Watch Boston Celtics @ Miami Heat Game 4 live on Sky Sports Arena in the early hours of Thursday morning (1:30am)
Wednesday 23 September 2020 10:26, UK
Andre Iguodala warned the Miami Heat have not yet played an 'A+ game' together as they prepare for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics.
After racing into a 2-0 series lead, the Heat were pegged back in Game 3 as a more aggressive effort by the Celtics on offense saw four Boston starters score 20 or more points and halve Miami's series lead with a 117-106 wire-to-wire victory.
The Heat never led in Game 3, got themselves into a double-digit hole for the third consecutive game in this series and fourth straight overall, and because of a scheduling quirk have sat around and stewed for three full off days before getting a chance to atone for what went wrong on Saturday night.
"They did a really good job of getting to the triggers early and making their adjustment and executing that adjustment well. As you've seen before, the series has become a matter of adjustments and counters and then counters to counters. It's kind of a game of chess. We have got to do a better job of imposing our will defensively with our principles and things we're trying to do," Iguodala said.
"Defense is being proactive. When you're proactive defensively, it takes a lot of those things away, and when you are being reactive, that is when the defense has two and three options. That is when you're on your heels. When you're on your heels, that's when you're rotating, rotating, and eventually you are running out of guys and they are getting the looks that they want to get.
"So, it's about being proactive, turning your weaknesses into strengths, and then like at the same time, the same way you have a confidence offensively you've got to have the same confidence defensively in your skill set.
"We went through some good film, not just after the last game but the first two games, too. Just trying to put that full game together. That's the benefit I feel like our team has is that we still haven't put a full complete… our A+ game together, and we are still in a good position."
The formula that the Miami Heat had backed themselves into using throughout this postseason wasn't exactly ideal. They were losing almost every first quarter but winning almost every game anyway.
Heat forward Jimmy Butler acknowledged that is not a sustainable plan.
"I think we have just got to start off better," he said. "I don't think we started off anywhere near where we are capable of. I think we dig ourselves a hole and try to fight back out of it. I think going into this next one, it's up to the starting five to come out with a great start."
Before the Game 3 loss, Miami were 8-0 in the playoffs when trailing after the first quarter - after going 10-16 when put in that position during the regular season. In the 36 minutes of first-period action against the Celtics, the Heat have led roughly one-sixth of the time.
"Certainly, it would help to be able to get off to a good start," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "But you have to play good basketball more consistently when you get to this point in the Conference Finals against a quality opponent."
Despite the three-day break in the series, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum said Boston would have no trouble maintain the edge they earned in Game 3.
"Because we are still down 2-1," Tatum he said. "It is never time to relax in a series until it is over with. Even more sense of urgency when you are down. We are still losing. We know that. We won't get it all back in one game. We just got to go one game at a time."
Watch Boston Celtics @ Miami Heat Game 4 live on Sky Sports Arena in the early hours of Thursday morning (1:30am)
