BSJ Game Report: Celtics 129, Heat 116 - White's 33, C's fourth quarter shooting, snaps losing streak

Everything you need to know about the Celtics' win over Miami, with BSJ insight and analysis.

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics gave up a ton of rebounds and didn’t play great, but they took a one-point lead into the second. The Heat caught fire but, luckily for Boston, so did Derrick White and game was tied at halftime. Jaylen Brown lived at the line in the third and Boston took a three-point lead into the fourth. The C’s got hot from 3 to start the quarter to suddenly break the game open and run away with it and snap their two-game losing streak.

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Getting hot at the right time: Miami was winning the 3-point battle for probably 65-70% of the night. Then, with about four minutes to go in the third, the Heat went cold and the Celtics got blistering hot. 

“I thought the biggest turning point was our offense down at the end of the third quarter,” Erik Spoelstra said after the game. “You had a couple turnovers, three turnovers, just got us away from what was being successful for us, and then they came down and had four threes … when we were making mistakes and then created confusion, and then they had open threes that just broke the game open from there.”

This is a classic “this is why you keep shooting” game for the Celtics. 

- Holy hot shooting, Derrick White: He shot 9-14 from 3, raising his 3-point percentage nearly two full points. His banked-in heat check in the fourth was ridiculous. 

- 3s mask an otherwise bad game: The Celtics got crushed on the boards for most of the game, which led to allowing 20 more field goal attempts. They also turned the ball over and fouled too much, so we got all of their deficiencies in one game. This is a rare one where they were burned by a lot of bad things but still won. 

TURNING POINT 

Boston opened the fourth quarter 6-6 from 3 and turned a three-point game into a 14-point game in a blink. They did it all with Brown on the bench. The funny part is that Brown stepped right off the bench and buried a 3 as well, which got some eye rolls from Heat defenders who were clearly frustrated by the barrage. 

THINGS I LIKED

- Sticking with it: The Celtics were struggling from beyond the arc for a long time. Miami was out-shooting them both in terms of volume and accuracy. Here’s how it looked with four minutes to go in the third quarter

And then things started to turn. Here’s how the game went after that moment. 

“I thought we put strings of good defensive possessions that allowed us to get out and get those,” Joe Mazzulla said. “That's where the connectivity of that lineup has to be there. We have to be able to have one-shot defense, and we have to be able to get out and run.” 

When the Celtics finally started rebounding, they were able to hit a few and get going. 

- Welcome back Sam Hauser: I was starting to feel like Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House screaming “ALL IS WELL” while I got trampled by the people jumping off the Hauser bandwagon. Then he got hot and went 5-6 from 3 to lead the Celtics bench with 15 points. 

I’ve been saying he’ll turn it around, and he’ll soon go on a heater that gets him back over 40% for the season. This might be the start of it. 

Derrick White, obviously: 33 points on 11-20 shooting, 9-14 from 3. He also had five rebounds, six assists, and four blocked shots. He’s the first Celtic to put up all those numbers with the nine 3-pointers, a classic media manipulation of the statistical sliders that got White laughing during the recitation of the numbers. 

Hugo Gonzalez: His +22 was behind only White’s +27. He got extended run in this game with a variety of matchups. 

“I just thought his energy was great on guarding both (Kel’el) Ware and (Bam) Adebayo,” Mazzulla said. “I thought there were a couple of defensive possessions in the first half where he did a great job on that, and I just thought he was tremendous on both ends of the floor. I think that's who he has to be for us. He didn't play perfect, but played with a level of energy, a level of awareness and execution on the offensive end.”

Anfernee Simons: He finally got it going, scoring 14 on 6-10 shooting (2-5 3pt). The Celtics' bench put up 41 points. That's rare, but it’s also what they're capable of doing.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- Rebounding: They were small for a lot of the game, but they still have to find a way to box out. Also, Queta was on the floor for a lot of it, too. I’ll say it again … the Celtics don’t have to be good at rebounding to win, they just have to be not disgustingly bad. They were disgustingly bad for stretches and they were about to lose. They stopped being terrible and they turned it around. 

- Baylor Scheierman: His five minutes were a disaster. 

- Not attacking Norm Powell early: He got his second foul about four minutes into the first quarter. Spoelstra sent a sub to the scorer’s table and Powell waved it off. So Spo called the sub back and left Powell on the floor. 

The Celtics never attacked him after that. They didn’t put him in a single action the rest of the quarter. I was actually angry at the Celtics because it felt like a basic strategy against a team on a back-to-back with half their roster missing. Why not attack their second-best player and force him to either give up ground or trip into his third foul? 

It still bothers me. The Celtics aren’t always great at attacking in these situations. Brown kept attacking the Kasparas Jakucionis matchup instead of calling Powell into pick-and-rolls. Even if the Heat pre-switched, force them to make the decision and put them at risk of making a mistake. 

HIGHLIGHTS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Jaylen Brown is having one of the most confusing stretches I’ve seen.

He kind of did this last game, but I’m doing this again because my eyes had me asking “What’s up with Jaylen?” multiple times. He looked off and slow for so much of the night. He kept attacking Jakucionis and failing. He went into halftime with six points on 2-7 shooting with three turnovers. 

And then he dropped 15 in the third, but even the,n I felt like he was just hurtling himself into crowds and getting the calls. I didn’t think he was attacking with any sort of plan. He got hot in the fourth, which was his best stretch of basketball, but I didn’t see much that made me think Brown was playing well at all. 

And then I look at the box score, and he has 30 points on 50% shooting, 10-11 from the line, nine rebounds, and seven assists. He shot 9-18 from the field, 2-4 from 3, and he got to the line 11 times and was nearly perfect. 

I’m very much Ron Burgundy right now. I’m not even mad. I’m actually impressed. There's no way I can convince anyone who didn’t see the game that Brown was having an off night. There's no way you can look at the box score and think that. But I swear I saw what I saw. 

Next Up: The Celtics travel to Toronto for a game Saturday night