in Game 3 of their first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks. That group outscored the New York Knicks by 13.
7 points per 100 possessions in 82 minutes of the conference semifinals after finishing a net negative against the Bucks.'s broken right hand, which has kept him from shooting or dribbling for three weeks and will keep him from Game 1 of this series, has removed Spoelstra's lineup flexibility. Love makes the most sense as a fifth starter, if only becauseare respectively too old, too inconsistent and too necessary as a wing option off the bench. Only prayers lie beyond them.
Whether Mazzulla starts Williams or White will go a long way toward telling us if he is more concerned about his team's defense or offense in this series. Starting Williams is a ploy to curb the offensive impact of Butler and Adebayo and dare Miami's role players to beat Boston from the perimeter. Starting White is a scheme to leave Love nowhere to hide against a five-out small-ball outfit full of predatory offensive playmakers.
It helps that everyone in Miami's rotation is shooting better from 3-point range in the playoffs than they did in the regular season, including Duncan Robinson, who is back to making 42.6% of his nightly 5.5 attempts from range. His accuracy had fallen off a cliff in a year in which he had finger surgery on his shooting hand.
Adebayo's offense is as consistent as it has ever been. He is averaging 18.1 points on 49.7% shooting in the playoffs, scoring between 15 and 23 points in 10 of his 11 appearances and attempting 16-20 field goals on most of those nights. That is a far cry from how he performed against the Celtics in last year's conference finals, when he scored 10 or fewer points on six or fewer shots in four of the seven games.
In other words, the series might really come down to whether Strus, Vincent, Love, Lowry, Martin and Robinson can get hot from distance in a seven-game conference finals. Those six are shooting 36.8% on 31.4 3-point attempts per game in the playoffs, but the Heat have yet to chase an offense like Boston's, which is shooting a league-best 39.5% from distanceIt might sound overly simplistic, but the Celtics can bend the math further in their favor if they can just take care of the ball.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NBA Draft Lottery 2023: Full results and orderThe top half of the 2023 NBA Draft order is set after the NBA Draft Lottery.
Read more »
San Antonio Spurs win NBA Draft Lottery, get No. 1 overall pick in 2023 NBA DraftThe San Antonio Spurs learned that they have the ___ overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft on Tuesday night.
Read more »
Winners and losers of NBA draft lottery: What Spurs' win means for Victor Wembanyama, NBASorting through the winners and losers of the NBA draft lottery, which saw the Spurs land the top pick and the right to select Victor Wembanyama.
Read more »
4-year-old autistic boy missing in Boston, authorities sayMohamed Fofana was last seen playing in a park in South Boston's Castle Island Sunday at about 7 p.m., according to Massachusetts State Police.
Read more »
Boston man charged with spying on Chinese dissidents in U.S.A Boston-area man arrested last week has been accused of spying on Chinese dissidents on behalf of the country’s ruling communist party, according to prosecutors.
Read more »