In his April 8th column (in which he breaks down the NBA contenders), Bill Simmons wrote that the blueprint for success that Pat Riley used to construct the Heat went against everything he ever believed about basketball. Here’s how Simmons summed up his beliefs:
“Hell, it was the premise of my entire NBA book: that there was more to basketball than just a bunch of individually talented dudes playing together, that the concept of "team" mattered, that structure beat chaos, that there were ways to evaluate players beyond statistics, that there was a "secret" to all of this. Miami tried to cheat that structure…”
On May 1st, as the Celtics and Heat prepared to tip off game 1 of their second round playoff series, Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe had similarly strong feelings about the composition of the Heat roster, and what the success of this team might tell us about the NBA on a larger scale.:
“But what would it say about the game of basketball if such a top-heavy team were to win the championship immediately upon assembly? Nothing good. The Celtics have almost a moral obligation to uphold the honor of the sport by stopping this team before it goes any further.”
Pretty heavy stuff.
These are a couple of recent examples that linger in my memory, but there are hundreds more to choose from. It seems like almost every writer outside of Miami has taken their shot at the Heat at one point or another this season. To have some laughs about what has happened with these guys off the court, which has been a media circus unlike any that I can remember in the NBA, is one thing. In fact, I did this just last week. However, to question what they can do on a basketball court, particularly when that questioning is framed in some sort of moral and ethical context, is absurd. I’ve been reading articles like this all season and, frankly, the apocalyptic overtones used in discussing the success of the Heat have started to wear thin with me.
If the Heat winning a title goes against everything we know about basketball, then I must have a lot to learn. For the past two games, they’ve certainly looked like worthy champs to me. They play a style of ball Celtics fans would appreciate under different circumstances; one rooted in the cherished adage about defense winning championships. The 9 blocked shots they had in game 2 only begin to tell the story of their defensive intensity.
This team concedes nothing.
For a lot of teams, that’s a mindset. It’s an approach to playing defense. The Celtics play with that mentality. Nothing easy. But, they simply don’t have the athletes to carry it out the way Miami can. When I say they concede nothing, I literally mean that when they’re going well, the Heat can contest every shot. The Celtics play disciplined, sound transition defense. They get back most of the time, and when they do get beat they’ll often foul. The Heat are different. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade simply erase transition opportunities for their opponents. They can do it from anywhere on the court. And it doesn’t even seem to matter who the outlet man is. They’ll track that man down, and they’ll take back that scoring opportunity, rarely committing a foul in the process unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Chris Bosh coughed it up during the first quarter of Tuesday night’s game, and Kevin Garnett quickly sent it ahead to Ray Allen. Against most teams, Ray would either have a layup or he’d be on the line. Instead, in what felt like a microsecond, his layup was blocked, and Dwyane Wade was laying it in for two points on the other end. The ability to play this way in transition is devastating to a team like the Celtics, who expend so much energy defensively and are used to seeing their stops lead to easy buckets.
And, what of Bob Ryan’s assertion that Miami is too top-heavy to win a championship? He’s certainly not the first to argue that this team would have to rely too much on its top three guys, and wouldn’t be able to overcome a lack of depth and holes at point guard and center (how quickly we become our critics, Celtics fans!). I totally bought this argument in November. But, has he been watching this team play over the past 6 weeks?
Sure, the big 3 are always going to jump off the stat sheet (as they were responsible for 80 of Miami’s 102 points on Tuesday night). But, this team’s recent success has been about more than just those three guys. They’ve been getting contributions from role players every night. At +92, Joel Anthony currently leads the NBA in playoff plus/minus. He’s provided a strong defensive presence (3 blocked shots Tuesday night), and he’s been doing a yeomen’s work fighting on the glass, which has led to extra possessions for his team. Mario Chalmers, who you could argue should be starting, given his ability to defend the ball, is currently at a +60. James Jones, who went off for 25 points against the Celtics in game 1, is at a +52. These guys, Anthony in particular, are embracing their roles and making key contributions to playoff wins. If that’s not being a team, then I don’t know what is.
[caption id="attachment_421" align="aligncenter" width="950" caption="Joel Anthony's fighting on the boards in the fourth kept this ball alive, which led to a LeBron James 3 point play (D West with the foul)"]
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If you really want to see a top heavy team, look no further than the Boston Celtics. As impressive as the plus/minus numbers are for Miami’s bench guys this postseason, they are equally unimpressive for the men in green. Glen Davis has graded out the worst at -44. Delonte West and Jeff Green are right on his heels with -35 and -23, respectively. In fact, Boston’s 5 starters are the only players on the team without a negative plus/minus rating. These numbers are concerning, particularly when you remember that the Celtics swept their first round opponent.
It may seem like my goal in writing this post is to pronounce the Celtics dead. It’s not. I just think it’s time (and I talked about this a bit last week) to change the way we discuss the Heat. The discourse about them lacking chemistry, toughness, and role players is simply false. They’ve proven it to be false. They’ve been scrutinized more heavily than any group I can ever remember, and they’ve passed with flying colors. I promise you that any fatal flaw you think this team has is something you’ve constructed in your own mind.
This team is great, and they are the future of this league. You don’t have to like it, but it’s true.
Regardless of how this series turns out, there’s going to be a lot of reflection on the part of Celtics fans. We’re either going to be celebrating a thrilling resurgence after falling down 0-2, or we’re going to be dealing with an emotional loss and some real uncertainty about our team’s future. Regardless of which one it is, it’s going to be better (or, in the latter case, easier) to know that the outcome came against a truly great team. The Heat should have earned your respect by now. If they haven’t, then the issue is more about you than it is about them.
Now that I’ve said all of that, I also need to say that I’m not ready to count the Celtics out of this series. They’ve gotten out of rhythm early in each of the first two games. In game 1 it was Rondo’s foul trouble. In game 2, it was Paul Pierce’s injury. In both cases, it felt like they had to fight uphill for the rest of the game. Playing in a hostile environment made this very difficult.
The Celtics did a great job of keeping the Heat out of the paint in game 1. They made Miami beat them with jump shots, which is the only way you can hope to beat a team with such great finishers. This trend did not hold in game 2, as the Celtics allowed James and Wade to get into the paint all night, leading to 36 Miami free throw attempts. The Celtics need to get back to sealing off the paint as they did in game 1, forcing Miami to shoot instead of letting them get runs at the rim.
For a couple weeks now, I’ve talked about getting Jeff Green on the floor with the big 4. Filling in for Paul Pierce, he looked like he finally looked like he had some confidence. It was nice to see him aggressive offensively, and it reminded us all that he has some real potential to provide a scoring punch off the bench. Glen Davis, on the other hand, really hurt the Celtics in the fourth quarter.
When Big Baby is playing within himself, he can really have a positive impact on both ends. However, after having success against Joel Anthony twice to start the fourth, Baby began trying to do too much. Choosing to try to score when another defender comes instead of finding the open man, hero ball, is not a good look for anybody. But, if need be, we’ve got some guys who can do it. He’s not one of them. He should take a look at Joel Anthony’s film from this series, because those are the kinds of things he did in the regular season that helped this team so much. Green’s ability to create offensively might bring more relief to the Celtics than anything Big Baby might do. If I’m Doc, I’m sending Green out first.
It will be interesting to see what Shaq is able to provide for the Celtics, who are sorely lacking the presence of a big man who can work the low block. I know we don’t want to blame our misfortune on the absence of Perk, but this small Heat lineup is killing the Celtics. If Shaq is actually able to provide the Celtics with some quality minutes on Saturday, it could be a game changer, as Miami might be forced to keep big Z on the floor instead of the undersized Anthony.
Of course, we can’t count on this. Doc Rivers said once again today that he expects Shaq to play, but I’m going to be skeptical until I actually see him out there.
The historical numbers about teams coming home after falling down 0-2 suggest that the Celtics will most likely win on Saturday. I’ve been to many home playoff games in the TD Garden, including a couple in 2008 in which the Celtics had just dropped two straight road games. That place is going to be electric, and when it is the Celtics have one of the best home court advantages in the entire NBA. The three days of rest should help the Celtics, and there’s a chance that it might serve to quell some of the Heat’s momentum. When you’re playing as well as Miami has thus far, long rest is not always what you want.
If the Celtics are going to take this series, it’s going to be a long, hard road. Saturday is the first step. If they can get that first one, then they’re right back in this.
Hat tip to Mike Cooley for the title.
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