MIAMI — It turns out the Boston Celtics were only mostly dead, which, as we know, is slightly alive.
The Celtics spent their Monday “galvanizing,” as Jaylen Brown put it. Gathering at an undisclosed location for an afternoon of “coming together, talking it out … we wanted to make sure that we looked each other in the eye and came out today and put our best foot forward.”
The rumor is they got together at Top Golf to have some fun drilling some golf balls and getting their frustrations out. Maybe they took a side-trip to Miracle Max’s for a nice chocolate-coated miracle to bring them back in time to storm Miami’s castle. Whatever they did, it worked, at least for one night.
“I think anytime you're in a do-or-die situation it forces you to build an awareness and perspective,” Joe Mazzulla said. “It's always been there, and I think just the perspective of understanding just a week ago we had it, and so it's just fragile during these times. So, we just had to remind each other of that, and I thought the guys were pretty well connected.”
Much like Westley in The Princess Bride, coming back to full life was a slow process. They gave up an 18-6 run in the first quarter and ultimately fell behind by nine points, but they answered with a 17-5 run of their own. They fell behind by nine again early in the third, and whipped off an 18-0 run, 12 of which came after a key Mazzulla timeout. In the fourth, Boston had their own nine-point lead but Miami cut it to five with Jayson Tatum off the floor.
Mazzulla called another timeout, and Boston responded with a 14-3 run.
“Honestly to start the third quarter, could have went the other way,” Tatum said. “We gave up some threes. They got -- we turned the ball over. But I think we just have to settle down a little bit. We saw a couple go in, and we started to play free. We were getting stops, getting out in transition, the ball was popping, and we was just finding guys.”
The second half in Miami was exactly what everyone has been looking for. Boston won it by 23. They played defense, forcing nine turnovers for 19 points, stealing the ball five times and blocking nine shots. They protected the ball, only giving it up twice for four points. They shot well, going 9-20 from 3 while racking up 15 assists.
“We were just playing Celtics basketball on the defensive end,” Marcus Smart said. “Everybody was helping one another. We were going to take it. Weren't leaving it up for grabs as much as we usually did and it showed tonight. That's just how we've got to continue to play.”
There's a way for Boston to pull off a miracle comeback in this series. However unlikely, there's a path for a second seed to win four in a row against an eighth seed. If Miami can win three in a row, Boston certainly has a chance to do the same. From there, Game 7 becomes a bit of a toss up.
“We feel like we found some good things here tonight,” Al Horford said. “The biggest thing was the ball movement. The ball wasn’t sticking so much. And I feel like we kinda found what it takes to be the best version of ourselves.”
At this point, the series has become Mazzulla’s movie obsession The Town and the Celtics are trying to figure out a way to rob the Kaseya Center instead of Fenway Park.
They’ll need more than nun masks and someone willing to look the other way to make this heist work.
The Celtics snagged the easiest game in this series to steal. As much as Miami wanted to sweep, it’s understandable that they wouldn’t have the added fire to close this out at home. As much as Boston was feeling themselves and their resolve to stay alive, the Heat were already chalking this up as just part of how things go.
“(We’re going to) stay consistent. Do the same thing that I do, that we do, after every game,” Jimmy Butler, who had a decidedly average game, said. “We are going to listen to some music. We're going to drink some beers back there. We are going to go have some wine … We're going to smile. We're going to be in this thing together like we always are, and we are going to go get one on the road.”
The Heat follow Butler’s lead, and he oozes confidence. If Boston is going to extend this another game, they're going to have to break through that wall and have Miami start questioning themselves. That's much easier said than done.
But if they pull it off, then the pressure will be entirely on Miami in Game 6.
“We want to come back to Miami,” Brown said. “If that happens, I feel like we'll feel good about ourselves. The next one should be fun. It should be a big one, and we've got to come ready to play.”
