BSJ Game Report: Heat 124, Celtics 103 - C's stumble again returning from long road trip

Everything you need to know about the Celtics loss to the Heat, with BSJ insight and analysis.

IN A NUTSHELL

Luke Kornet scored 10 early points but sat with foul trouble and Boston struggled to score after that. Jayson Tatum’s nightmare first half (1-8 fg, 8 points) made things very tough for the Celtics while the Heat shot their way to 59 points and a 14-point halftime lead. The Celtics looked bad in the third but caught fire to get within single digits at one point. They got it to five with 7:46 to go in the game but Miami recovered to hold Boston off. This loss matched their worst loss of the season (-21 vs the Lakers in January)

Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday missed the game.

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Another home stinker: You might think I’m starting with a negative, but I’m giving you the best possible news at this moment. The Celtics are done with long road trips. They have a two-city trip next week and then it’s nothing but playoff travel, which is a different animal. We should all be happy about this because Boston is 0-5 at home after road trips lasting three games or more. 

- Slo Mo killer: Kyle Anderson’s 19 points were a season-high. So were his seven made field goals. His nickname “Slo Mo” might be the most appropriate nickname of all time. I felt like Krusty the Clown screaming at the Washington Generals to just take the ball from the Harlem Globetrotters. How does someone who moves at what feels like half speed get free like he did?

- Luke Kornet, though!: It was good to see him still playing well. The final deficit was 21 when the garbage time dust settled, but Kornet managed to finish the game a +3, the only Celtic to put up a positive +/-. 

TURNING POINT 

Jaylen Brown badly missed a 3-pointer after cutting the lead to five, which led to an open dunk for Miami. Then Derrick White missed a 3 which led to another Miami score. Then Sam Hauser missed a 3 when led to free throws. The White turned it over and Pelle Larsson hit a 3. The lead was 13. Davion Mitchell’s 3 after a Tatum free throw capped an 11-1 run and Joe Mazzulla threw in the towel. 

THINGS I LIKED

- Kornet keeping it going: I think Kornet’s foul trouble early in the game could also be a turning point. He subbed out with the game tied at 17 in the first quarter. Miami closed it out on a 12-5 run and played with a lead the rest of the way. He didn't match up against Bam Adebayo as directly as I thought, which probably contributed to his great play, but either way it’s good to see him keep it going. He finished with 14 points, six rebounds (all offensive), and two assists.

- Jaylen Brown (except…): His overall numbers were good: 24 points, 50% shooting, nine rebounds, four assists. There's no arguing that he found a way to be effective. Also, he’s clearly not 100%. 

“I was in some pain today, but just pushing through it,” he said after the game. “Trying to find ways to still be aggressive and add value to the team and stuff like that. But it’s something I’ve got to work through and manage.”

Is it though? I’m going to say what I have to say down below and that’ll be it. 

- Coming back in the second half: Am I grasping at a silver lining here? I dunno, maybe. But I think it’s good to see the Celtics tried to win. They played like crap, but they didn’t fully mail this game in. That means at least a little bit … more than nothing, anyway. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- How predictable this was: We all saw this coming. Everyone knew this was going to be sloppy and disjointed. At one point, I swear I saw these guys glitch like a video game where two guys made the exact same move as Tatum dribbled at the top of the key. The decisions were bad, the reactions were slow, and the shooting was mostly terrible. 

“I thought there were moments where we executed well offensively and then moments where we didn’t make the best possible read,” Mazzulla said. “We need to make better reads … I think they just played better than us tonight.”

- Shooting woes: Speaking of crappy shooting, Tatum was 4-17 (2-9 3pt) and only scored 16. White was 2-7 from 3. Payton Pritchard and Brown were each 2-6. Boston shot 12-43 from 3 while Miami shot 14-30. 

- Miami’s bench going off: The Celtics lost the bench battle 45-27, some of which was inflated by garbage time. Through three quarters, it was 33-15 Miami, so it was still not great. In addition to Anderson going off, Davion Mitchell went 3-6 from deep, including skipping down the court after his last one while Mazzulla called that final timeout. Torrey Craig shot 1-5 (0-3 3pt) in 19 minutes, which hurt. I know it’s too much to ask the bench to win the point differential on a night three rotation guys sat out, but losing it by this much wasn’t ideal.

HIGHLIGHTS

TWO TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Maybe I was too hopeful about this game.

I’m not retracting what I said after the win in Memphis, but I will admit I that putting an emphasis on this game as a sign they are back to last year’s level was probably too much. Though, to be fair, I didn’t think they’d sit Holiday, Horford, AND Porzingis. 

- I REALLY hope Jaylen Brown knows what he’s doing.

He swears he has a plan to be right for the playoffs. 

"I’ve seen some specialists and stuff like that, but we’ve got a great medical staff and we’ve got good people around,” he said after the game. “So come playoffs, my goal is to be feeling my best. So we’re just working through that, and it’s a thing that we kind of manage and you push through, but we’ve got a good plan in place. So come playoffs, my goal is to be feeling my best.”

That might be the goal, but is this truly the path to take to get there? Is playing through the pain enough worth it? What I don’t like is a quote like this: 

“It's a good step forward,” he said of his performance against Miami. “I've had to come to grips that every night I'm not going to feel my normal self. But that doesn't mean I still can't make plays and things like that. So it's just something that we are working through. Today was a good step forward. I got some stuff lined up with the medical staff in order to be and feel better come playoffs. But as for now, just mentally working through not feeling great, but still able to find ways to be effective, I guess.”

I asked him directly if the 65-game threshold was part of why he was playing and he flatly said “no.” I don’t buy it, but it is what it is. I don't want to spend every game harping on the knee, but watching him play is kind of tough sometimes. He’s trying to land differently and he’s clearly favoring the knee on certain plays. My biggest fear at this point is that he’ll hurt something else trying to compensate for this injury, and that will be a worst-case scenario. 

Next up: The Celtics face the Wizards here at home on Friday night