Trailing Miami Heat, Ime Udoka, Boston Celtics seek to 'combat some of their aggressiveness'

BOSTON — The Celtics pride themselves on being the more physical team in every game they play. It's something coach Ime Udoka has made a point of emphasis since taking over as the team's coach last summer, and has played a huge part in Boston's massive midseason turnaround.

But through three games of these Eastern Conference semifinals, the Celtics have allowed the Miami Heat to dictate the terms of engagement when it comes to aggression and physicality in this series. And, when the Heat have had success getting into the Celtics, the results have been ugly: a 39-14 drubbing in the third quarter of Game 1, and a 39-18 shellacking in the first quarter of Game 3

Those 24 minutes have fueled Miami's rise to a 2-1 lead in this best-of-7 series heading into Game 4 here at TD Garden Monday night. And, as a result, the Celtics know they are going to have to match Miami's intensity moving forward if they want to advance out of this series and return to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010.

«We just had a good session that we looked at how physical they were, how aggressive they were at the start of the game,» Celtics coach Ime Udoka said after Boston's practice Sunday afternoon. «We were kind of caught off guard by that. But I could have done a better job coaching us, preparing us for that. I mentioned it quite a few times, but the team did as well.

»Miami, historically, since I've played against them for 10-plus years now, is they try to go harder and try to be more physical, and it wasn't a bunch of adjustments. It's increasing their physicality… Marcus mentioned it before the game, Al mentioned it, I mentioned it, and so it was a little disappointing to get caught off guard like that with us knowing that's really what