave to Butler a bullsh!t vet call. Either way Butler couldn’t do enough of anything against our suddenly active attacking wings. Those 2 kids and Brown did enough to help carry us both ends to offset a strange bad game from Tatum where some plays he looked like he was sleepwalking.

Smart is gonna be getting so many open looks, he’s the new Rondo on how the defense defends him, take it Rondo!! If he starts hitting a few would be nice because they sure will be there. So our young guys RWill, AN and RL all really played well against their all stars. As did Al who’s really got a well rounded game and adds that veteran presence and smarts, shows me he still worked on his game all these years. I sure wasn’t expecting winning like this with those 3 young kids playing so good, enough to overcome Tatum. Where was this type of game before, been hiding?

I should have turned it off sooner, but I couldn't.  We were looking good, they were looking bad and so I hung in there until the last 2+ minutes.  It was fun.  Not so much now, it's 7:45am here and I couldn't get to sleep after I turned the game off at 4:52am, but as we all know you have to pay for your fun.  Today will be a "pony up" day for me.

The HEAT have the #2 defense in the NBA, giving up 99.2ppg going into last night.  Offensively they have the 6th best fg%, 6th best 3pt fg%, are 3rd in ftas (I see you, Jimmy Butler), 1st in rebounding and 1st in points per game @ 115.6ppg.  This is why they were #1 in the East at 6-1 heading into last night and tied with Utah for the best record in the league at 6-1.  This Miami HEAT team is a very good team this year despite having no real height.  Bam is athletic and long but he's not a classic NBA center.  Neither is Dwayne Dedmon.  The bad news is that they were able to lower their #1 defensive rating by holding us to 95 points.  The good news is that their #1 offense got absolutely, positively strangled.

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
yesterday
The #Celtics ranked 27th in defensive efficiency after Monday’s collapse against the Bulls. After holding the Heat and Magic both under 80 points, they have jumped up to 10th in defensive efficiency.

This tweet highlights why you shouldn't jump to conclusions based upon limited data.  It doesn't matter if it's stats or Cow's eyeballs.  Play a handful of games poorly early in the season and you look awful, then play a couple of games well after that handful and the stats, and Win-Loss record, will repair themselves quickly.  They can also backslide quickly too.

Chris Grenham @chrisgrenham
yesterday
The Celtics had held an opponent under 80 points just twice in the last five seasons entering this year. Boston has now done so in two straight games. Some really impressive defensive improvements of late.

Let's not forget this was a SEGABABA for us.  Furthermore, Miami has today off, so they weren't "looking past us" in a SEGABABA for them.  Yes, they play Utah at home on Saturday but that's a day away.  We won both games of our BA2BAs, both on the road and one of them an elite (as of now) team and that is very promising.  After our season start a lot can look .promising'.

Horford was great.  He was everywhere, involved with everything.  Not a great shooting night at 3-9 but he always seemed to be in the middle of every significant play, every meaningful run by us.  That 35-going-on-25 year old rumble down the lane for a dunk+1 (he missed the frito) with :38 left in the 3rd gutted them.  They had cut a 20 point lead down to 16 (72-56), making a good run, and Horford's slam set them back.  You could hear the crowd react.  A lot of Celtic fans in Miami cheered and the air went out of the HEAT fans.  

Despite the HEAT run in the middle of the 3rd quarter we ended up holding our own, 24-24, in that pivotal 3rd quarter and went into the 4th up 18.  After that it was all over except for the crying by Lowry.  He's a great player but I cannot wait until the whiny little baby retires.  He makes Marcus Smart look like Horatius at the Bridge (I know, I'm getting a little to classical here).

The game ball, however, goes to our bench.  This is what we've been expecting and have been hoping would appear.  Think they were aware that Brad Stevens and Steve Pagliucca were in attendance?

Schroder with 14 points and 6 assists in 30 minutes.  2 steals.  A very solid outing for Herr Schroder.  I'll take games like this anytime from him.

Aaron Nesmith with 13 points in 18 minutes.  5-8 shooting, 3-5 from 3.  We know he's been struggling, let's hope this game gives him his confidence back.  I was watching him closely on a couple of possessions.  He went to his spot on the floor, creating space, and then stood there with his feet set and his hands waiting for the pass as if he was in the gym getting fed balls by a coach.  This kid has the makings of Ray Allen-like discipline.

Marc D'Amico @celtics
yesterday
Aaron Nesmith: "I’m always prepared. So whenever my name is called, it’s not a shock to me just because I keep the same schedule every day. So whether I play or don’t play, I’m ready to play at all times."




Romeo Langford, the "non-shooter" of the bench with 12 points on 4-8.  He was 2-5 from 3.  It is way too soon to say but he is looking confident in his shot now.  His nose for the ball hasn't gone anywhere.  Let's remember he just turned 22 eleven days ago and has only played a grand total of 737 NBA minutes (I am not sure if that includes last night's game, but either way it isn't a big number).  He played 27 minutes last night, a BIG vote of confidence by Ime, and a lot of the time he was assigned to cover Jimmy Butler.  Butler played 38 minutes, had 20 points on 8-18.  A very good allround game for Romeo, both ends.  Solid offensive contributions and solid defense against a 5X All-Star who is 3" taller, 15# heavier, MUCH stronger and VERY good at getting to the line.

John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
yesterday
This, on his huge 3-pointer in the 3rd quarter that fought off the Miami Heat, is such a Romeo Langford quote: "I didn't even know that was a big shot. I was just shooting, just playing the game and letting it come to me. It does feel good to see things go my way."

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
yesterday
Ime Udoka on sticking with bench unit for big minutes: "We wanted to reward them for how well they were playing."


Marc D'Amico
Marc D'Amico @celtics
yesterday
Coach Udoka says he was encouraged by how our defense limited the Heat in transition and, “The bench scoring is what brought it home for us.”


The Js were a combined 8-27.  Brown 5-14 and Tatum 3-13.  Tatum, in particular, couldn't throw the ball in the ocean from the end of South Pointe Pier.  While disturbing as all Hell during the game the silver lining here is that we still won and we didn't need them to do it.  What we need now is consistency from our bench.  They need to go out there every game and play like this.  If they do that we're going to be very tough because the Js will right their ships (especially Tatum).  Jaylen Brown left the game last night with a tight hamstring.  Let's watch this closely.

Kyle Lowry also went down at the last play of the 3rd quarter courtesy of an absolute world-class flop by his own teammate Duncan Robinson.  Lowry hopped all the way from the court down the runway to the locker room.  I don't cheer when opposing players get hurt, I prefer beating them when they are at their best, but this is flop by Robinson is positively vaudevillian.




The Miami HEAT bombardiers, Robinson and Herro, went a combined 5-21 from 3.  Duncan Robinson took 17 shots, hitting 5.  Duncan Robinson took 17 3pt fgas and hit 5 of them.  Has there ever been a more 3pt fgas-centric player in the NBA?  17 fgas, every single one of them a 3.  He has now taken 72 3pt fgas this season and has hit 24 of them.  That's a 33.3% rate.  NOT that good.  Prolific, but inefficient.  Herro's 3pt fg% is now "down" to 37.7% after last night.  That's about league average.

John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
yesterday
Ime Udoka gets his first technical foul as a head coach

Assistant coaches rarely get T's.  Understanding that pushing back at the refs, as well as using a T (or even an ejection) as a motivator for his players, is part of Ime's growth as a coach.  Last night marked a milestone for him.

We're now 4-5.  Still under .500 but we also lost some tough games in OT that were quite winnable, that's how it is when you get to OT.  Perhaps more importantly, we are 4-2 on the road.  Good teams, in general, but especially good playoff teams win on the road.  Another point is that we have played 9 games total and 6 of them have been on the road.  That will even itself out over time.  We just need to start winning at home.  Now we're off to Dallas, who are 5-3.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401359945




Bob


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Can we play all of our games on the road?

In Nesmith's first bucket he puts a move on his man and takes it to the hole.  As Scal correctly points out Grant did a great job of sealing his man off from helping out on defense.  That man was Tyler Herro, who couldn't get around Grant to get in front of Nesmith.  Then, Herro started complaining to the ref, throwing his arms out wide like Jayson Tatum, about how he couldn't reach Nesmith because of Grant.  They are SUCH a bunch of complainers and whiners.







Bob


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Definitely had a couple of thoughts.

1)  All downhill.  Both Ends.  I just checked the FT's 17-20.  It seemed like 37-40.  We weren't getting And 1's but we were going to the line quite a lot it felt like.  Also, Gang Rebounding on their end.  There was multiple plays where there were 4 of us fighting for a rebound.

2)  Miami house of cards imploding.  It was obvious from the get go MIA had already notched this game in the win column before the game started.  While Spoelstra is a great coach, he always has that smug look of superiority on his face.  Without looking, now I have to check exactly who they played to get to 6-1.  They beat the Bucks, Nets (sans Kyrie) and the Mavs for teams +.500 and lost to us and Pacers, beat the Magic, Hawks and Grizzles for below .500 teams.  Not enough there to make my point.  But they sure fell apart in a hurry last night.  Eat it, Spoelstra.  You're team ain't that good.  MIA was MIA.    

3)  I should have discovered this and said before the game so I don't have to invoke the "hindsight is 20/20" clause, but if we came out and laid an egg against MIA, then all the hoopla about the big "Player's Only" meeting would be total bull$hit and we'd be in for a long season.  I don't know what was said, who said what, etc. but it worked.  Let's just leave that meeting at that.

4)  Did you see the "No man left behind" mentality in the 4th quarter?  JT couldn't throw it in the ocean for 3 quarters.  Then either the coach or the players or both said, JT you're going to get it going.  We'll set you up.  Here's the ball.  Now get on it!

Now it was at a point in the game where if he did keep throwing up bricks a few more times, it wouldn't hurt us too badly, but he put up 10 in a hurry.  I thought that was impressive.  Nothing would damage JT's psyche more than winning that game and contributing absolutely nothing on the scoreboard.  Way to fight through that JT and way to act like a team Boston.  We either all win this game (and every game!) together or not at all.  Look out Mavs.  Expect 50 from JT if he caught that message in MIA.  

5)  If we can play defense like that against the best in the league, the prognosticators might want to reset their sights on us.  That was uncomfortable defense.  Uncomfortable for the opposing team to have to watch and being on the receiving end of it.  Eat that, too, Spoelstra.  

db

Looking like the anticipated starting lineup with RWIII, Horford, and 6th man Schroeder is the one capable of playing some D and getting a few boards.

It’s basketball. Small-ball lineups only work in small measures, against selective matchups, and with big front courts ready to rotate in. Have your bigs shoot from range to stretch the floor all you want, but if they can’t pack it inside and get the job done down low, you lose. Keep it going and keep the search for bigs going.

Nice couple of games in the sunshine state. Play like this and the team will get out of the basement. If there really is anything to Smart calling out Tatum and Brown, he’s even more my favorite current Celtic.

Loving the defense. Jaylen in the middle of a lot of it. Al too, of course.




Bob


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One game but a good game for the Green. Actually two good games in a row with defensive intensity leading the way. I was very encouraged by Tatum’s defensive intensity despite being in a shooting slump.,If that mentality is lasting he’s on his way to quite possibly being that next level player this, or any team seeking a championship, needs.

So apparently the demise of the Celtics has been greatly exaggerated.

Last night they went out and flipped the script on the Heat.  I shared a laundry list of things the Heat have been doing well.  I believed the Celtics could take a few things away from them.

Boston took away their fast break by limiting them to just 5 points.  Boston also matched them on the glass and actually won that battle 46-45.  They outshot them at the line and also shut their 3 point shooting down (22.%)

The Heat entered the game with lofty numbers at both ends of the court.  They were shell shocked after the game.

This was a fully engaged defensive effort by Boston.  The Heat were leading the league in opponents FG % at 39.7% and we held them to 34.6%.

The Celtics did not have a great offensive night but they did manage to shoot 39% from deep.  

We got a tremendous boost off the bench from both Aaron and Romeo.  Dennis also played an important role off the bench.

Our bench (45) points killed their bench (20) points.

Jayson Tatum continues to struggle on offense (3-13) but he did grab 8 boards and he played solid defense.  I mentioned in the game on thread that they need to set some screens for him to get him some catch and shoot opportunities.  Right now he is pretty much in an ISO set and teams are bum rushing him and loading up when he touches the ball.  He is playing like a guy who has lost his confidence.  His last 5 games including the 2 matchups with Washington he has shot 40.9, 31.3, 36.4, 25.0 and 23.1% from the field last night.

Romeo Langford and Aaron Nesmith are both better shooters than Josh Richardson.   I think you can play all 3 of them off the bench.  

Shout out to Robert Williams who had 10 rebounds including 5 offensive.  He had 2 steals and seems to get his hands on a lot of loose balls.  He was 2-3 last night as the Celtics do not get him enough opportunities to score.

As the Celtics climb back into the thick of things, great defense must be the foundation for this team.

I'm starting to like Ime's switch everything defense better, maybe because it's being executed better. We fans have a tendency to cry wolf, possibly because we can't affect the outcome.The players, on the other hand, are focusing on improving, not the media orgy.When I say "we fans", I may be projecting. This fan has emotional ups and downs that the players and coaches can't afford.