One play in Monday's disastrous Game 7 crystallized exactly why the Celtics offense needs to change.
Al Horford took a pass in the lane against Miami's zone and no one challenged him. The Heat stayed home on Boston's 3-point shooters, leaving Horford to pirouette helplessly in search of a target while ticking dangerously close to a three-second violation. The visual was absurd: a 6-foot-9 All-Star virtually unguarded 10 feet from the basket and not even thinking about scoring. The play broke down and the Celtics got nothing.
There was entirely too much of that during the playoffs, and Brad Stevens' primary job this summer will be deciding if the Celtics can simply run back Joe Mazzulla's predictable system, which the Heat exploited throughout the Eastern Conference Finals.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Boston sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Celtics Talk POSTGAME POD: Celtics can't complete the 0-3 comeback in all-around frustrating Game 7 loss | Listen & Subscribe
One of the best soundbites from the entire series, in fact, came during Game 2, when Miami coach Erik Spoelstra encouraged his team to weather a Boston run by effectively saying, "If they're not making 3s, they can't win."
He's right, and that's wrong. The Celtics shouldn't be so one-dimensional, and Mazzulla's emphatic "no" when asked if the Celtics relied too much on scoring from beyond the arc didn't sound like the best growth mindset, though let's hope he reconsiders when the heat of the moment cools.
In the meantime, we bemoan what might have been. There's so much talent on the Celtics that they nearly pulled off the incredible comeback from a 3-0 deficit anyway, but their overreliance on the 3-pointer ultimately doomed them. They won Game 6 despite shooting 7 for 35, and they lost Game 7 in a hail of clangs, finishing 9 for 42.
Missed opportunities
| Celtics' 3-point percentage in East Finals | Heat's 3-point percentage in East Finals |
| 30.3% | 43.4% |
The approach so disgusted TNT analyst Charles Barkley that he blasted their offense as unwatchable, and not for the first time during these playoffs. Even at their best, the Celtics don't move a ton, but when their offense is humming, they whip the ball around until finding an open 3. If those shots start falling, the transition game follows, and then it's off to the races.
The contrast between Miami's diverse attack and Boston's plodding one proved decisive. The Heat searched for Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo in the post and then let them distribute, or they punished the Celtics for ducking under pick and rolls with 3s from, well, pretty much everybody on the roster, especially all-world superstar unstoppable force Caleb Martin.
The Celtics, by comparison, only intermittently attacked the paint vs. Miami's zone, trying in vain to free shooters who were blanketed on the perimeter.
Their other option, especially once Jayson Tatum rolled his ankle on Boston's first possession, was to let Jaylen Brown create off the dribble, which proved disastrous. Brown recorded as many turnovers (eight) as baskets -- most of the unforced variety -- and the Celtics must eliminate from their playbook those possessions when Brown decides to play one-on-five.
MORE CELTICS CONTENT
They must also expand their offense, which doesn't even mean de-emphasizing the 3 that is now ubiquitous to everyone's offense. The Warriors, after all, are the greatest shooting team ever, and yet at the height of their powers, they probably led the league in backdoor layups. The Celtics rarely found ways to make defenses pay for extending, and it hurt to watch them continue launching contested 3's as Monday's finale slipped away.
What makes this all the more frustrating is that we could see it coming in October. The unbeaten Celtics went to Chicago for their fourth game of the season and blitzed to leads of 12-0 and 35-16 while making eight of their first 11 3-pointers. They were having the time of their lives while running the Bulls off their home floor.
Then they went ice cold, missing 27 of their final 37 from deep without ever adjusting, and the Bulls cruised to an 18-point win. What looked like a one-off was actually a harbinger.
When you live and die by the 3, the living may be spectacular, but the dying is swift. And as we now know, it is final.