NBA Matchups: May 19

Boston Celtics at Miami Heat

Team Totals: Celtics 102.3, Heat 105.8

Injury Report: Marcus Smart (P, foot), Al Horford (D, protocols), Kyle Lowry (O, hamstring), Max Strus (fake Q, hamstring), Gabe Vincent (fake Q, hamstring)

Celtics projected starters: Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Grant Williams, Robert Williams

Heat projected starters: Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker, Bam Adebayo

Udoka quotes: Mostly talked about how Miami came out with such energy in the second half, said they played well in three of the four quarters, said they have to make better reads, said the whole team had some trouble making the right reads, said Robert Williams was great in the first half and he doesn’t want to make excuses about him possibly having tired legs.

Spoelstra quotes: Said Lowry only did light shooting and he doesn’t “have a new update”, said there were times they weren’t playing with purpose, said they want to be OK with the game getting in the mud, said it’s frustrating that Horford got put into protocols and they want to play against the best Boston team they can, said they will try to get to a decent amount of Herro despite the great Boston defense, said Jimmy getting to the line was extra impressive considering how Boston doesn’t really foul, said they had great focus and energy in the second half for defense, said their point-of-attack defense really got it going in the second half and they really didn’t need to scramble quite as much, said Tucker told him he’s definitely playing in the second half after his ankle injury, said Jimmy’s scoring boost is something he’s comfortable with and he will just do what is required to win.

Stats and Notes: 

*The Miami defense was special in the second half, clamping the Celtics to just 3-of-12 at the rim after giving up 16-of-20 there in the first half (H/T Couper Moorhead). Miami’s defense was also ridiculous at limiting 3-pointers, keeping the Celtics to just 1-of-6 on wide-open treys. The Celtics were pretty strong there too at 2-of-9 on wide-open 3-pointers. The Celtics got off 20 wide-open treys in the Bucks series, including 25.5 in the last two when they were able to end the Bucks. They did get 21 open threes (defender 4-6 feet away). The Celtics had nothing going in the halfcourt at an 84.7 O rating while the Heat were very good there at 112.2. They had similar volume in transition while the Celtics smashed from an efficiency standpoint. The Celtics did get a pretty good shot diet with a ton of at-rim stuff (42.5%) and 39.1% of FGAs coming from deep while the Heat were looking for two-pointers much more.