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Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« on: August 03, 2020, 11:21:43 PM »

Offline FLCeltsFan

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Boston Celtics (44-22) at Miami Heat (42-25)
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
6:30 PM ET
Seeding Game #3
TV:  TNT, NBCSB,  Fox Sports SW
HP Fieldhouse



Probable Starting Matchups
Point Guard

vs
Kemba Walker vs Kendrick Nunn

Shooting Guard

vs
Jaylen Brown vs Duncan Robinson

Small Forward
vs
Gordon Hayward vs Jimmy Butler

Power Forward
vs
Daniel Theis  vs  Jae Crowder

Center
vs
Daniel Theis vs Bam Adebayo


Celtics Reserves
Javonte Green
Semi Ojeleye
Vincent Poirier
Marcus Smart
Brad Wanamaker
Grant Williams
Enes Kanter
Romeo Langford
Robert Williams III
Tacko Fall
Tremont Waters
Carsen Edwards

Injuries
None

Head Coach
Brad Stevens

Reserves
Kyle Alexander
Goran Dragic
Udonis Haslem
Tyler Herro
Solomon Hill
Andre Iguodala
Derrick Jones, Jr
Myers Leonard
Kelly Olynyk
Chris Silva
Gabe Vincent

Injuries/NWT
KZ Okpala (Achilles) Day to day

Head Coach
Erik Spoelstra

Game Notes
The Celtics are looking to keep their momentum going as they take on the Miami Heat in their third seeding match.  This is a very important match if the Celtics hope to hang onto the 3rd seed going into the playoffs.   The Heat trail the Celtics by only 2.5 games.  This is important for the Heat as well since they would like to move up to the 3rd seed, but more importantly,  they are just 1 game ahead of the Indiana Pacers, who are in the 5th spot. 

This is the 3rd meeting of these two teams this season with the Celtics holding a 2-0 advantage so far.  The Celtics won 112-93 on December 4 in Boston.  The Celtics also won 109-101 on January 28th when they met in Miami.  Two other games scheduled for April 1 and April 11 were cancelled.  The Celtics have won the last 5 meetings between these two teams. 

Both teams are 1-1 so far in the seeding games.  The Celtics lost their opening night game against the Bucks and then beat the Trail Blazers in their second seeding game.  The Heat beat the Nuggets in their opening game and then lost to the Raptors 107-103 in a hard fought match on Monday.   The Heat are playing in the second of back to back games while the Celtics are playing in the first of back to back games and will face the Nets on Wednesday. 

Both teams are pretty much healthy with No one listed on either team's injury list.  Kemba Walker increased his minutes from 20 minutes in game 1 to 23 minutes in game 2 and has responded well to the increases.  He will likely see another increase in this game, and that would be good news for the Celtics as he was 5-6 from the field and 2-2 from beyond the arc on Sunday. 


Key Matchups

vs
Gordon Hayward vs Jimmy Butler
Butler is averaging 20.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 6.1 assists, and 1.7 steaks per game.  He is shooting 45.6% from the field and just 24.8% from beyond the arc.  While he doesn't seem to be a threat from the perimeter,  he still needs to be guarded there because he can hit 3's if left open.  He scored only 2 points in the second half of the loss to Toronto and will be looking to bounce back with a big game in this one. 

vs
Daniel Theis vs Bam Adebayo
Adebayo is a very good 2 way player.    He is averaging 16.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.3 blocks per game.  He is shooting 69.3% from the field and 7.7% from beyond the arc. Theis needs to keep him out of the paint. 

Honorable Mention
Marcus Smart vs Goran Dragic
Dragic is averaging 16.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists.  He is shooting 44.0% from the field and 37% from beyond the arc.  Dragic is very dangerous coming off the Heat's bench.   He is coming off a 25 point, 5 rebound, 5 assist, 2 steals game against Toronto.   Marcus needs to stay with him, particularly on the perimeter.

Enes Kanter vs Kelly Olynyk
Former Celtic Kelly Olynyk comes off the bench and can score points in a hurry for them.  He is shooting 48% from the field and 43.6% from beyond the arc.  He is coming off a 17 point, 4 rebound effort against the Raptors.  Ennis will need to stay with Kelly on the perimeter or he is likely to have another big game. 

Keys to the Game
Defense
- Defense wins games. The Celtics have dropped to 5th in the league with a defensive rating of 106.6 while the Heat are 14th with a defensive rating of 109.1.  The Celtics need to make defense a priority as the Heat are tops in the league, shooting 38.3 as a team from beyond the arc and they are 8th with 47% field goal percentage.  If the Celtics slack off at all on defense, the Heat will make them pay. 

Rebound- The Celtics are averaging 45.8 rebounds (9th) while the Heat are averaging 44.4 rebounds per game (18th).    Rebounding takes effort and the Celtics will need extra effort in this one to win the rebounding battle.   The Heat win the majority of their games where they out-rebound their opponents.  The Celtics must crash the boards if they want to win this game. 

Play Hard 48 Minutes-   The Celtics started off ice cold and dug themselves a big hole against the Bucks and then they got out to a big lead against the Trail Blazers and then slacked off and let the Blazers almost steal the game.  The Celtics have to come out with effort and energy to start the game and not allow the Heat to get out to a good start.  They also need to play with effort right up until the final buzzer with no let up.   

Bench Play - The Heat have a very good bench.    Former Celtic Kelly Olynyk is averaging 8 points, but shooting 43.6% from beyond the arc and coming off a 17 point game. He doesn't start but will likely be on the court at the end.  Also, they need to watch out for Goran Dragic, who is averaging 16.2 points and shooting 37% on 3s.   They also have Tyler Herro who is averaging 12.7 points and shooting 38.9% on 3s and wily veteran Andre Iguodala can still hit the big shots when they are needed.   The Celtics will need their reserves to play well and they also need a little extra from the starters. 
 
X-Factors

Back to Back - The Heat are playing in the second of back to back games.  The Heat are just 5-6 on the second night of back to back games.  They are a deep team and didn't have to travel after Monday's game so it may not affect them as much as it might if they had to travel or were on the road.  They are a deep team and will be a tough matchup. 

Officiating - Officiating is always an x-factor in every game.  Every crew officiates differently.  Some call it tight, others let them play.  Some favor the home team.  Some favor the road team.  Some just make bad, head scratching calls as we saw down the stretch in the Celtics' first two seeding games.  The Celtics need to adjust to the way the refs call the game and not let bad calls take away their focus.

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2020, 11:25:23 PM »

Offline RMO

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Beat the Heat!

And Beat LA (Lakers) - just because I like to say it

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #2 on: August 03, 2020, 11:33:23 PM »

Offline FLCeltsFan

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TP to RMO    for being the first to post in the game thread!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Celtics!!!!!! 

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2020, 11:54:49 PM »

Offline CaNdyMaN1369

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Lets Go Celtics!!!           ;D             Beat the Heat!!!

TP...              FLCF...

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #4 on: August 04, 2020, 02:50:18 AM »

Offline Somebody

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Go Celtics!
Jaylen Brown for All-NBA

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #5 on: August 04, 2020, 04:00:53 AM »

Offline gouki88

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Hopefully Theis can contain Bam Bam!
'23 Historical Draft: Orlando Magic.

PG: Terry Porter (90-91) / Steve Francis (00-01)
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SF: Brandon Roy (08-09) / Walter Davis (78-79)
PF: Terry Cummings (84-85) / Paul Millsap (15-16)
C: Chris Webber (00-01) / Ralph Sampson (83-84) / Andrew Bogut (09-10)

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2020, 04:51:57 AM »

Offline Csfan1984

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Going to need more from Kemba this game, good 30 mins. The Heat bench really wants to play 3&D/L. And we have a pretty bad bench beyond Smart and Kanter. We need a third guy off the bench to produce 8 to 10 points. C's should win this one if those two things go their way.

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2020, 06:53:52 AM »

Offline A Future of Stevens

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This game is going to be a good one tonight. Go the W Celts!
#JKJB

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #8 on: August 04, 2020, 07:16:13 AM »

Offline Silas

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Let's go Cs! 🖖
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Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #9 on: August 04, 2020, 07:49:33 AM »

Offline slamtheking

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TP for yet another fantastic game thread FL!

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #10 on: August 04, 2020, 09:09:04 AM »

Offline ozgod

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TP FL and RMO! Let's go Celtics!!
Any odd typos are because I suck at typing on an iPhone :D

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2020, 11:01:56 AM »

Online bdm860

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The Heat are playing in the second of back to back games while the Celtics are playing in the first of back to back games and will face the Nets on Wednesday. 

For once the schedule gods smiled upon the C's.

Getting Miami on the 2nd night of a back-to-back (with the first game also being a tough one) should give the C's an extra edge.

And then the C's lone bubble back-to-back is the Nets tomorrow night.  Is there a more ideal bubble team to get on the 2nd night of a back-to-back than the severely depleted Nets who will be coming off their own back-to-back vs the Bucks?



« Last Edit: August 04, 2020, 11:39:48 AM by bdm860 »

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Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2020, 11:36:01 AM »

Offline footey

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These games are hard to predict, but I feel pretty good about this one.  Unlike our competitiors (Bucks, Sixers and Raptors), we seem to really match up well vs Heat. Plus they are off a back to back.


Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2020, 12:37:40 PM »

Offline Surferdad

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Quote
Butler is averaging ... 1.7 steaks per game
Is that his pre- or post-game meal?  Heck I don't average that per month!

Re: Celtics (44-22) at Heat (42-25) Seeding Game #3 8/4/20
« Reply #14 on: August 04, 2020, 05:43:43 PM »

Offline rondofan1255

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Go C's!