The Miami Heat were once on the cusp of sweeping the second-seeded Boston Celtics and, in turn, heading to the 2023 NBA Finals. Now, after a two-game losing streak, they find themselves still up in their Eastern Conference Finals matchup, though are certainly not as comfortable as they find themselves gearing up for a Game 6 down in South Beach with the series at 3-2.
The Heat were dominating during the first three games of action, though the C's have seemingly made the proper adjustments to make things competitive. During his post-game media session after Thursday's Game 5, forward Duncan Robinson explained what, in specific, the Celtics have managed to improve upon during their current winning streak.
“They're playing faster for sure. Shooting more [3-pointers], which is a little bit more of their identity that they've kind of had throughout the season. We're not surprised by that. We kind of knew that that's what it was going to be and just kind of got to make it difficult [and] continue to make it hard. Obviously, they're a good team with talented players but we got some guys as well so we have to continue to make it difficult,” Duncan Robinson said.
Heading into Tuesday's Game 4, the Heat were converting on 51.9% of their looks from the field and 47.8% from deep while holding the Celtics to just 45.7% from the floor and 29.2% from deep. However, since claiming their first win of the series, Boston has gone on to boast shooting clips of 50.9% from the floor and 40.9% from distance while Miami has regressed to 47.4% shooting from the floor and 30.9% from deep.