“I think some of that defensive identity has been lost,” Joe Mazzulla said. No kidding, writes ByJayKing. A loss like Sunday’s should convince the Celtics to reexamine everything. And that includes their preseason de-emphasis on defense.
. “Five guys all on the same page, competing at the same level, talking, and just being there for one another. Every possession is not perfect. You’re going to get beat. Mistakes happen. But we just have to do a better job of being there for one another, having each other’s back, and just being a little bit more connected on defense.”
“We weren’t hitting shots, and then we weren’t getting back on defense, and we have to understand that our DNA, our core as a team is on the defensive end,” said Horford. “That’s who we are, and that’s something that we have to find if we want to come back and win this series.”The Celtics struggled with turnovers. They couldn’t find their outside shooting rhythm. They had many other issues beyond their inability to stop the Heat.
The Celtics have shot just 29.2 percent on 3-point attempts in this series. The Heat have made 47.8 percent from that distance. The 3-point differential accounts for the entire scoring margin in the series and then some. With their shooting disappearing, the Celtics haven’t had anything else to fall back on to give themselves a chance. Their defense went missing in the third quarter of Game 1. It shied away during the fourth quarter of Game 2. It never even showed up during Game 3.
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