Why Jakucionis and Ware's performances weren't enough to conquer the Boston Celtics

The Miami Heat, playing without four players who have started several games this season, went into Boston on the second night of a back-to-back and lost a winnable game, with a particularly rough fourth quarter.

Here's what went stood out from this game:

'Easy' baskets weren't so easy: The Heat faced a Celtics defense programmed to play the gaps on defense, prioritizing taking away shots at the rim while allowing threes. The Celtics were helping off of Heat players pretty aggressively, which led to the Heat swinging the ball well and taking 45 percent of their shots from three, (80th percentile, 10 percent higher than their season average).

Jaime Jaquez Jr., (one of five), Dru Smith, (zero of four), and Norman Powell, (one of 11) all shot poorly from beyond the arc, but the Heat still got to 38 percent from three, as Kel'el Ware, Kasparas Jakučionis and Simone Fontecchio combining to hit 15 of their 24 threes.

The problem with this was the Heat didn't get many shots up at the rim, (21st percentile frequency), and, to make things worse, only made 45 percent of them, (2nd percentile). As usual, they took a relatively high amount of shots in the paint, but made just 33 percent of those looks.

Between their awful rim and paint shooting, it was not ideal, then, that they made just 70.8 percent of their free throws, which would be the worst mark in the league. The Heat just did a bad job all-around of converting shots that are traditionally easier, with the Celtics executing their gameplan well.

Three-point barrage: The Celtics are one of the highest-volume three-point shooting teams in the league. On Friday, they were around their season average in three-point frequency, and made half of their threes.

Much of the Celtics' gameplan throughout the game consisted of trying to get Ware and Jakučionis to defend actions, with mixed results.

Ware did an okay job technically when handling switche, but due to his physical profile, like many bigs around the league, skilled guards and wings smell blood when he's matched up onto them on an island. Jakučionis showed off some defensive versatility when defending Jaylen Brown, not letting him create separation or create leverage on him in the paint.

The Heat, as they have in the past, made sure Brown felt ball pressure from multiple arms in gaps whenever he had the ball in his hands. Although he ultimately was still able to hit 50 percent of his looks, this was a big part of why he finished with seven assists and five turnovers. The game-plan was there, but the execution could've been better.

The stretch late in the third quarter through the first three minutes of the fourth quarter was a back-breaker for the Heat. That lineup, which featured Smith, Jaquez, Myron Gardner, Fontecchio and Adebayo, was outscored by 10 points in that time-frame, where the Celtics' went nuclear from three.

The Celtics hit ten threes in the fourth quarter. Sam Hauser made four of his five threes in the quarter, while Derrick White and Jaylen Brown hit two each, Anfernee Simons and Hugo Gonzalez one each. They finished with a blistering 168 offensive rating in the final quarter.

Although it wasn't a perfect defensive performance up to this point, they had done a decent enough job at keeping the Celtics from getting amazing looks in the first half, holding the Celtics to a poor 111.55 offensive rating.

In the second half, some defensive mishaps on the perimeter led to openings for great shooters, with all but one player in their rotation, (Neemias Queta, the only big man), being threats to fire. They scored 148 points per 100 possessions in the second half.

What also hurt the Heat was the Celtics doing the opposite of the Heat, converting shots at the rim, (of which they didn't take many), and in the paint, (of which they took many). They made 77 percent of their shots in the restricted area and 60 percent of their looks in the short mid-range.

Not all bad: The good news for Heat fans is that two of their more intriguing young players, Ware and Jakučionis, both stood out against a tough team on the road.

The Celtics are one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the NBA, and their youngest players played like men amongst boys in that aspect, with the two combining for 10 offensive boards, while Adebayo chipped in four of his own.

The Heat finished with 17 offensive rebounds to the Celtics' 6, an 83rd percentile offensive rebound percentage, 24 second chance points to the Celtics' 11, and took 20 more field goal attempts than Boston.

In his first start, and first regular season game with ample playing time, Jakučionis finished with 17 points, six rebounds, four assists, with one turnover. As he did in Summer League, the preseason and in the G League, the 20th pick in the 2025 Draft also showed off strong defensive awareness and activity, even drawing a charge, (insert Heat Culture reference here).

With multiple injured on the roster, it will be fascinating to see how much more the 19-year old plays and what type of role he's given as time goes on. Despite being known as somewhat of a pick-and-roll dynamo, a lot of what we've seen from him has been off-the-catch, where he's still been able to show off his vision and court mapping chops with decent dribble penetration.

On top of the unexpected starting assignment, the fact that he played more than Erik Spoelstra's 'Ol Reliable, (Dru Smith), might say a lot about how they feel about him and his skillset.

Ware, meanwhile, followed up one big offensive game with another, (24 points, 66.7 percent from the field, five offensive rebounds). As mentioned before, hot shooting played a big part for both of these guys, but they took the shots that were being given to them.

Ware, in my opinion, has shown to have more of an impact on their offense than their defense, especially when he plays more than 20 minutes and with some of their better players. When he is a consistent roll and lob threat, combined with his willingness to take open threes and create second chances, he stands out for this team.

Once he eventually puts on weight and polishes up some bad defensive habits, there is serious potential for a two-way, high impact, winning player here, in my opinion.

For more Miami Heat information and conversation, check out Off The Floor.

Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at Twitter: @tropicalblanket

Why Jakucionis and Ware's performances weren't enough to conquer the Boston Celtics

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For more Miami Heat information and conversation, check out Off The Floor.

Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at Twitter: @tropicalblanket