Final: Celtics 111, Heat 104 - Tatum, Brown combine for 57 in tough win

Game 2: Celtics (-2.5) vs. Heat, FTX Arena, 7:30, ESPN

Injuries: Boston - Danilo Gallinari, Robert Williams. Miami - Victor Oladipo, Omer Yurtseven

Miami’s probable starters: Jimmy Butler, Caleb Martin, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Kyle Lowry

Refs: Scott Foster (#48), Nick Buchert (#3), Marat Kogut (#32)

A little something about the game: The Celtics begin a three-game road trip tonight in Miami, followed by a back-to-back in Orlando tomorrow and the Chicago Bulls on Monday. The Heat are coming off a home loss to Chicago on Wednesday. DeMar DeRozan scored 37 points in that game, and the Bulls were without Zach LaVine and Lonzo Ball. Jimmy Butler shot 16 free throws (making 14), but Bam Adebayo and Kyle Lowry struggled. This is a rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals, so there might be a little more juice here for Miami, who wants to rectify a bad effort and get some measure of revenge on Boston. 

How Boston wins: Can we get Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to score 70 again? That's probably a big ask, but Boston’s formula for winning is going to be similar all year long: The Jays attacking with purpose and precision like they did in the opener, without forcing shots. Let Malcolm Brogdon do his thing when he’s in the game and flow off that if the shooting isn’t there early. 

They have places to attack Miami, namely Lowry and Herro, but they can’t just make this a 1-on-1 battle. Move the ball and let the flow of the offense figure it out. That means whoever gets the ball on Lowry and Herro can attack and kick, not just Tatum and Brown off switches. Put pressure on Miami’s weak spots, and then when they respond with a zone, attack the gaps and take good shots. 

How Miami wins: Butler living at the line will help, but the Heat have to give a much better defensive effort than they did against the Bulls. Each game is different, but it’s hard not to look at DeRozan’s line and wonder what Tatum would do to that same defense. If the Heat win, it’ll probably be because they’ve lulled Boston into slow, isolation offense either via switching or zone. They’ll also have to get hot from 3. A Miami win will probably feature some kind of crazy 21-48 shooting night from deep. 

Things I’m looking for:

Carryover: Opening night was great. There was very little to complain about. Let’s not let go of the rope here and relax after just one game. 

Clean up the fouls: I think the Celtics got a bad whistle for large portions of the Philly game, but they still have to be more disciplined on closeouts and rotations. They cleaned it up a bit in the second half, but I’d like to see that get even cleaner. 

Luke Kornet? Is this a game for him to get some minutes? The big rotation will be situational, and after Adebayo, Miami is short on serviceable bigs. They also don’t have a real power forward, so the Celtics might try to capitalize on that by going super big … and Kornet is the biggest big they have. The question is, how big can they go without sacrificing mobility on the defensive end because Miami will just flood the floor with shooters. 

Follow along below or in the comments during the game, chime in, and let’s have fun.