Boston Celtics: 3 keys to victory vs the Miami Heat in Game 6

Boston Celtics key to victory No. 2) Don’t force shots early on

Time and time again we’ve seen fluid ball movement and swift offensive execution from these Boston Celtics throughout this year’s campaign. With a brilliant Basketball mind in Brad Stevens calling the shots and talents such as Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, and Marcus Smart executing the plays, this should come as no surprise.

Game 5 did not show this level of execution, however, as the shamrocks often found themselves playing out of synch and taking poor & contested shots, especially early on which, in turn, led to them finding themselves down deep in a 17-5 hole in the first.

Boston simply appeared unwilling to drive the lane at first. Instead, they opted to take contested jumpers and silly 3-pointers like they were the Houston Rockets (**shots fired**). With this, the team finished off the first quarter down 26-18 while shooting a mere 25 percent from both the field and from deep.

As the game went on, the Celtics started to slow things down, actually running well-thought-out plays and driving to the rim instead of settling for unsuccessful jumpers.

With this shift in play, the Cs found a much easier time of converting on offense. Despite a slow start, they finished the game with splits of 45 percent shooting from the floor and 32 percent shooting from deep.

Playing off each other and running smart plays helped Boston find their offensive rhythm, which made things much easier down the stretch as it started to build up their confidence when it counted most.

We get that not every shot will come off of a wide-open attempt but, at least early on, they must strive to find and take better shots than they did early on in Friday’s outing.

Taking contested jumpers is never a good way to kick things off.