MIAMI — While the Celtics and Heat played through a rock fight of a first quarter in Game 3, things quickly changed in the second. The C’s built up a double-digit lead and never let the Heat back into the game from there as they won to take a 2-1 series lead in the first round.
So not only did the C’s bounce back from a disappointing Game 2 loss, they did so in a resounding way with a 104-84 win. From the outside looking in, it looked like the Celtics made plenty of adjustments to get such different results. But according to C’s coach Joe Mazzulla, that wasn’t exactly the case.
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“I think that word just becomes such a trigger word around this time of year,” Mazzulla said. “We didn’t make too many adjustments. We played a little bit harder, a little bit tougher. We dictated the physicality and the tempo of the game, and it’s the simple things that you have to do under a high level of stress or level of adversity. So I think our guys did a great job of dictating that.”
It was clear then that the Celtics played with an extra level of physicality Saturday that the Heat couldn’t match. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said the C’s bullied his own squad, upping that intensity once they had a comfortable lead in the second quarter and beyond.
The Celtics were also aided by the Heat cooling off on their 3-pointers after a scoring performance in Game 2. The Heat had their open looks, but couldn’t convert those chances in a change from Game 2. So the C’s will look to replicate the great parts of their Game 3 win as they’ll look to take a 3-1 series back to Boston.
“You just have to focus on the things that you can control going into every game and then knowing every game takes on a life of its own because both teams are constantly changing, adjusting and looking to find small ways to gain small advantages within the game,” Mazzulla said. “So there’s certain things you got to go into every game, then you gotta be very quick to adjust or to give you what that game is getting.”
