1. An inauspicious start for Miami, Boston jumping out to a 9-0 and eventually a 17-2 lead getting a little bit of everything inside and out. But Boston’s greatest strength, their historic shooting, can also leave them vulnerable for extended stretches, so while the Celtics were taking nearly 70 percent of their shots from the arc, a cold stretch gave Miami a little life, Bam Adebayo working the mid-range against Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford as his team tried to work transition opportunities out of long rebounds. Only a five-point game after one quarter, Miami at a disadvantage when it comes to shot profile, getting pushed into more mid-range shots than usual.
There’s a reason Miami only used 15 possessions of zone in three games against the Celtics this year. Kevin Love made the most of his stretch, scoring seven points on 3-of-3 shooting, but with five shooters on the floor the Celtics were producing open looks against the zone, Sam Hauser setting up on the weakside as he drained four catch-and-shoot looks to push Boston up double digits again. No fear from either Nikola Jovic or Jaime Jaquez Jr. – still working his shoulders into chests and spinning his way towards the rim – and Adebayo continued to do his job as Boston elected to single cover his isolations, but those threes kept Miami at a math disadvantage, with Jayson Tatum’s mid-range work keeping things moving along. Down 15 at the break, Boston with a 130 Offensive Rating, was a workable score, especially with the HEAT just 3-of-14 from deep, but with Boston pulling in some offensive boards to win the possession battle, keeping turnovers down, Miami was looking for something more than make-or-miss to keep them attached.
Jaquez Jr. kept coming in the third, weaving his way through the entire Boston defense for a coast-to-coast layup, but Boston’s offense wasn’t slowed as they hovered right around their season averages from deep, open look after open look. You could find bright spots on Miami’s part, but even as they were successful in slowing the game down a bit they were having trouble keeping up on the offensive end. Before the end of the third, a Derrick White three had the Celtics up 32, Miami’s Offensive Rating sitting below 90 after just two field goals in the last eight minutes of the period.
Three straight threes from Delon Wright to open the fourth as they played it out, Miami earning easy cuts and open looks to cut the lead. By the time Wright hit his fifth three, tying his career high, the lead was down to 15 with four minutes to go. Soon after an Adebayo three made it 14 to make it interesting, but time ran out soon after, Boston taking Game 1, 114-94.
2. Boston shot 44 percent from three and are now 37-1 this season when topping 40 percent. Such is their offense. What Miami is going to want to take a look at on tape – we don’t have Shot Quality data yet as of this writing – is what kind of threes they were giving up. Tatum (23 points on 18 shots, 10 assists) only shot 1-of-8, after all, so this wasn’t one of those instances where he’s unconscious going one-on-one, getting to his stepback. Aside from a Porzingis step-back in the second half, most of Boston’s deep looks were of the catch-and-shoot variety, especially true whenever Miami was in zone. Part of the HEAT’s upset in last season’s Eastern Conference Finals was getting the Celtics to turn in a number of cold shooting nights, and as much variance exists in those deep shots the defense absolutely has a way to influence the make-or-miss. The good news was that after being at a major math disadvantage in the first half, trading mid-range looks for Boston’s threes, Miami’s deep volume started climbing in the second half to get them to a 43 percent frequency. You aren’t always going to get Delon Wright matching his career high, five threes, in a single quarter like he did in the fourth, but the HEAT’s profile looked a bit more to their standards, particularly without Jimmy Butler, later on.
To that note, however, the crux of this matchup might be in how Boston is choosing to defend Adebayo right now – which so far is the same as they always have. Adebayo played well, scoring 24 points on 17 attempts including 9-of-15 shooting on non-rim two pointers, but many of those were static possessions, Adebayo attacking one-on-one and the Celtics choosing to defend one-on-one. In other words, where many teams have opted to send a variety of help coverages at Adebayo and Butler in previous months, the Celtics take the opposite tactic, living with what Adebayo can create for himself rather than tilt their own defensive shape and risk getting into rotations. With Miami’s lack of available shot creation at the moment, they’ll need more of this from Adebayo, but it will be interesting to follow whether or not Boston ever adjusts if he sustains this efficiency.
3. Jaime Jaquez Jr. scoring 16 points on 15 shots wouldn’t be something to write home about during the regular season, but on the road in your first playoff game against a No. 1 seed that’s about as encouraging a performance as you can get. Yes, there were some possessions where Boston simply didn’t pick up the ball as Jaquez Jr. got right to the cup, or where the defense lost him on a cut, but there were also possessions where Jaquez Jr. initiated contact, kept his dribble alive and got himself to the rim or, at the very least, into the paint.
Just as we’ll be watching how Boston defends Adebayo, whether they make any adjustments on Jaquez Jr. – do they bring more help on his drives rather than play him one-on-one, do they adjust how they navigate screens against his pick-and-rolls – or not is important not just for this series for but the rookie’s big picture development. Just as Adebayo had to evolve his game after teams like Milwaukee gave him a very specific defensive look years ago, defensive choices against Jaquez Jr. during this and any other series will help define what he needs to become moving forward. A great start to his postseason career on the offensive side of things. Now we see how how the scouting report changes.
