"Well, no one said this was going to be easy," he said.
Spoelstra's Heat had just wrapped up a torturous 93-91 loss to the Celtics in overtime of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The game included a clutch 3-pointer by LeBron James, improved defense by Miami's big men and Kevin Garnett's lowest point total thus far in the series. Still, the Heat did not have enough to win.
With all of the matchup problems and health issues the Celtics face against the Heat, this series was destined to be a test of Celtics coach Doc Rivers' abilities. In a way, it has been, but the series also has revealed the Celtics' locker room culture, with players like Mickael Pietrus, Keyon Dooling and Marquis Daniels supplying big plays, often in areas that are outside their usual strengths.
The Heat made some notable adjustments in Game 4, such as sending an extra defender to trap Rajon Rondo on the perimeter. The Celtics changed a few things, too, but for the most part, it appeared their adjustments were more personnel-related than scheme-related. Daniels subbed in less than eight minutes into the game, his earliest appearance in the series, and Dooling entered less than a minute later.
The aggressive, frequent substitutions in the first half allowed players like Ray Allen and Rondo to play big minutes while still letting the team keep constant pressure on the Heat. By the end of overtime, Garnett had played 43 minutes and Allen had played 46. Rondo, who played all 53 minutes of the Celtics' overtime loss in Game 2, slacked off and played only 47 minutes on Sunday.
Yet the Celtics did not seem to lose much steam late in the fourth quarter and in overtime. On the final possession of regulation, with the game tied and the Heat holding the ball with a chance to win, Garnett extended to the 3-point line to help trap James, then scrambled back to challenge Udonis Haslem's last-second shot. At that point, Garnett already had played more than 38 minutes.
"The whole game was a gut check," Dooling said. "You have to dig deep. I tip my hat to the starters, because they have to be able to think on the fly and perform. Fatigue can be a factor when you talk about playing over 40 minutes, so I'd really like to tip my hat to them. They really dug deep the whole time. Everybody that came in the game made a contribution."
In a way, it was easy for the Celtics to dig deep in Games 3 and 4. They came to Boston down 2-0 in the series and knew that losing even one game at home would give the Heat a chance to close out the series in Miami. The Celtics were desperate, and as Haslem noted after Sunday's game (although he was talking about his own team), "Sometimes you play better when you're desperate."
The series is tied, yet the desperation remains. For the Celtics, desperation has been their inspiration.
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