BOSTON — Tony Montana could have warned the Celtics, but he had long since passed away in a firearms accident. He was well aware of Frank Lopez’s lesson No. 2 from “Scarface“: Don’t get high on your own supply.
Yet there were the Celts getting all blissful with themselves after putting up 66 points in the first half of the Eastern Conference finals opener Wednesday night. The Heat had gotten 57 themselves, but, hey, they were giving away buckets at the other end, so no worries, right?
Except Miami turned it up, and the Celtics, as is their wont, failed to dig in until the visitors had turned the beating around, going from as many as 13 down to 12 ahead before seizing homecourt advantage with a 123-116 decision.
The Celts were outscored, 46-25, in the third quarter, failing to realize that Miami didn’t go from the No. 8 seed to this series without possessing a strong competitive counterpunch.
The Celtics should have seen it coming, but they were too busy slipping into a false sense of security that any amateur psychologist could diagnose.
“Definitely it’s human nature,” said Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon, who had 19 points and was even in the plus-minus category, “but I think all year long we’ve been good at coming out, having good starts and, you know, for the most part playing 48 minutes. Tonight we didn’t. We will next game.”
Maintaining Focus an Issue for the Celtics All Season
It’s an issue that has plagued Boston even in these playoffs when focus should pretty much be a given.
“We get tired of doing the little things sometimes,” said Marcus Smart, who mentioned poor spacing as a contributing factor. “We have a lot of great players, but when we’re all on top of each other, nobody can be great. You’ve got a good defensive team like Miami, they’ll make you pay for that.
“We’ve got to make sure we do those little things, and we can’t get bored with those. And we’ve got to realize what has got us the lead or what was working for us.”
Three times in his post-game session, Joe Mazzulla noted how his team was prepared and had played well in the first half and added, “We just let go of the rope.”
Actually he said it twice. One time he left out the “just.”
Mazzulla’s Message: ‘Play Harder’
Miami shot 65.4% in the third period, sticking around for four offensive rebounds and 10 second-chance points when they did miss. The Celtics looked lost.
“We won three out of the four quarters,” Mazzulla added. “We lost one quarter because we dropped our sense of urgency.”
It was during that urgency-dropping frame that the coach held onto the rope but let go of his clipboard, tossing it aside in a timeout after the Heat had made it back to even.
His message?
“Play harder,” said Brogdon. “Pay attention to the details, everything we talked about. We let that slip in the third quarter.”
While the public has mainly seen a well-maintained Mazzulla this season, the Celtics have seen the Mr. Hyde side.
“We’ve seen Joe fired up this year,” Brogdon said. “We haven’t been perfect all year, so there have been times when he’s gotten fired up. I think it’s good. I think it’s good for him to get fired up and get on us and hold us accountable. Most of the time we’ve responded, and we’ll respond next game.”
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Malcolm Brogdon: ‘Human Nature’ Foils Celtics Again in Playoffs