Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics 129-121 loss to the Miami Heat with BSJ insight and analysis.
HEADLINES
Miami is just better at this point: No Jaylen Brown and No Robert Williams significantly reduce Boston’s chances against anyone. A Miami Heat team that went to the Conference Finals last season and has finally gotten healthy after its own short turnaround and COVID-19 issues is just too much. The Celtics certainly made plenty of mistakes, but Miami was hitting shots over any kind of defense, good or bad.
Hello seventh seed: It’s still technically possible for the Celtics to get out of the play-in tournament, but it’s probably not likely. That means we have to prepare for a game, probably on Tuesday. That will mean a lot of rest ahead for the final few games so they can make sure they’re ready for Tuesday.
TURNING POINT
The Celtics had cut the lead to 76-73, but Miami went on a 17-4 run and put too much room between them and Boston for the Celtics to overcome.
THREE UP
Kemba Walker: Another monster offensive night for Walker, who dropped 36 points on 51.9% shooting. He’s on a heater we haven’t seen in years. It’s a shame it’s being wasted in such a horrible stretch.
“The shots have been falling for me. Just what I gotta do at this point,” he said. “We're down one of our better scorers. Guy who averages a whole bunch of points. Gotta try to make up for that, someway somehow. I just want to continue to do what I can to take the opportunities that are presented to me. That's really it. I just want to win. That's all I want to do is win and try to find the way to win and help my team win. That's all I want to do."
Jayson Tatum: He wasn’t dominating in this game, but he dropped 33 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists, continuing a pattern of Tatum being able to “quietly” score 30.
Evan Fournier: When 20 points on 7-15 shooting represent cooling off, then you know you’re on a hot streak. Fournier has found his groove on offense.
THREE DOWN
Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, Evan Fournier: All three, especially Walker, found himself on the wrong end of defensive lapses. The Heat targeted Walker in post-ups, Tatum was lax on the perimeter, and Fournier found himself late or lost too often.
After the game, Walker admitted that “individually we’ve just got to kind of all look in the mirror and ask ourselves, ‘Are we giving it every single thing we have at that end of the floor?’ And to be honest, we’re not, not on every possession. It might be a few possessions, it might be a few in a row, but then we take a few off. That’s all of us. We’ve just got to look in that mirror. We’ve got to look in that mirror. If we really want to win and take this thing to another level, that’s what we’ve got to do.”
Yikes.
TOP PLAY
Fournier👌 pic.twitter.com/QB8xu8QV9l
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 12, 2021
ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
At what point does that look in the mirror yield results? I know what Kemba Walker was saying in that quote, but it’s not different than most of the quotes from this season. To hear it after this game, again, with three games left in the season?
What are you guys seeing in the mirror?
It’s an indictment on themselves to tell us ‘we try, but not always.’
This has been a tough season for everyone involved, and there are very valid reasons why the team doesn’t play well sometimes. I’ve looked at this team from every angle and I can tell you all the different things that are out of this team’s control that have contributed to a rough season. Those are all understandable to me, even when I’m being accused of making excuses for them.
What is not acceptable is any lack of effort. Just trying is the most basic ask of any team. They can be good or bad, make some mistakes or none at all, but if they are at least trying, then we can figure out the rest.
But here they are, time and time again, talking about finding something within themselves, looking in mirrors, and the like. What they never seem to do is actually find anything with that soul searching.
It’s mind-boggling, really. Why should anyone expect that anything will be any different this time?
"It just has to,” Walker said. “It's just obvious. Just that time. That's it."
Fournier and Aaron Nesmith’s nights are evidence that Nesmith should have started. Nesmith didn’t exactly light up the world out there with his 6 point night, but it probably would have been a much better night had he logged early minutes playing off the starters.
Meanwhile, Fournier could have bolstered the bench, which, at one point late in the game, was outscored by Dewayne Dedmon. He had 6 points at the time.
Fournier’s firepower would have just balanced things a little bit better. I’m not sure if it would have made a difference, but it could have helped stem some of Miami’s runs.