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Everybody talks about it when the Miami Heat win. Nobody brings it up when they lose.
So we’ll have to wait until Sunday night, when Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals ends, to see if “culture” made the difference or not.
What the Heat and their most ardent supporters call culture, other teams call standard operating procedures. Or rules, policies, standards, habits, traditions, or “the way we do things around here.”
Some don’t even talk about those things at all, because they’re too busy trying to find opportunities and fix what’s broken on the fly in an NBA playoff series. Against a formidable opponent, the Boston Celtics, who could talk overnight about their culture as a city and as a franchise, without altering the fact that they are 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.
> Game 6: Celtics vs. Heat, Tuesday at 7:30 ET on TNT
The Celtics avoided elimination Friday in Game 4 because they defended more widely, attacked the rim, took better care of basketball than they had ever been, and probably had an adrenaline rush as they looked head-on at their season’s possible demise. They will have to do it again on Sunday (TNT, 7:30 ET) and, if they are successful, again on Tuesday.
“Every game is tough,” Boston coach Brad Stevens said in a Zoom conference with reporters. “Every time you play a playoff game, it is its own entity. It’s not so much about momentum as making sure you do what you can best and build momentum in that game. ‘
Likewise, Miami needs to counter any revived hope and momentum the Celtics have not with culture, but by addressing the slippage and failures of what had worked so well in their 10-1 postseason start.
The Heat have lost two of the last three in the series, culture notwithstanding. It was not the fault of center Bam Adebayo, as he nobly stated on Friday night. And it had nothing to do with whether or not he responded to veteran coach Udonis Haslem’s exhortations during a second-half timeout.
Miami calmed down a bit with its powerful first half, 58 points that coach Erik Spoelstra feared could tempt his players to relax on defense. The team’s 3-point shots continued their decline: 3 for 18 in the second half. And Jimmy Butler, so lauded for his leadership between games and his ability to close out late in games, fell short on Friday.
“We weren’t communicating,” Butler said. “We weren’t that aggressive at either end of the court and they were too comfortable.”
