Miami Heat will only go as far as Goran Dragic can take them
Watch Boston Celtics @ Miami Heat Game 4 live on Sky Sports Arena in the early hours of Thursday morning (1:30am)
Wednesday 23 September 2020 12:31, UK
Goran Dragic draws historical comparisons with players with notable playoff resumes, but he needs to play his game if the Miami Heat are to advance to the NBA Finals.
Dragic's crafty, beneath-the-basket passes were snuffed out by the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He was swarmed on every drive to the basket, too many of his three-point attempts missed badly, and on one possession, his shifty mid-range attempt to shake Jaylen Brown loose was swatted away to an embarrassing degree, which led to a fast-break dunk with authority by Jayson Tatum.
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It was more like 'Goran Tragic', a far cry from 'The Dragon' that fuelled the Heat's fire as they won 10 of their opening 11 playoff games.
The Celtics were right to have a 'Saint George' mindset. Dragic entered the contest averaging a team-best 22 points in the playoffs, opposed to just 16 per game in the regular season. This was better than his scoring output during any regular season or post-season stretch of his career. But after an 11-point, five assist, five turnover performance on Saturday, his numbers have slipped.
The problem for the Miami Heat is that nobody else really stepped up to fill his void.
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Jimmy Butler struggled - after scoring 20 to open the series, he combined for 31 in the second and third games. Bam Adebayo was good: he grabbed four offensive rebounds for a total of 16 to add to his 27 points. Herro shot the ball without the hesitancy normally associated with rookies, but he wasn't brilliantly efficient, which led to some wasted possessions.
Even so, the Heat got a 20-point fourth quarter gap down to five with less than a minute to play. The full comeback, however, fell short, and as the seconds died away, Dragic listlessly attempted a three that missed badly, again - the perfect metaphor for a frustrating game.
The problem is that he unlocks so much for Miami to be successful. Jae Crowder put it best when he told Sky Sports NBA: "We know what we get from him, we just got to get him in a better situation so we can get back on the winning side of basketball."
It's not like this Heat team is built around Dragic. This isn't Shaquille O'Neal's Los Angeles Lakers, Hakeem Olajuwon's Houston Rockets or the way the Dallas Mavericks were built perfectly around Dirk Nowitzki.
This Heat team is more akin to the perfectly balanced Detroit Pistons of 2004 that had no superstar, but absolutely needed Chauncey Billups to create looks for Rasheed Wallace, find Rip Hamilton off screens, keep Tayshaun Prince involved and feed Ben Wallace. That's not dissimilar to what Dragic does to create looks Jimmy Butler, find Duncan Robinson, keep Jae Crowder involved or feed Bam Adebayo.
Andre Iguodala has been impressed with Dragic's leadership since arriving in Miami, after being traded along with Crowder earlier in the season. He said: "He has been a great team-mate, a great guy - a prototypical, high IQ Euro player, and he has been key for us.
"He has hit big shots for us. You have seen it in the first quarters when we have started off a little slow. He'll be that guy that eases us back into that groove, from a 10-point deficit, he will cut it to six just like that. He has been a huge part of our success and has been stabilising for us in key moments throughout this run."
But it's not a recent thing. During the regular season, the Heat were a better team with Dragic as one of the main producers. When he scored 15 or more points, they went 27-11. If he scored less, they went at 12-10. And when he was inactive it was a 50-50 chance whether Miami would win or not.
The biggest individual performance of Dragic's career was a 40-point outing for the Phoenix Suns in 2014. But even then, he scored efficiently - 66 per cent from the field, 42 per cent from three, 81 per cent from the line - and still got five assists and three rebounds, right in line with his career averages.
He plays within the game and doesn't force a shot. It's for that reason Crowder likened him to another Suns legend: "He is like Steve Nash a little bit because he is so good in the pick and roll. He can do a lot of different things in the pick and roll. He gets his team-mates involved and he can score at a high clip and run the pick and roll like a great, just like Steve Nash."
Iguodala preferred to liken Dragic's game to another legendary lefty, former San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili.
He said: "Everyone looks at the left-hand thing, but I would say a similar thing is that when the Spurs needed a big shot, or in those big moments they needed a stabilising bucket, Manu is someone who could hit a huge shot, get to the line when he needed to, was very crafty with his passes and that change of pace is very similar.
"I am explaining the same type of person [in Dragic] when I say high IQ, done well on an international level, and in big games internationally, and been able to translate that well to the NBA game and impose his will on the game."
Comparisons could be made to any number of clever guards, but ultimately, the Heat need Dragic to play his game in order for them to be successful in Game 4 and to ultimately close out this series.
During several occasions in Erik Spoelstra's media availabilities this week, the Heat head coach was keen to point out that his team is not the only one playing.
The Celtics adjusted their plan in Game 3 to attack the paint more. They got a lift from a returning Gordon Hayward and figured out ways to make Miami's zone defense redundant. More than anything, a combination of Brown and Tatum, as well as a targeted defensive plan, made it difficult for Dragic to turn the key for Miami. Spoelstra will need to respond and find ways to help Dragic perform to the standards the Heat have come to expect.
"Goran is one of our guys," Crowder said. "He is one of our playmakers. He has been the leading scorer, but at the same time we expect him to make plays. That could be scoring, it could be his assists going up, it could be getting our offense set and running. We depend on him a lot on that end of the court and we'll continue to do so.
"His leadership is very high in our locker room and we love him as a leader. We know he has given it his all. He is a hell of a competitor and he is someone you want to go to war with."
With the backing of his team-mates and the strategic support of his head coach, Dragic will need to find ways to make hit the target with his crafty passes. His change of pace will need to get to create driving lanes, and his shots from distance need to count. The Heat will only go as far as he can take them.
Watch Boston Celtics @ Miami Heat Game 4 live on Sky Sports Arena in the early hours of Thursday morning (1:30am)
