We knew them for their ability to recover from big deficits, but the magic of Erik Spoelstra’s men did not work last night in Game 3 against the Celtics. Led by 20 points, Jimmy Butler and his friends woke up too late and they will have to erase this bad habit if they want to reach the NBA Finals.
If you follow these 2020 Playoffs from the start, the word remountada must be tilted for two teams: the Denver Nuggets obviously, who returned Utah and the Clippers when they were led 3-1, but also the Miami Heat which, night after night, let himself be led to the score before winning in the final moments. Two spectacular teams but who tend to play with fire, a habit the Heat would like to lose. It’s been a constant with them for some time, Miami often offers an average first half before releasing the flamethrower to finally win. So far no problem, since this is only the second game lost in the Playoffs for the men of South Beach, but with the adversity that keeps growing, we will have to enter the game faster. A finding widely accepted by the players themselves, via ESPN.
Bam Adebayo: “We have to start the match as we start the last quarter. I don’t think we’re the kind of team that can afford to do the minimum, that tries to find solutions in the first half and then suddenly activates the machine. It doesn’t work that way, we’re not that kind of team. “
Jimmy Butler: “It’s boring chasing the score all the time. Especially against a big team like Boston. We didn’t play hard enough. I don’t think we did anything compared to what we planned. We knew how they were going to attack, we didn’t help each other. We have to play basketball like in all of these games that we have won. We understand it. There is nothing the coach can say, or Udonis Haslem. We know it. It’s up to us to fix that. “
It is true that chasing a -20 match after match can quickly become exhausting, both physically and mentally. Nevertheless, and despite the defeat, the Heat retains an unbounded aggressiveness. This night again, the gap fell to five points after a good run in the second half. Certainly insufficient to secure a third consecutive win but symbolic in relation to the state of mind of this group which never gives up. Once again, there is no fire, this is only the second defeat in twelve postseason games but be careful not to wake up the beast too late, at the risk of losing matches that had everything to become victories.
Miami is tired of chasing the score all the time. It’s fine to say that, but you still have to turn on the machine from the first half. Come on, we start again at Game 4 with a full match, that is to say 48 minutes and not 24 or 12.
Text source: ESPN
–
