The Boston Celtics look to make it two straight against the Miami Heat tonight in a critical seeding game.
On night one of a bubble back-to-back for the Boston Celtics, they will face the Miami Heat–a team on the second leg of a bubble back-to-back themselves. As the NBA looks to squeeze in these final regular-season games before a three-month playoff sprint, the two Eastern Conference foes will battle with the fate of the #3 seed hanging in the balance.
Luckily for the C’s, a puffy matchup with the Brooklyn Nets follows tomorrow on the schedule. Against Milwaukee, they were missing 3/5ths of their starting lineup with Joe Harris, Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen all out. The trio is the best of the bunch that made it to Disney World–one that didn’t include Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Spencer Dinwiddie, and DeAndre Jordan to begin with.
Miami had no such benefit after a matchup against the defending champion Toronto Raptors. The matchup was back-and-forth, but it never swung back in Miami’s favor in the end, after Fred VanVleet went nuclear for 36 points. They lost 107-103. Boston plays Toronto in a critical tilt this Friday.
Regarding tonight, though, these are the Houdini’s 3 keys to beating the Heat:
1. Take advantage of Miami’s tired legs
The scheduling defect that led the Heat to play the #2 and #3 seeds in the Eastern Conference is a natural built-in advantage for the Boston Celtics. The Celtics even get to play a team that played today as well in Brooklyn on the second leg of their own back-to-back tomorrow.
Brad Stevens needs to let the wings run and tire out the Heat legs. Remember, they have played five competitive games since March. If that means playing a little small-ball when Kelly Olynyk spells Bam Adebayo off the pine, then Stevens needs to unleash his wings in a “death lineup” scenario.
2. Avoid a Jekyll and Hyde situation
Both games of the Boston Celtics restart schedule have been a tale of two halves. The first half against Milwaukee was a dumpster fire, while the second half of the Portland game gave C’s fans a severe scare.
Their 1-1 record is a fair reflection of how things have gone so far. Boston cannot expect much playoff success if they can’t show up in all four quarters.
3. Muster up some sort of defense against Bam Adebayo
Truthfully, it is going to be difficult for the C’s to come up with a way to stop Bam Adebayo from snatching boards on both sides of the ball. The thing is, Boston has artillery that can at least match up physically with the first-time All-Star.
They are just inexperienced rookies in the form of seven-foot EuroLeague transplant Vincent Poirier and sparsely-used Tacko Fall…as well as the conspicuously absent Robert Williams.
Perhaps tonight is the night to get some out of their reserve bigs if Adebayo overwhelms Daniel Theis, Enes Kanter, and Grant Williams.