Best Celtics Defensive Performance All Year Put 0-3 Comeback in Play

BOSTON — Marcus Smart creeped into the paint, swung his arm and clipped the ball out of Bam Adebayo’s hands as he drove past Al Horford toward the rim. Smart dove for the ball, lifted himself up to dump it to Jayson Tatum who scored in an uncharacteristic way for this Celtics team. Following a turnover.

“Defensive intensity,” Grant Williams told CLNS Media post-game. “Smart set the tone from the first play of the game and it led to that constant play throughout.”

The Celtics only forced 12.7 per game this year, 26th in the NBA, before falling to 11th in among postseason teams after stealing 13.8 possessions every night last season. The small difference accounted for a drastic difference visually for a defense that statistically dominated, but didn’t look as disruptive playing in drops, bending, but not breaking while struggling to produce ball pressure. In Thursday’s Game 6, Boston turned Miami over five times in the first quarter, 10 by halftime and rocketed in transition to a 110-97 win win.

Only 14 teams have tied a series after trailing 0-3. The Celtics get the chance in Miami after rallying around defense again. Boston won seven straight elimination games against teams in the east by holding them to fewer than 100 points. The Heat turned the ball over 16 times in their Game 5 loss and shot 44.7% in the first half.

“When we’re at our best, we’re guarding and we learned to know that,” Williams told CLNS in the locker room.  So we’ll be trying to be our best throughout the rest of the season, make sure that’s our No. 1 priority and then learn from what Joe taught us on the offensive end, because he’s taught us so much, that not only can defense be our staple, but our offense carries us to the promised land.”

Celtics players bemoaned the team’s departure from defensive consistency starting late in the Philadelphia series when a starting lineup change saw Robert Williams III reunite with Horford for wins in Games 6-7 where Boston forced the 76ers to shoot below 38% from the field in each. Then, the unit capsized early in the Miami series. They played nine minutes together in Game 1, five in Game 2 before Derrick White started Game 3.

That night marked a low point for the Celtics in their own end. Tatum allowed Duncan Robinson to drive past him and swung his arm looking for a bailout offensive foul. Boston continued to leave Caleb Martin alone away from the ball, and blitzed Heat ball-handlers while roller scored or passed to an open shooter. The Heat shot 50% from mid-range and nearly reached that mark from three through three games, so a regression awaited, but the Celtics needed to get on the same page. Whether top golf, film, or on-court adjustments evident when Grant, Horford and even Tatum got in Brown’s ear between Games 4-5, Boston began flattening out a dynamic offense.

“It’s tough,” Brown said. “They play at an incredible pace. The pace they play at is similar to the Warriors. They sprint to their spots, they run off screens, they find those pockets, they relocate and you can’t blink, because they’ll relocate and you’ll lose a shooter for a three. You’ve gotta be disciplined. You’ve gotta be sound. You’ve gotta chase those guys, because all night, they’re gonna be running. You gotta bring your track shoes. We got multiple guys who can guard multiple guys. We’ve gotta continue that. D.White is one of them, chasing guys off a shooter, then you might get switched onto Bam (Adebayo), then you’ve gotta bump Bam, or you’re gonna get switched onto Jimmy (Butler) and you’ve gotta be physical.”

Unforced turnovers killed Miami at first, Adebayo stutter-stepping along the baseline and traveling, Kyle Lowry throwing the ball to Brown instead of pulling up over the zone and setting up corner threes following quick entries against the Heat zone. White switched onto Butler and stopped him inside before Williams III stepped out on him at the three-point line, blocked his shot and nearly corralled the ball in the back court for a run-out dunk before he tumbled out-of-bounds.

Tatum took on the Butler assignment more often, allowing only one point over roughly 17 possessions on 0-for-1 shooting. Those individual efforts waned throughout the regular season, Boston falling from first in 2022 to 23rd in 2023 — allowing 0.97 points per possession in isolation. That improved mildly in the playoffs to 0.88 PPP, tied for sixth among the 16 teams. Smart, who recorded five steals on Thursday, is allowing an elite 0.47 PPP in those spots while Williams III emerged to play him most impactful help defense all postseason in the win.

“When it’s engrained in you, when you’re taught something, you just go back to what you learned and what you know,” Grant Williams told CLNS Media. “We’re so familiar with each other, we’re a similar team, we just communicate with each other and make it happen … it’s always been us, we’ve challenged each other to be better and it’s made us have some success out there.”

The Celtics increased their pickup points and Smart produced another turnover stripping Lowry nearly half court, botching the layup on the other end before Horford followed with a dunk. Williams blocked Lowry at the rim plays later and stepped over him walking toward the crowd. Lowry scored five points. Max Strus provided three. Smart and White turned stops into 47 points on 15-for-23 shooting, playing expanded roles with Malcolm Brogdon battling an injured right arm that cost him the second half. The Celtics already led by 15 points at halftime, and extended it with more stops. Multiple efforts inside. More turnovers.

Smart stole the ball from Butler and pushed the ball, Martin fouled Smart chasing behind, who fell on his face along the baseline. He got up, hit a free throw and switched onto Adebayo, poking the ball away from him as Grant fell to the floor and recovered it. Smart splashed a three the other way and the Celtics led by 23 points.

“Our help discipline and our discipline on making sure they don’t get anything easy (improved),” Grant said. “Our pressure has picked up, we’re making sure their ball-handlers are stressed a little bit more and we’re not giving Jimmy and those guys easy looks.”

“We’ve been believing since we were down 3-0,” he said. “Hopefully the fans start believing in us as well.”