Weak closeouts doom Celtics perimeter defense against Heat in Game 2

During the regular season, the Celtics averaged 42.5 three point attempts per game, good for first in the NBA by a wide margin. The Heat only shot 33.7 threes per game, a below average mark in the league.

But in Game 2 of the teams’ first round series, Boston and Miami switched roles. The C’s only shot 32 threes, while Spoelstra’s boys got up 43 of them. The Heat hit 53.5% of those shots – the unequivocal reason why they won the game.

How did they get off so many threes, though?

Well, inferring from Joe Mazzulla’s post game comments, it appears as though allowing Miami to fire away from deep was a focus of Boston’s gameplan.

“I thought most of those were moderately to heavily contested, and so we’re going to have to make the adjustment on some of those,” Mazzulla said.

Jaylen Brown echoed a similar sentiment.

“We thought they were decent close-outs, but credit to those guys,” Brown said. “They came out, they played hard, and they had a record-breaking night.”

These remarks are nothing short of concerning. Unless we have massively different definitions of what a good close out is, Mazzulla and Brown are just flat-out off base. The Celtics failed to take Miami’s shooters seriously (sound familiar?) and allowed them to get off shot attempts without high-hand contests or pressure-filled closeouts. Look at some of these.

Al Horford is guarding Jaime Jaquez Jr. like he’s a dreadful three-point shooter. And he technically is; he only shot 32.3% from long range this season. But that’s not the point. Force Jaime to drive into a crowd and shoot a floater or a long mid-range – don’t just let him tee up an open three without providing any sort of contest. This is ostensibly a practice shot for the rookie. He plays for the Miami Heat, so when the playoffs come around, he’s going to shoot better.

Here, Jrue Holiday lingers in the paint to help as if Jayson Tatum is guarding Ja Morant. It’s Delon Wright, man. Holiday should be attached to Duncan Robinson and shouldn’t worry about a Delon Wright drive to the paint (which he doesn’t have a reason to worry about, considering Tatum is in excellent defensive position). Robinson doesn’t make Jrue pay for his lazy, undisciplined close out. Lucky.

Again, just a lazy closeout from Tatum. You need to have a hand up, especially when Caleb Martin has been hot against us for the last two seasons. Poor scheme, and even poorer execution.

The crux of the closeout issue comes down to Mazzulla and the Celtics being far too concerned with non-playmakers driving into the paint. Martin, Jaquez and Haywood Highsmith are not going to kill Boston with their five-on-four playmaking ability, so the Celtics have to close out harder and not give them an easy look from beyond. Miami getting hot from three is the only way they can win a game against the C’s, let alone four. So, just don’t let them get as many off. The Heat are not going to win the series on Haywood Highsmith floaters, I can tell you that.

The other glaring issue in Wednesday’s loss was the screen navigation from Boston. What is usually a massive strength of theirs turned into an Achilles’ heel. Take a look at some of these plays if you want to have your PTSD kick in even more.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&C

This is about as bad as it gets from Jrue. I didn’t even know he could look like this while navigating a screen. He needs to be more connected to Tyler Herro. Besides that point, Jaylen Brown shouldn’t be helping from the strong side corner off of a proven three-point specialist. Poor game plan. Poor execution.

This one is probably a moving screen on Bam Adebayo. Shocker. But Derrick White doesn’t need to stay in the paint for as long as he does to help on a Nikola Jovic drive – that isn’t going to beat us. What is going to beat us is an open Tyler Herro three, which is what he gives up as a result.

Tatum just doesn’t exert the necessary effort here required to stop a flame-throwing Herro. You have to be more physical at the point of the screen. On this play, and many others throughout the game, Miami completely dictates the offense due to a lack of ball pressure.

The Celtics should be sending this one to the league office. Bam is aggressively moving. However, it’s just poor defensive angles and all-around effort from Brown, who needs to work harder to get back in the play after he gets hit.

A gameplan adjustment is needed, Joe. We saw Miami’s hot shooting – despite how lucky or rare it might’ve been – beat Boston last year. And if Game 2 is any indication, Mazzulla and the Celtics are content with deploying a similar strategy this season: let “bad” shooters shoot. But how many times do the Heat have to show Boston that their “bad” shooters will actually rise to the occasion during the playoffs for us to change our scheme?