Effort once again at the center of a Celtics slip-up: ‘Have to adjust and hit back’

Game 2s have not gone well for the Boston Celtics this postseason. Two straight series, two straight ugly defeats in the same spot. Both times, they started the series with a blowout win, only to get outworked the next game.

The Miami Heat made a franchise-record 23 threes, and the Cleveland Cavaliers tallied their most points in a playoff game since 2018. But for as well as their opponents played, Boston simply failed to bring their A-game.

“I think it was just a little bit of effort and concentration,” Jrue Holiday said at shootaround on Saturday. “Not concentrating on the things we had gone over in the gameplan and not executing.”

Led by Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers’ pick-and-roll game, Cleveland dissected a porous Celtics defense. Al Horford and Luke Kornet’s drop coverage was met with an avalanche of paint touches, leading to easy buckets for the Cavs.

“We’ve just got to bring up the intensity,” said Holiday. “More attention to detail, especially how guys like to drive and get to the basket and plays they like to make. Just lock in a little more.”

Increasing effort levels was the theme after Boston’s Game 2 loss to Miami, and the same trend has carried over.

“Gotta be more aggressive, more ball pressure, and just overall more effort,” said Jaylen Brown. “It was a little bit lax. We could be a lot better.”

Yet, while the similarities between the two series have shined through, the Celtics have varying perspectives on whether or not to pull from their past experiences.

Photo by Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Brown is focused on what’s in front of them.

“It’s a new series. It’s a new game. We can’t expect it to go the same way,” said Brown. “We’ve gotta establish what we want, and we gotta come out and be the harder playing team.”

Meanwhile, Holiday said the same counterattack methods can be applied.

“For sure,” Holiday said. “Anything can happen in a playoff series. You get punched in the mouth, and you’re just going to have to adjust and hit back. We did that last series, and we plan on doing that today.”

Reality likely lives somewhere in the middle. Boston dominated Miami for three straight contests following their Game 2 loss. They learned from their mistakes, upped their intensity, and adjusted accordingly.

Simultaneously, they can’t expect this series to go the same way. Boston can push themselves and strive for a similar result, but going into the rest of Round 2 with the expectation of winning could lead to slip-ups.

Boston’s poor defensive performance in Game 2 led to the loss. However, the Cavaliers played a part. They picked up their offensive vigor, attacking the Celtics’ lackluster line of defense with a clear desire to avenge their Game 1 showing.

Both sides of the coin were relevant to the Game 2 result, but the Celtics are ready to return to the driver’s seat.

“I think that they turned up their intensity, too,” Holiday said. “I think, [in the] first game, they didn’t play as well as they could have. They came out that second game and turned up the intensity.

“Now, it’s something that we have to do, which is be able to also turn up the intensity, but lock into the game plan and be able to execute that to the best of our ability.”