The Heat were awesome. The Celtics were abysmal.
“I will shred the universe down to its last atom.”
It was a line from Thanos in the Avengers Endgame movie. Of course, he wasn’t able to do it because, yep, the Avengers assembled, and Tony Stark used the Infinity Stones to ultimately cause the Mad Titan his demise.
The Miami Heat, on the other hand, were successful in shredding the Boston Celtics down to their last atom in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Finals matchup on Monday.
A lot of that stems from Miami’s terrific play, starting from the stars to all the way to the role players.
Led by the hot shooting of Gabe Vincent, who scored a career-best 29 points, the home team secured a 3-0 series lead with its 128-102 win at the American Airlines Arena. Against the East’s second seed, Miami’s undrafted recruits, namely, Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin, and Max Strus combined for 79 markers to take their team to one win away from the franchise’s sixth NBA Finals appearance.
As for the Celtics, the struggles were everywhere. From coach Joe Mazzulla seemingly losing control of the locker room to Celtics players looking like they quit. It doesn't help that both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown shot poorly from the field, specifically a combined 1-for-14 shooting from beyond the arc.
Twitter user Jake made a shot chart showing the struggles of Boston's star duo.
The illustration had other fans, like @itsahmedyall, shaking their heads and getting nightmare flashbacks over all those misses.
Other fans, such as @deanisreal_, were looking for the midrange. In theory, it could have provided another option for the Cs, especially when they were bricking shots.
@Isaiah_h became a sadboi real quick seeing JT’s shot selection.
Modern analytics say that the best shot in the game is either the three-pointer or a layup. Put simply, midrange jumpers aren’t recommended by basketball mathematics nowadays. The eye-test, however, views things differently. From its vantage point, a great midrange game is still a potent weapon as seen from guys like Kawhi Leonard and Khris Middleton, especially during their championship runs with the Toronto Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks, respectively.
Heat main man Jimmy Butler has been maximizing his midrange package as well. Jayson and Jaylen need not to look elsewhere.
In addition to that, had Brown and Tatum took a few perimeter shots and made a couple, it would’ve likely got them going. Perhaps they would’ve put up way more than their combined 26 points in such an important game. Converting from midrange could’ve also made the Celtics All-Star tandem a lot less predictable.
It's hard to believe that shot-makers as good as Tatum and Brown aren’t capable of hitting midrange Js. Maybe it’s more of a mental thing for them, or for the rest of the Celtics in this case.
Well, all these reflections might be a tad too late for Beantown. No basketball team has won coming back from a 3-0 series hole other than the San Miguel Beermen of the PBA.
On Wednesday, the Heat will be going for the sweep.
(GM)