[caption id="attachment_368" align="aligncenter" width="594" caption="Mike Ehrmann (Getty Images)"]
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And here we are again.
On May 1st of last year, the Celtics lost game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals by 8 points to the LeBron James led Cavaliers. Rather than feeling discouraged, Kevin Garnett said the team felt confident after the loss because of how winnable a game it had been. The Celtics went on to win game 2 and ultimately win the series.
This game today was different in a lot of ways. The Celtics had a double digit lead in the third quarter against Cleveland last year. They felt like they had it won, and then let it slip away. Tonight they never really got going enough to find themselves in such a position.
Despite that difference, the Celtics have to feel ok about this loss to Miami today. They can't and shouldn't feel ok about how they played, because it was an awful performance. In fact, not much more could have gone wrong for them. And yet, this was only a 9 point loss. The ultimate goal for the road team is to grab one of the first two games. I think the Celtics are in a good position to do just that.
With 6:52 remaining in the first quarter, after a Paul Pierce turnover, Rajon Rondo decided to foul LeBron James in transition rather than giving him an easy basket. This was Rondo's second foul. Jeff Van Gundy pointed out that he thought it would have been smarter for Rondo to let James score. The man knows his hoops.
Rondo is too important to the Celtics to be taking unnecessary fouls, particularly when we hadn't even reached the halfway point of the first quarter. Rondo picked up a loose ball foul less then one minute into the second quarter, making it necessary for him to sit out the rest of the half. It would be almost 4 minutes before the Celtics would score again.
Not that Rondo was spectacular when he was in the game. 5 turnovers for him in what was a pretty sloppy all around performance. The Celtics turned it over 13 times in total.
Kevin Garnett was nowhere to be found for much of the night. His matchup is a crucial one for the Celtics in this series. They should be going to him early and often. They started out the game that way, as Garnett had two shots in the first three minutes. However, he ended up with only nine shots in the game. That's not nearly enough when the other two thirds of the big three are being defended by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. When the Heat allow Bosh to take Garnett on his own, then the Celtics have a great matchup. If the Heat bring help, then Garnett will find the open man (which he does better than just about any other 7-footer in this league). Of course, for that to work, they also need to fix their spacing, which was atrocious and led to several easy Miami steals.
Don't be fooled by Paul Pierce's 19 points. He was downright awful in the first half, registering only one field goal. He seemed out of sync and frustrated for most of the night. He began getting comfortable in the second half, but he let his frustration get the best of him, and found himself ejected for the final 7 minutes.
Say what you will about the refs. We don't know what was said (although I can't imagine what in the world it could have been to have that second tech issued). But, Pierce's reaction to James Jones's foul (which led to his first tech) was stupid. There isn't another word for it. He was starting to get in a rhythm, he was about to get to the line, and instead he fired up the Miami crowd and gave himself zero margin for error with the officials.
On top of that, given what happened between Orlando and Atlanta, you need to be careful about making head contact.
When the Heat blew out the Celtics on April 10, I felt like Dwyane Wade was the best player on the floor. Much was made of the fact that he only scored 14 points. But, his defense was incredible. He stayed with Ray Allen better than anyone else I've seen. He closed out on shots that are usually wide open for Ray. I remember thinking that LeBron and Wade were the only two humans on the planet who might have been able to cover that much ground so quickly.
Wade did much of the same tonight, and he had the offense to go with it. I wonder if he (and this isn't a knock on him - I would wonder this about anyone) can maintain that defensive intensity throughout this series. Furthermore, I wonder if he'll be able to maintain that type of defensive intensity and score the way he was tonight. I suspect we'll see a dropoff. If not, he's got a second NBA championship coming his way. A well-deserved one.
Part of the Heat's blueprint is to surround the Big 3 with three point shooters who can take advantage of collapsing defenses. James Jones found himself with 7 good looks from downtown tonight, and knocked down 5. 25 points on 7 shots. This was too easy. The Celtics were so concerned with overloading on the strong side against LeBron James, and they had multiple lapses on the weak side.
Tip of the hat to the Heat here. They were fantastic in all phases.
The Celtics had three key contributors (Rondo, Pierce, and Garnett) turn in uncharacteristically bad performances. They only had 36 points at halftime. They also gave up 25 points to a role player because of defensive lapses. They lost their composure multiple times, and paid a huge price. So, no, they shouldn't feel good. This was a huge opportunity that they squandered. But, they didn't lose by 25, and that is encouraging given how poorly they played.
It would be impossible for this team to not play worse in game 2. And yet, they were right there at the end.
Strangely, like last year, the Celtics may come out of a game 1 loss having gained some confidence.
*Note - A reporter just asked LeBron if he's following Liverpool right now. He shook his head and said "um, while I'm trying to concentrate on this right now".
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