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The Miami Heat entered Saturday’s Game 3 game with a 2-0 lead, but only went 2-1. Here are three takeaways from the game.
The Miami Heat entered Game 3 on Saturday with a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference Finals playoff series against the Boston Celtics. Unfortunately, they left the contest only 2-1 in the series.
This game was uncharacteristic of any game the Miami Heat played during this playoff run. It was not back and forth in the wild and it wasn’t close for the most part.
The Miami Heat were hit like a drum from the opening lead. However, that’s where we’ll start with our key takeaways.
They have to be activated before
Throughout this series, the Miami Heat have waited until the second half to come to life. Unlike the previous two games in this series, where they seemed to flare up in the period immediately following the halftime break, it wasn’t until the last quarter on Saturday and ultimately too late.
However, as we said after Game 2 of this series, that’s not a sustainable way to win this series or more in the playoffs and even bring them to life in the third quarter. They have to find a way to get going in the first half somehow, as digging a hole to get out will win them in Game 4 and beyond.
The Miami Heat have to find a way to get things moving offensively before they go big. The following key might help there too.
The Miami Heat were beaten on Saturday, but there were some clearly defined reasons why.
Jimmy Butler must start early
Jimmy Butler has made publicly and infamously the fact that he does not feel the need to look for your shot until the second half of the games. This is not just to get your teammates involved, but to show them that you can have a massive impact on the game in other ways.
The problem is this, the Miami Heat need an offense from him much earlier and often than he has given it in this series. That can help them get off to a better start earlier in the games.
Three point shot
This is not a I need to do better as usual, the Miami Heat are good from deep this season. Yet on Saturday, they just weren’t falling regularly and it doesn’t seem like your name wasn’t Tyler Herro early or Duncan Robinson too late.
The Miami Heat shot 12-44 or 27.3 percent from deep on Saturday. That normally doesn’t happen.
We expect the Miami Heat to improve on Wednesday when they play next time and it should go a long way in helping the Miami Heat get back on the right side of the final results in Game 4.
The Miami Heat weren’t going to sweep the Boston Celtics, at least I didn’t believe it going into this series, but they look like the best team when they put it all together. With a few days off and a little attention to the details mentioned above, they should be fine to move on.
However, the work still needs to be done, as the Boston Celtics now have life. We look forward to Game 4 on Wednesday to see if Miami has addressed these aforementioned things in any way.
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