NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT VS. CELTICS

May 17, 2023

Marcus Smart

Boston Celtics

Game 1: Postgame

Miami Heat 123, Boston Celtics 116

Q. Marcus, go over in your mind what happened in that third quarter with the 46 points as you guys went about it, and was it mostly just defensive problems for you guys?

MARCUS SMART: Yeah, they scored 46 points in the third quarter. I mean, we didn't play the best that we could play. They hit shots, and it happened. Offensively if we knew the reason, we wouldn't have let it happen.

But we're going to go back, watch the film, see what we did good, see what we need to fix, see what we need to do better and move on.

Q. Joe talked a lot about you guys veering away from the game plan. What were some specific areas where you thought that might have happened tonight?

MARCUS SMART: Just defensively, our physicality. We had a game plan to come out and be very physical. First half we did a pretty good job; second half we didn't. When you're playing against a team like Miami, when you don't come out and execute the game plan, they make you pay.

Q. How much of that came down to you guys needing to adjust to some things maybe they switched up at halftime?

MARCUS SMART: I mean, the only thing we need to adjust to is picking up our physicality and playing some damn defense. That's the only thing they switched. They didn't change anything from the first half that they weren't doing, they just upped their physicality and that's it. There's nothing tactical, X's and O's, it's just come out and guard your yard. They scored 46 in that third, and they got going, and they made us pay, and they led into the fourth quarter.

Q. At the other end, you really had the offense moving with the ball. I think you had 10 assists in the first half. Team had 15 overall. In the second half you had one and the team had seven. Was there anything beyond the physicality that they did to try to limit your ball movement or was that a matter of getting into you guys and not keeping the space you had in the first half?

MARCUS SMART: No, we just got really antsy. Everybody wanted to make a play, and my spacing -- we let our spacing control the game, and it worked against us tonight in the second half. First half we was getting to our spots and we was getting the easy shots, the great shots.

Second half we were all clustered up on each other, didn't really give each other any room to maneuver and work. Just got to continue to work to make sure we do those little things of getting to our space and giving our guys some space on the floor.

Q. In that timeout with 3:30 left, Joe said he tried to reconfigure you guys and get some ball movement, and then Jimmy started turning you over and get to where he wanted to on offense. Why was it so hard to seize control in those final moments where you kind of knew what you wanted to do?

MARCUS SMART: Well, when those guys get it going, anybody in this league, they start hitting tough shots, because they started to feel really good, momentum, energy, and they had it.

For us, we just can't allow that. On both ends, offensively and defensively, we allowed them to do what they wanted to do, get where they wanted to go. For us, we've just got to pick it up. Knowing that we were playing good in the first half, second half, we've got to understand that teams are going to come out and up their pressure, especially when they're down.

Q. Marcus, looking at the third quarter, obviously this team has some lapses. Is that something with this team? Is it just basketball? Why do you feel that at times the team struggles with consistency?

MARCUS SMART: We get tired of doing the little things sometimes. I think that showed exactly what we was talking about earlier, our spacing. We have a lot of great players, but when we're all on top of each other, nobody can be great. You've got a good defensive team like Miami, they'll make you pay for that.

We've got to make sure we do those little things, and we can't get bored with those, and we've got to realize what has got us the lead or what was working for us.

Q. When they're going on that big third-quarter run, were you guys looking to the bench thinking a timeout was coming or did you feel the game needed to be stopped to regroup or were you feeling good about where things were?

MARCUS SMART: Joe is real big on a lot of times not bailing us out on stuff when we're playing like [expletive]. So, we've got to look ourselves in the mirror. Joe can call a timeout, and then what, we come out and do the same thing? It's on us.

Joe and his coaching staff, they put in a lot of work to come up with a game plan and put us in the right spots to succeed, but they're not out there playing. We've got to come together and we've got to start helping each other out on both ends.

Q. You obviously talked, they said they had the energy tonight. You obviously come off two really emotional games, elimination games against a big rival. You come back and have a margin for error again. Would you say maybe that urgency wasn't there, that you guys were kind of --

MARCUS SMART: I wouldn't say it wasn't there, I'd just say it wasn't there the whole the game. It was there for 24 minutes, and we all know basketball is 48.

We've just got to continue to play a full game.