Everything you need to know about the Heat's 112-106 win over the Celtics with BSJ insight and analysis
Box Score
HEADLINES
Celtics' defense doesn’t show up until its too late against undermanned Heat: The schedule gods appeared to be on the Celtics' side tonight when they drew the Heat on the second half of a back-to-back with Jimmy Butler (ankle) taking the night off. Boston had a chance to essentially clinch the No. 3 seed with a victory but instead found themselves digging out of a 15-point deficit for the final three quarters. The defense was primarily to blame as the Heat piled up 91 points in the first three quarters and held off a couple of late Boston rallies to secure a 112-106 victory.
Five different players scored in double figures for the Heat, led by center Bam Adebayo (21 points, career-high 18 free throw attempts) and Duncan Robinson (21 points).
Jayson Tatum led the C’s with 23 points but the C’s had an inefficient shooting night overall, knocking down just 31 percent of their 3s and 43 percent from the field. That combined with a parade to the FT stripe by the Heat (39 attempts on the night) built a double-digit lead early for Miami that Boston wasn’t able to fully dig out of.
The C’s lead in the East for the No. 3 seed is now down to 1.5 games with five games left to play.
Kemba Walker plays crunch time but doesn’t get help: The All-Star got his first taste of crunch time in the Orlando bubble after his minutes limit jumped up to 27 minutes. Brad Stevens used the extra time to insert him in the final four minutes of the game but Walker was the only Celtic to make a field goal in that time, knocking down a pair of 3s. Turnovers and missed shots wreaked havoc late for the rest of Boston’s starters as the Heat used a 6-0 run in the final four minutes to put the game away. Walker finished with 15 points and 4 assists in 27 minutes
TURNING POINT
The Celtics never took the lead in the second half but they got mighty close in the third quarter, pulling within one point with six minutes left in the frame at the end of a 15-1 run. The Heat counterpunched quickly, however (partly thanks to a questionable Hayward charge) building the lead back up to 12 with a 14-3 run in a mere three minutes. The Celtics weren’t able to overcome that deficit for the final 15 minutes.
TWO UP
Enes Kanter: The big man used his size advantage down low in this one to perfection, scoring 10 quick points in 15 minutes thanks to five offensive rebounds. The Heat’s perimeter shooters kept his minutes down but the case could have been made to roll with him a little bit more in this one.
Jayson Tatum: He led the C’s in scoring for the second straight game with 23 points on 11 shot attempts. He has now shot over 50 percent in two straight games while getting to the free-throw line an average of nine times per game after his dud in the Orlando opener.
TWO DOWN
Marcus Smart: Brad Stevens doesn’t let foul trouble dictate his rotations and that came back to bite him in the second half after Smart picked up his sixth foul with four minutes left in the third quarter. The point guard was having a nightmare game anyway (0 points, 0-of-5 shooting, -16) but his absence but Boston’s offense in a bit of a bind in the second half.
3-point shooting: This is the way to beat the Heat’s zone and outside of a hot shooting night from deep for Kemba Walker, the C’s were miserable on this front. Without Walker, the C’s were 6-of-26 from downtown with Hayward/Brown combining to go 0-of-10. Semi Ojeleye (1-of-5) struggled as well as the C’s failed to match Miami’s long-range prowess.
TOP PLAY
HERE COMES THEIS ? pic.twitter.com/aZE4zjfYJB
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) August 5, 2020
TWO TAKES B-ROBB WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
It’s time to worry about the Celtics' defense a bit: Struggling against the Bucks and a high-powered Blazers offense (No. 1 in bubble so far) is one thing. Failing to contain the Heat without Jimmy Butler is a whole different equation. The Celtics were pretty close to full strength in this one but they couldn’t sustain good defensive possessions until the fourth quarter. The Heat don’t really have any good shot creators beyond Goran Dragic with Butler out but they still managed to get to the free-throw line, nail open 3s and crush the offensive glass for the better part of 48 minutes. Through 12 quarters of Orlando basketball right now, the Celtics have played maybe 3 or 4 good quarters of defense. That’s not going to get the job done against any team in the postseason. It will be on Stevens to get this group playing at a higher level on this end of the floor before the playoffs begin.
The best-five lineup did not look good: For just the seventh time this season, and first time in Orlando, Stevens went with his ‘best-five’ lineup (Smart in place of Theis) to close the first half. The net results were not pretty as Bam Adebayo feasted in the post against Smart (leading to a career-high 19 free throw attempts) and the Heat outscored 10-4 over a four-minute stretch. The performance reinforced why Stevens has strayed from using this lineup much all year long. The Celtics need to be razor-sharp defensively in order to handle the necessary switching and mismatches that going so small creates and this team isn’t playing hard or well enough to do that on the defensive end right now. If it isn’t coming to work against a smaller team like the Heat, I’m not sure it’s going to work well against anyone so this might be a look that we see get put on ice for a while (again).