Free throws, defense reign supreme in Waltham

By Marc D'Amico
April 26, 2010
Celtics.com

WALTHAM, MA - There were two major reasons the Boston Celtics couldn't finish off a sweep of the Miami Heat Sunday afternoon: free throws and Dwyane Wade.

As expected, those were two of the most prevalent topics at this afternoon's practice.

The Celtics wrapped up practice by running a few offensive sets with the first team, and when Doc Rivers was satisfied he called the team in for their session-closing huddle. There wasn't a whole lot we could hear from our position up above the court, but there was one direction that was unmistakable and echoed by numerous voices: 50 free throws apiece.

Practice normally ends with players breaking up to five separate baskets to conclude with free throws, but today's were even more emphasized. Boston's inspiration to put up extra shots from the line came from Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett's combined five misfires from the charity stripe in the waning minutes of Game 4, free throws that could have easily changed the outcome of the game.

They have full control of what they do from the free-throw line in the remainder of the series, but Sunday proved that they cannot control what Wade does at the offensive end of the court. He scored 46 points against the C's on 16-of-24 shooting in Game 4, which was the fourth consecutive game in this series that he has recorded the game-high in points. After four games, it's clear that even when throwing the kitchen sink at Wade defensively, he's not going to be stopped.

"Obviously, Wade scoring 46 -- he's Dwyane Wade -- shooting 67 percent, is a bigger number for us," said Rivers. "The 46 we could live with if it was 35 percent (shooting), but since it's 67 percent, and getting assists and rebounding, I mean, he's dominating the series right now."

Although Wade's dominance continues and his performance ranked as the supreme factor in the outcome of Game 4, his teammates were a hot topic with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Each of those players mentioned at Monday's practice that it's important to contain Wade, but that it's just as critical to not allow his teammates to get in their groove alongside him.

"Now that the other guys have big games, I can't allow [Quentin) Richardson to go out here and have career games, 20 points in the playoffs.," said Pierce. "You know, other guys like Arroyo and Beasley can't have big games for them. I mean, Wade is going to have the ball for them most of the time, and we've got to expect him to have big numbers because of that, but it's the other guys we have to shut down."

Pierce followed that statement up by noting that he is "a big part of that," and that the team won't be able to pick it up defensively unless he does so himself.

When the Celtics commit themselves to something, the cards usually fall the way they want them to at the end of the day. Today, the commitment was toward getting back to their impressive free throw shooting (they had shot 79.5 percent from the line on 26.25 attempts in the first three games of this series) and ability to lock down the Heat's offense (the Heat scored just 76.5 PPG through the first two games of the series).

Reaping the benefits of that commitment will go a long way toward helping the C's avoid another trip to Miami this week. The next time these guys head to South Beach, they'd rather be enjoying the ocean breeze than thinking about how to stop Wade from dropping 46.

"We don't want to go to Miami," said Pierce. "I mean, next time I go to Miami hopefully I'll be on vacation."