Marcus Smart, Al Horford Return as Celtics Try to Solve Heat Defense

MIAMI — After a whirlwind five days where the Celtics beat the Bucks in Game 7, Marcus Smart injured his foot, Al Horford entered COVID protocols, Boston collapsed in one of their worst quarters all season in Game 1 against Miami, Ime Udoka missed practice with a non-COVID illness and Derrick White returned home this morning to attend the birth of his first child, the Celtics are poised to reunite their starting lineup for the first time since Game 3 against Milwaukee last round.

Smart is listed as probable to play in Game 2 on Thursday night and Horford exited COVID protocols shortly after shootaround. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Robert Williams III, Horford and Smart built the most dominant starting lineup in the NBA during the regular season and will be reunited if Smart’s cleared. Those five posted a +24.6 net rating during the regular season across 443 minutes, the best by far among any unit logging at least 200 minutes. In the playoffs, they’ve rarely joined the court together due to Williams’ knee surgery and unsteady return. They’ve been outscored in three games these playoffs, though in only 28 minutes, by 5.0 points per 100 possessions posting a 91.8 offensive rating, most coming in Boston’s Game 3 loss to Milwaukee last series.

Offense continues to occasionally plague the Celtics this postseason, as they try to solve the Heat’s shape-shifting defense that zones, traps and switches everything at times. Boston had set a team record going back 25 years by scoring 45 points in the paint and building an eight-point lead at halftime, before they scored 14 points and turned the ball over eight times in the third quarter that cost them the game.

“This team’s different than the teams that we’ve played to this point,” Grant Williams told CLNS Media this morning at shootaround. “Other than I would say just in terms of physicality, it reminds me similar to that Raptors team I played my rookie where they kind of claw, fight, more physical. So they do a good job of switching. They put their best defenders on the guys who are in the actions and the worse ones on the guys who are outside of it, so we’re trying to get those guys more involved, but honestly that’s what we saw from Game 1. They’re going to try to muck up the game, be physical, take it to the free throw line, take advantage of those opportunities in transition. So for us, it’s just about being solid and being ourselves.”

The Heat proved to be at their most disruptive by attacking the Celtics’ passing lanes, some of them intuitive and other plays a response to how Boston attacked them in the first half. Bam Adebayo told CLNS the team tried to fill the gaps after the Celtics owned that territory early. Jimmy Butler exploded into the passing lane to blow up consecutive Tatum passes and cap Miami’s 22-2 run midway through the third quarter.

Gabe Vincent found multiple opportunities to meet Williams III with a crowd inside on his roles, and noticed the center holding the ball low and giving the Heat a chance to force their earliest live ball run-outs in transition. Usually those chances are measured by points following turnovers, but Miami also forced difficult shots and blocked others to simulate the same kinds of opportunities.

“I was just trying to be help side and found myself in the right spot,” Vincent told CLNS at shootaround.

Udoka finds himself in the most difficult coaching matchup of his young career leading the Celtics against Erik Spoelstra. Each quarter, Adebayo said, the Heat can choose new players to lead their point of attack. Boston tried to maintain depth, pulling Aaron Nesmith into action for the first time since April, while facing foul trouble with Williams racking up four in three quarters. It worked, until Miami targeted Payton Pritchard. When the Heat shift their defensive approach, the Celtics need to adjust their offensive game plan, but both Tatum and Brown made questionable decisions against the Heat’s defense.

Butler said after Spoelstra doesn’t prefer he do that, catching numerous stares throughout his three seasons when those risks don’t work. It nonetheless showed a feel and comfort taking risks that built a massive possession advantage for the Heat. Against the Celtics’ defense, Butler only turned the ball twice, dished five assists and drew 18 free throws at the point of attack.

Brown and Tatum will need to utilize the feel and instincts they’ve developed as the season progressed to find the weak spots in Miami’s defense. Smart helps. The two offenses’ ability to play with poise could decide which of these two equally great defenses will prevail. Both teams battled stagnancy offensively in Game 1, the Heat forcing up tough floaters and mid-range shots in the first half and the Celtics struggling to pass the ball in the second.

“We know (the zone) is one of their wrinkles defensively, a team that uses it quite a bit compared to other teams,” Udoka said earlier this week. “We struggled a little bit earlier in the year, but I felt we found our groove later and did really well against it where teams that tried it, (we) scored pretty easily and they got out of it. We have multiple sets we love to run against zone, and for us getting clean looks and sometimes it’s differentiated between making or missing a wide open shot, they feel that’s a good possession or them and if you make it they’re out of the zone. Saw quite a few clips of them running zone and looked for ways to attack it.”

The zone didn’t factor heavily into the Heat’s Game 1 success, Miami leaning more toward switching and aggressively attacking Boston’s ball-handlers. They’ll have more options with Smart and Horford in the lineup, White and Pritchard getting overwhelmed in those spots when Miami went on its run. The Celtics, as much as anything else, needed a bailout bucket to stop a 2-for-15 drought in the third quarter.

With Williams losing control in the lane, Tatum pushed out to the perimeter and unable to get off the ball, and Brown getting abandoned on the weak side the Heat found ways to make the Celtics one-dimensional. Meanwhile, Tyler Herro, who keyed Miami staying close in the first half, didn’t even take the court for the run that decided the game.

Butler, Adebayo, Herro and Vincent gave the Heat layers of facilitation that Boston couldn’t match in Game 1. This series will test both Udoka, who affirmed earlier this postseason he doesn’t want to micromanage, and the Celtics’ players ability to run offense on the fly. They took full control of Game 1 early by pinching the lane, dropping Williams III and making the basket inaccessible. His return, on paper, vaults Boston’s defense above Miami’s versatile group on that side of the ball.

Adebayo struggled to contain Williams III’s rolls early and Tatum had one of his best first halves of the entire postseason. But any grounds built on that end can be relinquished by feeding the other team with bad offense. Both of these groups are practically looking in the mirror when they stare at each other’s defenses. As for the offenses, the Celtics are trying to live up to Miami’s mantra.

“We don’t rely on one guy, although we understand who our main scorers are. We kind of spread it around, equal opportunity,” Udoka said last series. “We want to have that balance it affords everybody the opportunity to step out and shine on certain nights. Whoever’s chance it is. We lean on Jayson and Jaylen, who do what they do on a night-to-night basis, and get the contributions from everybody else. I think that’s what makes us harder to guard than focusing on one guy like Holiday, Giannis, or whoever it might be.”