BSJ Game Report: Celtics 114, Heat 94 - C's go wire-to-wire for Game 1 blowout win

Everything you need to know about the Celtics win over the Heat in Game 1 of their opening-round playoff series, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics came out strong, scoring the first 14 points of the game, but Miami was able to answer and cut the lead to five by the break. The Celtics poured it on from 3 and got their lead to 18 before it settled at 15 at the half. The Celtics dominated the third quarter thanks to 10 each from Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, and then they completely let up to start the fourth, watching a 34-point lead drop to 14 before they recovered to win by 20. 

Box Score

HEADLINE

- 3-point barrage: The Celtics buried the Heat under a barrage of 3s, hitting 22 of 49 from deep while the Heat only went 12-37. That number is a little deceptive because Miami went 7-9 in the fourth, including 5-5 from Delon Wright. The Celtics didn’t really force many of their 3-pointers, doing a good job generating a lot of those clean looks. 

- No second chances: The other part of the math equation Miami needed was to get more possessions and they couldn't do that on the offensive boards. Boston won the second chance points battle 11-5 and only allowed five offensive rebounds. 

- Strong defense: Not only did Boston rebound well, it defended well overall, allowing just 38.7% shooting i over the first three quarters. The defense was swarming for all but that early fourth-quarter stretch.

TURNING POINT

Miami hit three shots in a row for a 7-0 run with a little more than eight minutes to go, making it a 12-point game. Boston answered by going on a 25-5 run to take a 32-point lead heading into the fourth. 

THINGS I LIKED

- The defense & rebounding: I mentioned it already, but this was why Boston was able to win so easily. The 34-point lead and 20-point final margin were nice and everyone hopes they can shoot 45% from 3 again, but the defense and rebounding we saw in this game will win any game of this series. 

Jayson Tatum: He dropped 23/10/10 for his first career playoff triple-double. 

“That was a beautiful game from him," Kristaps Porzingis said. “He was not forcing anything too much, getting everybody involved … he got everybody feeling good early on and that was a perfect game from him.”

Well, he was 1-8 from 3 so not perfect, but he did exactly what he should have done by drawing double teams, dragging the defenders away from the play, and setting up advantages for his teammates. Boston will win most games when teams commit two to Tatum and the rest of the team can play four-on-three. 

Jrue Holiday’s defense: Holiday hounded Tyler Herro, who finished 4-13 from the field, scoring only 11 points. Miami needs him to put up bigger numbers to have a chance, and Holiday was instrumental in not allowing that. 

Derrick White: He hit some big, timely shots, including one that stopped that fourth-quarter run by Miami, stabilizing things enough for Boston to finish strong. He’s a big shot-maker. 

Kristaps Porzingis: Mr. zone-buster was at it in this game, and his 4-8 from 3 was huge. He also blocked a couple of shots and altered a few more. 

Sam Hauser: After a rough start, he drained four straight 3-pointers to make up for how much he was targeted defensively. Kevin Love went at him a few times, burning him on post-ups. But if Hauser is hitting shots, then the post-ups are a trade-off Boston will live with. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- The fourth quarter: The Celtics were never really in jeopardy of losing, but they decided to make it interesting by completely quitting on the game while Miami made one last desperate dash to cut the lead down to 14.  

“I think we have to take that moment when they started to make that comeback as, like, use that as that driving force for us going forward,” Porzingis said. “They can make shots, they can make us, like, they can throw some punches back too, and they're dangerous too. So we cannot just take it for granted and be like ‘okay, we're going to just be able to walk past them.’ So just maintaining that healthy like edge for us going forward is going to be very important.”

- Jrue Holiday around the rim: Holy smoked bunnies, Batman. 

It was weird, and I don’t expect it to continue, but that could have been a problem on a night Boston didn’t hit nearly half their 3-pointers. 

HIGHLIGHTS

TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- I don't think Caleb Martin's play was dirty ... but I'm not ruling it out

I feel like Martin was jumping for a rebound. That was an offensive rebound opportunity and I think Martin was going for the ball. However, Brian Scalabrine's take on this isn't completely off base either

I know people think Miami is dirty and other will be plenty of arguments to that end in the comments section. I don't think they intended to do that to Tatum. Now, maybe they intended to throw a body at Tatum and hit him hard, and Tatum ended up jumping which made the play nearly disastrous. Maybe they did target Tatum no matter what. I don't think that's what happened, but I'm not going to pretend it's not possible.

- Joe Mazzulla mostly stuck to his rotations, which is fine in this series

Tatum played 41 minutes, but his early fourth-quarter performance made that possible. Everyone else was right in line with their regular season numbers. And as long as Miami is beatable like that, then I say keep it rolling. There's no reason to go full playoff minutes unless it’s absolutely necessary. Hauser and Payton Pritchard did a good job overall, so having them eat up minutes in a playoff series without it hurting is a major plus for the Celtics. 

With an extra day off early in this series, Boston can come out strong again at home Wednesday night and hopefully take a 2-0 series lead to Miami. A sweep and some extra time off ahead of Cleveland or Orlando with Pritchard and Hauser averaging 20-plus minutes per game would the best-case scenario. Being fresh heading into the final three rounds and the return of the every-other-day grind gives Boston the best chance of finding a closing kick in June.

- Just finish the job next time. 

Teams generally shouldn’t have to apologize for winning a playoff game by 20, so I’m not going to go there with Game 1. Still, it wasn’t great to watch the Heat cut the lead to a point where the Celtics had to call a timeout and refocus. 

The other team has something to do with runs, but Boston went into full walking mode, committing stupid turnovers, not getting back on defense, and allowing Miami to get hot and maybe some confidence heading into Game 2. 

The last thing we need is Delon Wright becoming this year’s Caleb Martin. Wright is a better shooter in general, but a 37% shooting turning into prime Ray Allen is not something we need to see. 

Each game will be different in this series, but when the opportunity to finish the job comes around, be ruthless about it and finish the job. 

Next up: Game 2 is Wednesday night at 7 p.m. here at TD Garden