In NBA postseason, there is often a team that explores its potential along the way. He learns who he is, banks on his power and builds confidence with every win.
The Toronto Raptors accomplished that in the 2019 playoffs, and in the year of the bubble, the Miami Heat are that team.
For the second time in two games to shock the Boston Celtics, Miami bounced back from a double-digit second-half deficit. Their 106-101 victory gave them a 2-0 lead over Boston in the Eastern Conference final.
Since the Big Three crash in 2014 has been a recurring theme, the hit this season has been an exciting collection of extras. This is a team that started two unfraft guards in its backcourt – one colorful, the other 15 games coming in season. His best playmaker in the early unit was an undersized center, and his early power in the bubble has been a throw-in to balance books in the medieval trade.
From a team building standpoint, it was impressive – the kind of resource provided by solid NBA organizations – but something about the regular season of the hit made the NBA finalists scream. Yet the way things are looking in Florida, give it another week and that improbability could become a reality.
If the team has a collective understanding of what it is, it is because individual players understand their roles. That hit attribute was in full display in Thursday night’s win. Marksman Duncan Robinson’s command never stops shooting – he hits four 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes.
The Balm Adebayo post is to create plays for fellow players outside the high post and steamroll in the basket – check and check.
Jimmy Butler plays winning plays in the fourth quarter and All-NBA d. Goran plays around Dragic floor and lets him fly with his lefty stroke. Ja Crowder has opposite wings on the bay. Tyler Hero reminds the world that he has ball skills and rebounding chops.
Check out. Check out. Check out. Check out.
Since he took over as Pete Riley in 2008, hit head coach Eric Spolstra says “defense works when everyone is on the string.” Time and again in the second half, Boston went beyond that string, as Heat’s active zone shocked the Celtics offense, which left in the first half. This zone is all the rage at the Eastern Conference this summer, but the Miami model rarely leaks, considering the perimeter, picks up the cutter and calculates the glass.
These are the kind of advanced tasks that championship teams do exceptionally well. The heat gains their mastery with more flow with each passing day.
– Kevin Arnovitz
Bam Adebayo’s Encore was a dunk fest
As each postsense game goes by, Bam Adebayo gives a reminder of how good it is now – and how good it will be.
Game 1 includes one of the best defensive plays in NBA playoff history since the performance – a game-saving block from Jason Tatum in the second overtime – Adebayo went around 2 games for a hit in the third quarter on the offensive end.
After gaining just four points in the first half and struggling to find its rhythm, Adebayo dominated the third, facing 15 points and knocking out the Heat Celtics 37-17. According to ESPN statistics and data tracking, the basket cut in the third quarter was A Debio 6-for-6. He was assisted in every shot and four were unbeaten.
As the case goes on throughout the season, de Debio’s activity on both ends of the floor got a hit and brought them back all the way from the first part of the deflector. The best news for the hit is that Adebayo followed a huge moment in Game 1 by creating another showcase for itself. He had two huge bounces in the final 30 seconds and finished in 35 minutes with 21 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Adebayo doesn’t seem to be intimidated by that moment, and its intensity continues to pay dividends to the Miami team that fires on all cylinders at the best time.
– Nick Friedel
Kemba struggles to keep up with Dragic
The biggest question in Game 2 was whether the Celtics Star L-Star Guard Camba and Game Tax would return with a terrific performance in Game 1. But the biggest story of this game was the constant return of Heat for Heat.
Goron Dragic was once again the pullout difference in the playoff game. Celtics center Daniel Thesis’s extended arm at the end of the shot clock – including the Dagger 3-pointer, to draw a pair of free throws that put Miami ahead for good and made every play between Drejk necessary Miami. , As he did in the Eastern Conference semifinals in the five-game discomfort of a hit from the Milwaukee Bucks.
Walker, meanwhile, was called up for a blocked foul on a Drake free throw, and missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer on subsequent possession.
It was a match where the series believed it could potentially swing – not the way it does. While Drezek was a sensation against Milwaukee, the Bucks have no one who can attack the defense from the pinch. Walker, meanwhile, is one of the league’s most explosive defenders, and he could potentially reveal sensitivity.
Instead, he has been the gic, the gig of the year, who has continued behind the clock of his days as an all-star level player, slipping into the alley and scoring at will – while wearing a formidable ankle brace.
This product is exactly what Miami thought she got when she received Dreijk on the 2015 trade deadline for Duane Wade and Chris Bosch.
Now, five years later, the Heat is seeing how good Dredic can be with Butler’s second athletic wing, and another athletic big one in the Balm Adebayo. It looks pretty cool so far.
– Tim Bontemps
Grief continues to plague the Celtics in the third quarter
At halftime, Boston has an impressive 13-point lead, just to see if it sinks in the third period. Miami knocked out Boston by 20 points – making it the only worst quarter of the season for the Celtics, according to ESPN statistics and data. Boston has now blown four double-digit leads this postseason, bound for a league lead.
Boston was 0-of-4 ahead of the Arc and Jalen Brown was scoreless in just nine minutes of play. In the third, Boston trailed 84-77. It was only a quarter he lost.
This is not new. When the Celtics won Game 1, 28-26 in the third quarter, they were outscored every third quarter in the semifinal series against the Toronto Raptors. Coming into the series, coach Brad Stevens and both Boston players noted that the ending games had something they needed to improve.
“Finishing every possession, every game,” Tatum said of what he learned from the Toronto series. “How serious it is because you never know how it could change the outcome or the dynamics of the whole series.”
In Game 2, breaking open the door for Miami in the third proved fatal for Boston. Fixing it is the key to creating this series.
– Malika Andrews
No lead is safe inside the bubble
The hit bounced back from a 17-point deficit on Thursday, and it’s time to stop being surprised. One of the mainstays of this year’s PlayStation is double-digit leads that are no longer remotely secure.
These posts have come 51 times in the year where the team’s biggest lead was between 10 and 19 points. Those teams have gone 31-20 (.608) collectively.
Naturally, you’re still on the right side of the double-digit lead rather than the other. But although a lead genius of this size is less likely to result in a win compared to an antecedent free throw, the result is as much as))% in the regular season, we do not consider it anywhere near a certain thing.
Overall, there have been 21 comebacks from any kind of double-end lead (one, by the Dallas Mavericks over LA Clippers in Game 4, a time over 20 points). ESPN According to statistics and data, which ranks second in the NBA Finals in any postseason since 1997. With 26 such comebacks in 2003 alone, the first round of playoffs has taken on more records. And it’s still time to add that up.
During last year’s playoffs, Barster Holmes and I looked at the increasing frequency of giant comebacks. These explanations were what you would expect: a fast number of 3-pointers and fast speed make it easy to make big leads, but also to lose them. That massive comeback isn’t exactly what we’re seeing in this year’s play exactly fs, but the same takeaway applies.
Leeds are not as safe as they used to be.
Miami knows that too. Game 2 was his fifth comeback from a double-digit deficit in this postseason, his four wins over the Bucks in the second round and both against the Celtics. It connects the Denver Nuggets – or, as ESPN’s Mike Brain called them earlier this week, the “Comeback Kids from Colorado” the highest in the 2020 playoffs and the third highest since 1997 before the finals, according to ESPN figures and data.
Here’s the kicker: Never by more than five in his one-off loss so far in the playoffs by overtime the Miami Bucks so when the heat goes below 10, they get you where they want you.
– Kevin Pelton
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