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 make of the game was a result of off-ball screening.
Here, Tatum comes off a screen and runs all the way to the right corner. There, he gets yet another screen from Sam Hauser, and then when Neemias Queta goes to set another, he slips to the rim, pulling his defender with him.
Queta’s roll forces Adebayo to sink into the paint, and the set of screens gives Tatum just enough space to nail a three over Larsson.
These were the types of plays that Boston found success running in the first quarter. They employed elite ball and player movement combined with Brown and Tatum’s innate gravity.
The results? 53 points.
2. Jaylen Brown’s adjustment
On Monday night, Brown endured his self-proclaimed worst game of the season. He put up decent counting stats but shot just 9-of-29 from the floor and turned the ball over six times in the Celtics’ 109-102 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
Just two days later, he erased that game.
“Just play better than I played in Atlanta,” Brown said of his mindset heading into Wednesday. “That was a back-to-back, but in my first game back, I didn't like how that game kind of went, so I wanted to come back with an aggressive mindset tonight, make up for the last game.”
Brown exploded in the first quarter, scoring Boston’s first 11 points of the night. He finished the first with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting from deep, and 2-of-2 shooting from the free-throw line.
But it was less about the points themselves and more about Brown’s approach.
On Monday, Brown seemed rushed. The ball wasn’t sticking to his hand like it normally does. He was just a bit discombobulated.
That couldn’t have been further from the case on Wednesday.
On the very first play of the game, Brown came off a Hauser screen and received a pass from Tatum on the wing. He pump-faked, got Andrew Wiggins in the air, and drove the rim for an easy bucket.
The play was all about patience. Brown could have pulled up for three. He could have driven immediately. He could have waited and called for a screen. But he chose his spot perfectly.
Again here, Brown’s patience earned him a bucket.
Davion Mitchell -- a hard-nosed, defense-first guard -- is guarding him in the post. Brown tries to go to the middle of the floor, but Adebayo is waiting for him.
So, he pivots immediately, spins around Mitchell, and two-steps his way through Miami’s help defense for a reverse layup at the rim.
As the game went on, Brown turned scoring into playmaking, completely dicing up the Heat’s defense.
Brown gets Herro on him and drives past him into the paint. As soon as he does so, Wiggins sprints over to help, and Scheierman shifts up to the wing to give Brown an outlet pass.
From there, it’s just a matter of an extra swing pass, and the Celtics get Hauser an open corner three.
Brown finished the night with a whopping 43 points to go along with three rebounds and seven assists. He shot 17-of-29 from the field, 4-of-10 from beyond the arc, and 5-of-7 from the charity stripe.
3. Jayson Tatum’s game-wide impact
Brown was the Celtics’ leading scorer. He was their primary offensive option from that lens. But Tatum was right there alongside him.
Tatum scored the ball well. He began the night 3-of-5 from downtown and ended the game with 25 points. As the game went on, he drove a bit more, too.
There were some questionable threes. That’s been the case with Tatum for years now. He finished the game shooting 4-of-13 from deep, and though some were within the flow of the offense (or late-shot-clock attempts), he threw up a few stagnant shots.
But Tatum’s impact stretched far beyond his scoring. In fact, his scoring took a back seat on Thursday night as his playmaking helped Boston pick up a victory.
“The Heat, great defensive team. They help, have high shifts. Just find a matchup that we want, attack, hesitate the nail if they stay with you, kick it if they don't, drive down the lane,” Tatum said. “Basketball's not that hard.”
Read and react. Basketball’s not that hard.
Here, Tatum comes off a screen from Queta and immediately splits Miami’s defense. Wiggins is left playing catch-up, and both Larsson and Adebayo sprint into the paint to pressure Tatum on the drive.
So, he kicks the ball to a cutting Brown, who spins for a mid-range bucket.
Then, on this play, Tatum realizes how out of sorts Miami’s zone defense is (and a couple of seconds into the clip, you can see Erik Spoelstra realize it on the sideline, too).
Watch Tatum’s face. As soon as he sees the gap in the Heat’s defense, he waits for Brown to slide up to the wing (bringing Herro with him) and fires a one-handed pass to Scheierman, who nails the floater.
But again, much like his scoring, Tatum’s playmaking wasn’t his defining trait on Wednesday night, either.
It was his rebounding.
Tatum grabbed 18 defensive rebounds on Wednesday night. That’s tied for the second-most any player has grabbed in a game this NBA season. Nikola Jokic and Chet Holmgren have each pulled down 19 defensive rebounds in a game this year, and Tatum is tied at 18 with Victor Wembanyama (who has had 18 twice, including on Wednesday night as well).
It wasn’t just an impressive rebounding performance. It wasn’t just being in the right place to pick up the ball. It was one of the best rebounding performances by any player this NBA season.
Tatum makes a clear and conscious effort to attack the glass on almost every possession.
But back to his statement: “Basketball’s not that hard.”
After going through what he described as the hardest thing he’s ever had to go through, rupturing his Achilles and working his way back, how has basketball remained “not that hard”?
“We try to just keep it simple, right?” Tatum said. “If it's two on the ball, pass it. If you're open, shoot it or drive it. Somebody else is open, pass it to him. Get back on defense. We try to keep it simple like that.”
4. Sam Hauser’s hot start
Brown’s 20-point first quarter was impressive, but Hauser was the headliner. He couldn’t miss. He didn’t miss. Literally.
Hauser shot 5-for-5 from beyond the 3-point line in the first quarter, draining three after three. He made Miami pay for helping off him.
“If you got Sam Hauser on the floor, you really can't help, and if you do, he'll make you pay, like tonight,” Brown said. “So, all of our guys have been shooting the ball pretty good as of late. But Sam has been really shooting the ball really well all season, kind of consistently.”
On this play, Tatum drove in transition, and all Hauser had to do was keep the floor spaced by standing in the corner.
On this play, Ware was in drop defense, so Hauser took advantage of a Garza screen and pulled up in transition.
Hauser got to his shot in a multitude of ways against Miami, and he didn’t just take threes.
“He's been getting to his middy a little bit,” Brown said. “He's been working on that. So, Sam has been in his bag.”
As for who has been encouraging the Hauser middies? Brown won’t take full credit. But he’ll take some.
“I wouldn't say I taught him,” Brown said with a smirk. “Maybe it's influence. A little influence there. But he's been doing great, just continuing to develop his game, and that's what we like to see.”
For Hauser, on the threes, in particular, it was all about letting the game come to him.
“Just right place, right time, sometimes,” he said. “And thanks to these guys for getting the ball to me when I was open, and on time and on target, and I just let it fly.”
As for if he saw anything from Miami’s defense that helped him be in the right place at the right time?
“Honestly, not really,” Hauser said. “Just sometimes, [that's] just how the game goes, and the ball finds you. And when you're open, it's your job to make it.”
5. Miami’s run
Wednesday night wasn’t perfect. There was a point in time when the Celtics almost blew their lead entirely. The Heat cut Boston’s lead down to nine points early in the fourth quarter.
On the surface, the third quarter was the problem. The Heat caught fire, outscoring the Celtics 45-32.
But according to Mazzulla, the problems started much earlier than that.
“I thought it started [with] about four minutes to go in the second quarter, was kind of when that run started,” Mazzulla said. “Just anytime you let a team go into halftime with a sense of life because of poor execution and things like that.”
Before Derrick White’s alley-oop and transition stop to close the second quarter, the Heat found a small spark.
With 3:38 to go in the second, the Celtics gave up an offensive rebound bucket to Larsson. They then turned the ball over three times in the next two minutes, one of which was a shot-clock violation.
The Heat didn’t capitalize well. Boston actually outscored Miami 8-4 in the last four minutes. But it was less about the actual points and more about the lifeline.
Boston got sloppy. They weren’t going through the same offensive steps that had worked for them up to that point. And in the third quarter, Miami pounced.
“In the third quarter, it was their threes” Mazzulla said. “I mean, they made threes. What saved us is [that] we didn't turn over. And I think we still got good shots, we still fought there. They went zone. We just missed shots, and they made them, so I think it was more about the middle of the second quarter where we let go of the rope a little bit. A team like that, as tough as they are, as physical as they are, as well-coached as they are, they're going to make a run. And so, I think it came then, and then we did a good job managing to start the fourth.”
Though the Heat weren’t able to make a run in the second, the Celtics’ lackluster execution cracked open the door for a comeback attempt in the third.
Miami kept Boston within striking distance, then, with 4:19 to go, it struck.
First, it was a run by Jaime Jaquez Jr. Empty Celtics offensive possessions quickly turned into Jaquez’s chance to flip the game on its head. He grabbed the ball off the rim after a Brown miss, drove the floor, and sank an and-one in the paint over Scheierman.
Then, as Mazzulla mentioned, the threes started falling.
In the final 3:30 of third-quarter action, the Heat drained six three-pointers, bringing their total to 11-of-15 in the third frame.
Missed Boston shots rapidly turned into open threes for Miami at the other end, as the Celtics’ defense failed to recover quickly enough.
After a Herro transition three early in the fourth cut Boston’s lead to nine, it finally stopped the bleeding. But poor offensive execution -- and Boston giving Miami a way back in the game in the second -- had the Celtics on the brink of a brutal collapse.
6. Neemias Queta was a monster
Brown scored 43 points. Tatum notched a triple-double. Hauser drained five threes in the first quarter -- a quarter in which Boston scored 53 points.
But hidden among the storylines was Queta.
The Portuguese big man was a behemoth in the paint on Wednesday night. Not only did he check Adebayo, but he also made a huge impact on the glass.
“Discipline,” Mazzulla said of what he saw from Queta. “Adebayo's a tremendous player. Puts a ton of pressure on you because he can shoot now. Gets to the free-throw line, forces two-on-ones, overhelps. [Queta's] defensive discipline and the commitment that he has to the game plan. And then offensively, I think we had 40-something, maybe more, paint points, and a lot of that came from his ability to rebound for us. Rebound in traffic.
“There's getting rebounds, and then there's rebounding in traffic. So, he's continuing to get better and better, and he has to play at a high level for us to be good, and he understands that, he takes responsibility for that. And I thought you saw a great version of him tonight.”
Queta’s rebounding was huge for Boston. It didn’t matter how many Heat players were in the paint; he always found a way to fight.
And the in-traffic rebounds? Those are by far the toughest.
“It's gonna be harder, for sure,” Queta said. “Those rebounds don't get more -- it's kind of like a contested three. It's harder for you to make those. It's pretty much the same type of thing. I feel like contested rebounds are harder to get. You really got to be on your P's and Q's, owning up the physicality, and just, when you go get it, just be strong with it.”
Above all, Queta just wants to help the Celtics win basketball games. His work on the glass is a way to do that.
“I'm just trying to help the team win,” Queta said. “When it comes down to rebounding, that's what I do at the high level. I had had a couple of woes a couple games, wasn't that great. But you just watch film, and you try to get better, and you try to have that not happen again. And that's what I'm trying to do, and help the team with my skill set. Just rebounding and being a presence in the paint.”
As for his defense on Adebayo? That was pretty important, too.