Miami Heat's shooting woes in Game 1 of Finals won't make anyone in Boston feel too great
BOSTON -- Celtics fans don't need to be reminded that Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Duncan Robinson and the Miami Heat shot the lights out to beat Boston in Game 7 on Monday night. They may have been wondering, though, who the guys wearing Heat jerseys were for Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Because those fellas could not hit a shot to save their lives.
The Denver Nuggets showed that they not only are the superior team in this series but -- unlike the Celtics -- are actually able to play like it, comfortably beating Miami 104-93 on Thursday night in a game that was never particularly close. Nikola Jokic had another casual triple-double (27 points, 14 assists, 10 rebounds), Jamal Murray had a double-double (26 points, 10 assists), and the trio of Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr. and Bruce Brown combined for 40 points to contribute to the victory.
The Heat, meanwhile, were quite bad. Jimmy Butler had just 13 points, while Bam Adebayo led Miami with 26 points ... off 25 shots. Outside of Haywood Highsmith, the role players who helped beat the Celtics in seven games looked like shells of themselves in Denver.
Max Strus, who took a minor victory lap this week by posting an screen shot of the Celtics releasing him in 2019, went 0-for-10 from the field, with nine of those shot attempts coming from behind the arc. And three of those attempts were wide open.
Caleb Martin, who was the breakout star of Game 7 and had many people arguing he should have been the MVP of the conference finals, shot 1-for-7 from the field in Game 1 vs. Denver, scoring just three points.
Duncan Robinson, who recapped in detail the thought process that went into his minor taunt of Celtics fans late in Game 7, was 1-for-6 from the field, also scoring just three points.
The only Heat starter who wasn't a minus during his time on the floor was Gabe Vincent, who hit seven of his 14 shots and scored 19 points, finishing with an even plus-minus rating on the night. (Kyle Lowry was a plus-2 in 26 minutes off the bench.)
It was, quite obviously, a bad night for Miami. But Erik Spoelstra wasn't panicking.
"No, they are fine," Spoelstra said of Strus and Martin. "I mean, they are not going to get sick at sea. If they are shooters, you're not always going to be able to make all the shots that you want. Then you have to find different ways to impact the game. Our game is not built just on the three-point ball. We have proven that time and time again. We can win games. We can win series, regardless of how the three is going."
That may be so for Miami, but from a Boston perspective, the Game 1 flop cannot have felt good to anyone who had the stomach to tune in to the game. The dropoff from Monday's performance is staggering.
Caleb Martin, Game 7: 11-16 FG, 4-6 3PT, 26 points
Caleb Martin, Game 1: 1-7 FG, 1-2 3PT, 3 points
Duncan Robinson, Game 7: 4-6 FG, 2-3 3PT, 10 points
Duncan Robinson, Game 1: 1-6 FG, 1-5 3PT, 3 points
Max Strus, series vs. Boston: .418 FG%, .342 3P%, 9.4 PPG
Max Strus, Game 1: 0-10 FG, 0-9 3PT, 0 points
Jimmy Butler, series vs. Boston: .420 FG%, .348 3PT%, 24.7 PPG
Jimmy Butler, Game 1: 6-14 FG, 1-2 3P, 13 points
Butler also averaged 7.7 free throw attempts per game vs. Boston, but he didn't get to the line a single time in Game 1 in Denver. In fact, the Heat shot just two free throws all night.
In total, they shot 40.6 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from 3-point range, after hitting 48.8 percent of their shots and a ridiculous 50 percent of their threes in Game 7.
The Celtics organization and the entire greater Boston area might have preferred to have seen that dud of a shooting night show up three nights earlier at TD Garden. Such are the pains, one supposes, of living and dying in a make-or-miss league.