BSJ Game Report: Celtics 118, Heat 84 - Boston demolishes Miami to win series 4-1

Everything you need to know about the Celtics win over the Heat in Game 5 of their opening-round series, with BSJ insight and analysis.

IN A NUTSHELL

Jaylen Brown and Derrick White carried the offense early in the first and then Boston unleashed a barrage of 3-pointers to take an 18 point lead after one. They pushed the lead out to 30 before Miami hit back a little bit, and the lead settled at 24 at the half. The Celtics opened the third on an 8-0 run and pushed the lead up to 34 at one point, and basically cruised to the finish from there. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Taking care of business: The Celtics never gave Miami a chance in this game. This is exactly what we wanted from them to show us that this year’s team is at least a little different than before. Instead of the “mess around with the Hawks and go to six games” Celtics, we got the “we’re done with this right now” Celtics. 

- White-Hot: That's the Miami playoff tagline but it mostly applied to Derrick White in this series. He finished with 25, hitting another 5-10 from 3 and continuing his amazing first-round run. He finished the series averaging 22.4 points on 57% shooting (47.7% from 3).

“He was super important,” Jayson Tatum said. “Whatever they were trying to take away from other guys that allowed him to free himself up and be aggressive and be in attack mode throughout the series. He's making the right plays, he was shooting the ball extremely well, obviously playing well on defense as he always does. So he’s just in a really good flow and rhythm right now and hopefully it continues to stay that way.”

- Rite of passage: More on this separately, but sometimes you just have to have a catharsis on your way to something bigger. Boston had to face Miami and they had to beat Miami, no matter who was or was not wearing those jerseys.

TURNING POINT

The Celtics went on a 21-8 run in the first quarter to turn an 11-11 tie into a 32-16 lead. Miami never challenged after that.

THINGS I LIKED

- The defense: Boston only gave up more than 100 points once in this series, which was Game 2. And after that, the Celtics gave up 84, 88, and 84 points. The Heat were complicit in that for sure, failing to run the kind of offense that won them Game 2 in any other game. But Boston also played a role in that, running Miami off the line much more aggressively in games 3-5. 

Here’s the stat of the series: After giving up 23 3-pointers in Game 2, Boston gave up 21 in Games 3, 4, and 5. 

Jayson Tatum: This is more about him just giving the game what it needed. He took nine shots but he finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds and was a team-best +35. There may be some games where he needs to score 45 for Boston to win. But his willingness to not shoot, to draw defenders, and open the game up for everyone else is what’s making him valuable right now.

Jaylen Brown: He didn’t shoot well from 3 and he is struggling from the line, but he was aggressively attacking the mismatches down low. He put a lot of pressure on Miami’s defense. 

- Al Horford: Just for the two straight offensive rebounds and then getting fired up about it afterward, which then got the crowd amped up. 

- Luke Kornet: He did a good job on Adebayo, blocking him straight up on one play that led to a Jrue Holiday 3-pointer on the other. Later, Adebayo caught it against Kornet and upfaked twice before dribbling away to clear some space to shoot. And then offensively he moved the ball well, passing to Brown out of the short roll for an easy basket.  

- Sam Hauser: 17 points off the bench, hitting 5-8 from 3 and adding a baseline drive and dunk for good measure. Boston really piles up the points when Hauser is hot. He’s rarely part of a stretch of trading buckets. Hauser might lead the league in timeouts after he makes a shot. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- The missed free throws: Just a weird anomaly, but Boston shot 66.7% (18-27) from the line. This has sneakily been an issue. I hope it doesn’t linger. 

HIGHLIGHTS

TWO KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Given the full context, the Game 2 reactions were over the top.

I’m not going to get into a big thing here, but Boston’s four wins were all pretty easy and their one loss in the series required Miami to set a team record for 3-pointers. I’m not excusing Boston for their lax defense in lighting the fuse for Game 2, but also everything had to go right in that game for Miami. 

It’s not my place to say how people should react, but I’d like to at least hope that this season has shown us how this particular team operates. It’s not last year’s team. It’s also not a perfect team so they might slip from time to time. Maybe “panic” shouldn’t be the default setting after losses. 

- Mike Gorman’s last game 

Here’s what I’m going to do tomorrow. I’m going to sit in front of my TV, call up my recording of this game, and just enjoy Mike Gorman’s final broadcast. I’m not taking notes. I’m not looking for any nuance. I’m just going to sit back and soak it in. 

I’m sad that Mike’s time as a play-by-play man is done, but I’m happy he got to go out on his own terms. As I’ve said a million times, that's the ultimate accomplishment in this business. Most people just fade away, hoping for one more chance at something they had. Mike got to call his own shot, and that's a testament to his greatness. 

Next up: The Celtics await the winner of Cav/Magic. If the Cavs finish the series Friday night, Game 1 will be Sunday. If it goes seven, then Game 1 will be Tuesday.