MIAMI — At first, the night seemed headed for a back-and-forth brawl. And for chunks of the game, it was just that. But in the final few minutes of the first quarter on Wednesday night, the Boston Celtics made their mark.
They blitzed the Miami Heat, pouring in 53 first-quarter points. Despite a valiant comeback effort by the Heat in the third, Boston managed to maintain the advantage it created in the first quarter for the remainder of the night.
By the final buzzer, the Celtics had tallied 147 points to the Heat’s 129, earning a dominant victory in South Beach.
But how did it happen?
1. The 53-point first quarter
All gas, no brakes. There isn’t a better way to describe what unfolded in the first quarter. Jaylen Brown scored. Then Bam Adebayo. Back and forth and back and forth. Neither the Heat nor the Celtics could get a stop.
But once the first-quarter clock hit 4:41, Boston surged ahead.
Miami’s offensive success slowly fizzled out, but the Celtics kept on pushing forward. They shot 20-of-28 from the field and 11-of-15 from deep range as a team in the first frame.
How?
“One, we got up to a good start pace-wise. I thought we executed pretty well, and there's times when you execute well, and you get good shot after good shot, and that just kind of happened,” said Joe Mazzulla. “So, usually when you're in moments like that, you start to feel it, and you take poor shots. We didn't do that.
“We kept fighting for a good look, the next best look, and I thought that kind of kept the momentum going a little bit. We maybe took one bad shot, maybe two bad shots during that stretch. The key is having the discipline to continue to get a good shot when it's falling like that. I thought the guys did that.”
The Celtics weren't perfect in the first quarter. But they were very disciplined. As Mazzulla mentioned, they only took a couple of bad shots the entire quarter. At no point did the Celtics seem rushed, confused, or overeager.
They played a methodical, well-thought-out brand of basketball.
Look at this play. At this point, Brown had been torching Miami all night. So, Baylor Scheierman orchestrates a play to capitalize on that.
Scheierman calls for Luka Garza to begin the play by screening Brown up out of the corner. Garza sets it, Scheierman passes to Brown, and then Garza immediately gets back into the play.
But don’t watch Scheierman. Don’t watch Brown. Don’t watch Garza.
Watch Pelle Larsson.
Garza’s screen forced Tyler Herro to switch onto Brown. Boston sees that as an advantageous matchup. Larsson was supposed to be guarding Brown, so when he gets switched off him, his eyes are still locked on Brown.
So, Garza sets a second straight off-ball screen -- this time for Scheierman -- Brown makes an easy pass, and since Kel’el Ware is in drop defense, Scheierman gets (and makes) an open three.
Boston didn’t just run plays to get role players involved, though. Jayson Tatum’s first