BSJ ECF Game 5 Report: Celtics 93, Heat 80 - Second half surge leads to gutsy win and control of the series

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, with BSJ insight and analysis.

IN A NUTSHELL

The first half was an ugly mess for both teams. The Celtics were once again bitten by the turnover bug, giving it up 10 times for 12 Heat points. They also gave up 16 second-chance points off nine Heat offensive rebounds. Basically, 28 of Miami’s 42 halftime points were preventable if Boston rebounded and protected the ball. Luckily, they were only down 5. The Celtics cleaned all that up in the third quarter, turning it over once and allowing no second-chance points, and suddenly that five-point deficit was an 11-point lead. That lead quickly grew to 23 thanks to a 24-2 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters. Miami made a run late in the game, but never truly threatened again.

Box Score

HEADLINES

Second-half turnaround: The Celtics cut down the turnovers, they rebounded, and they started working their offense. The difference was stark as the shots started to fall. 

“Yeah, we weren't playing our best in the first half in a lot of ways,” Ime Udoka said. “Too many turnovers, too many offensive rebounds, second-chance points, things that we've emphasized. With that being said, they had 47 points at the half. We felt we were in good shape if we cleaned up turnovers, limited them.”

Miami's out of gas: If the Celtics come out strong to start the first quarter in Game 6, they’ll run away with the game. The Heat have been beaten into the ground this series, and between injuries and ineffectiveness, they seem like a beaten team. 

Close out game Friday: The Celtics can get to the NBA Finals with a win on Friday night. 

… can you even believe that's an actual sentence about this team? If I would have told you at Christmas that I’d write that sentence in late May, there would have been a riot to get me booted from BSJ. But, here we are. The Celtics are a win away from the NBA Finals. 

TURNING POINT

Jayson Tatum hit two free throws with 5:22 left in the third when Miami had a 17 second stretch where they missed four 3-pointers (one was blocked by Robert Williams), two of them wild misses by Victor Oladipo. Hitting any one of those shots might have changed the dynamic of the game. Miami did cut it to 1, 59-58, but Boston closed the third quarter on a 10-0 run, which extended to a 24-2 run into the fourth and an 83-60 lead. 

DOWN 

Let’s flip this around a little bit, because everyone was down in the first half and I don’t want to just give “ups” with the caveats all over the place. The Celtics' first half was gross, so everyone takes a hit for having a down game. 

Also, I’m not going to ding Marcus Smart for his game too much considering how much he’s gutting through that ankle sprain. 

FIVE UP

Jaylen Brown: The turnovers were a massive problem that he straightened out in the second half. He had no turnovers after 4 in the first half -- 3 in the first quarter. He shot 8-12 in the second half and combined with Tatum to carry the team after halftime. He finished 25 points on 10-19 shooting (5-9 3pt). 

Jayson Tatum: Tatum didn’t have a great shooting night (7-20 fg), but he was 6-11 in the second half. He had 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists after halftime, and 22/12/9 overall. 

Derrick White: He was good from the get go. Weirdly, Smart getting into early foul trouble helped the Celtics because White came into the game and made an instant impact not only hitting a couple of shots, but lofting a nice touch pass alley oop to Al Horford. 

“Derrick the last two games has been fantastic,” Brown said. “How he came out today again was huge. Derrick has been playing great these last two games. He's been essential. We need him to keep playing with that same type of aggression. He was just fantastic tonight. Poise under control, made timely baskets.”

Al Horford: His fingerprints were all over that third quarter for the Celtics. He had 6 points, 3 rebounds, and an assist in the third, and 16/7/5 overall. 

Robert Williams: A slow start and he’s obviously not 100% but his second-half defense was awesome. He blocked 3 shots in this game, and 2 of those were corner 3-pointers. He didn’t do much in the way of scoring, but he finished with 10 rebounds in 27 minutes. 

TOP PLAYS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- These were gutsy performances

Robert Williams isn’t 100%. Smart isn’t either. Tatum’s arm clearly went dead a few times early in the game. 

These guys have been going at an every-other-day pace while playing 40-plus minutes (Tatum played nearly 45 in this one) for about a month now while playing high-level, super-physical playoff basketball. 

They are beat.

But Williams gave them just enough to beat Miami down a bit further. Smart hit a huge 3-pointer to beat the shot clock in the middle of the third when the game was still very much in doubt. Tatum shrugged off some horrible early shooting to lead the C’s in the second half while also being the team’s primary distributor. Of his 9 assists, 5 of them were for 3-pointers, 3 of those went to Brown.

There are no style points awarded for winning these games, which is great because Boston would have had a lot of deductions early in the game. The Celtics treated this game like it was a must win, and they went to Miami and won it. 

We’ve questioned a lot about this team all year. There's still a lot of it going on in the comments. 

I’d hope that now, a win away from going to the NBA Finals, we can get past some of the early issues this team had. 

This is a mentally tough team that wore Miami down in Game 5 and gave themselves a chance to win the series Friday night. They gutted out this win and they deserve the accolades that go along with that.