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.
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.
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