And yet, the fact that the Eastern Conference Finals won’t be featuring reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and his Milwaukee Bucks, the team that looked invincible during the regular season to the point where they were breaking all sorts of statistical records, remains a mind-bending reality that is difficult to comprehend.
The Miami Heat club that ousted them, meanwhile, has been sitting poolside in the Orlando bubble for seven days now after handling their business in a shocking five games. They’re sure to be rested and well-prepared coming into their first ECF since 2013–14 (the final year of LeBron James’ Heatles).
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As for the Boston Celtics, they’re entering the series battered and beaten after surviving a seven-game defensive slog against the Toronto Raptors, and their energy early on may be a telling sign for how the first couple games, at least, could go.
Still, both teams are playing as well as they could be expected to at this point, and will find in one another here a challenge (another for Boston, the first for Miami) that should make for an entertaining, if not extended series.
Regular-season review: Celtics won series 2–1
Unfortunately, there’s not much data from these games that tells us anything meaningful heading into this series.
In the initial meeting between these clubs, Gordon Hayward, Marcus Smart, and Goran Dragic didn’t play (but Justise Winslow, who is no longer on the Heat, did!). In the second, Jayson Tatum was out. In the final contest, which took place during the seeding games, Hayward (presently injured) logged 36 minutes.
To top it all off, the Heat aren’t even starting the same group(s) that they were during any of those games, with Bam Adebayo now acting as the team’s de facto centre (a decision that’s proved massively beneficial) and Goran Dragic having taken over the starting role formerly belonging to Kendrick Nunn.
Perhaps the only takeaway (which will be expounded upon further momentarily) worth noting here: Adebayo absolutely bullied the Celtics during their last meeting, taking 18 free-throw attempts and looking entirely unstoppable.
This may not be the matchup that immediately comes to mind when one thinks of these two teams going head-to-head, but Adebayo is such an integral cog in Miami’s offence and will be such an enormous concern for Boston on defence that focusing on anything else here would border on dishonesty.
With Adebayo now featured as the lone centre and surrounded by shooters, a version of the team the Celtics have yet to play, his place as a pillar of the offence has been heightened significantly. The Heat will often begin actions with the ball in Adebayo’s hands at the top of the key, the place he’s most dangerous. From there, he can await the outcome of off-ball actions designed to get those aforementioned shooters open and then deliver timely hand-offs or pinpoint passes (an underrated element of his game).
Of course, if the matchup is favourable, Adebayo can power through smaller or similarly-sized players to get to the rim. If he’s guarded tightly by a plodding big, he’s typically too fast for them to stop with his explosive first step. If his opponent sags off of him, he can hit elbow jumpers with regularity. And if he’s doubled, his passing and recognition is good enough that he can punish teams by kicking to the perimeter.
Boston will probably opt to have their starting centre, Daniel Theis, begin the series on Adebayo, though that may not last long. Boston’s other options are limited, though, as any smaller defender like Jaylen Brown or Smart increases the likelihood of Adebayo living at the free throw line.
Livestream the Raptors’ quest to defend their NBA title with select NBA playoff games on Sportsnet NOW.
On the other side of the ball, Adebayo is Miami’s most versatile and dangerous defender, and having him guard Theis will be an easy place to start. Boston’s centre is typically the screener in most of the team’s pick-and-roll actions, but with Adebayo as his man and more than capable of switching onto a smaller player (such as Kemba Walker) and swallowing them up, the advantages the Celtics are usually able to create there are suddenly gone.
Even if the Celtics don’t bring Theis into actions as a screener, but instead choose to leave him in the corner and operate through alternate means, Adebayo can cheat off of him (Theis is only shooting 18.2 per cent from three this post-season) and act as a defensive rover, patrolling the paint and blowing up plays as a help defender, something he’s adept at.
Adebayo’s multifaceted defensive prowess and ability to successfully switch at a moment’s notice will be the greatest obstacle the Celtics face in this series. The answer to this problem may very well be to attack the Heat in isolation, something the Indiana Pacers did quite well in the moments they got the appropriate matchups in the first round.
By having Tatum, for example, exploit his matchup (likely to be Jae Crowder, a capable defender) one-on-one, it keeps Adebayo out and away from the action as much as possible. The Celtics were an excellent isolation team during the regular season, too, ranking sixth in the league in isolation possessions per game and posting 0.96 points per possession on those plays, good for the 86th percentile.
While Adebayo is the player whose performance will likely tell that tale of this series, Jimmy Butler is still the guy Miami expects to go get buckets in the big moments. And though he’s been a consensus perennial all-star for some time now, he’s never broken into the discussion of the league’s crème de la crème, his name always absent from the sect of basketball discourse ruled by the likes of LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard.
This series will provide him with the opportunity to change that.
T.J. Warren and Wesley Matthews certainly weren’t pushovers (and Butler has had some games this post-season where his play was well-contained), but Butler will find himself in a situation with even less room for error against a Boston team that contains a bevy of superior perimeter defenders that allows them to switch freely without giving up an advantage.
To single out a particular matchup, though, it will likely be Brown that starts on Butler, as he spent the most time on him (25.4 partial possessions) during two regular-season matchups. The Celtics trust Brown’s strength, even when he’s undersized (see: Last series against the Raptors, in which he guarded Pascal Siakam the majority of the time), against physical opponents like Butler.
With a significant portion of his offensive output coming from his ability to draw fouls by penetrating the defence (he’s averaging 10.7 free throws a game and converting 84.4 per cent of them this post-season), this will be the most difficult it’s ever been for Butler to just go get a bucket, regardless of the moment.
X-factors
Celtics: Gordon Hayward
The verdict is still out on whether or not Hayward will even find his way into this series after spraining his right ankle in Game 1 of the Celtics’ first-round bout with the Philadelphia 76ers (though ESPN’s Malika Andrews did report that he went through a “hard, small group workout” on Monday), but if he does, he could make a considerable impact.
Assuming he doesn’t come out exceedingly rusty and force a quick hook from Stevens, Hayward can eat some of the minutes of Boston’s deeper rotation players while also providing Tatum and Walker more relaxed resting periods since he can act as a pick-and-roll handler, shooting threat, and general creator to keep the offence afloat with those two off the floor.
Hayward’s return also means that the Celtics could close with him, Tatum, Walker, and Brown on the hardwood together, a four-man unit they obviously haven’t had available to them in the bubble, but one that boasted a formidable plus-9.6 net rating in the regular season.
Heat: Goran Dragic
Since making his triumphant return to the starting lineup, Dragic has looked like the all-star player he has shown he can be in the past, and it’s a big reason the Heat are where they are at the moment. In his first six playoff games, Dragic dropped at least 20 points (the second-longest streak of his career) before faltering somewhat in the conference semifinals.
If the Heat are to survive this series, they’ll need Dragic to continue to produce, a task that will prove more difficult than ever with Boston’s perimeter defence. He’ll likely have Smart assigned to him as well, by far the toughest individual defender he’s had to face these playoffs.
Thus far, he’s accumulated a 26.1 usage percentage, the highest on the team. That may have to change (and force Miami to seek out a substitute offensive option) should he be unable to find success early.
Prediction
Celtics in seven.
This series certainly—and surprisingly—feels like a coin flip and is just brimming with questions (e.g. How much zone defence will Miami play? Will Boston’s shooting be enough? Does the Heat’s inexperience show itself at some point?). Ultimately, the decision to go with the Celtics here is rooted in the belief that their stifling perimeter defenders combined with their ability to exploit matchups in isolation will be enough to nudge them over the edge.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
