Celtics Crumble in Third Quarter, Drop Game 1 to Heat
May 17, 2022
The Celtics received some tough news shortly before tip off of game one in Miami on Tuesday night as they learned that they would be without Marcus Smart and Al Horford. Smart injured his foot in game seven of the Bucks series, so his absence wasn’t a shock, but the Horford news was out of left field. Horford tested positive hours before the game and entered COVID protocols, meaning he will likely miss game two as well. Going to Miami for game one after only a day of rest coming off a physically and mentally exhausting win over the Bucks was always going to be a tough task, but without two starters it proved to be impossible. Boston looked like the better side in the first half, but the wheels came off entirely in the third quarter, allowing the Heat to cruise to a 118-107 victory in game one.
There was some concern that Boston may come out a little flat after that epic Bucks series, and that fear was amplified with the last minute injury news, but if anything, the opposite was the case. The Celtics came out of the gates looking like the fresher team and they certainly didn’t look like a team missing two starters. Jayson Tatum was the best player on the floor in the first half, amassing 21 points and getting to the basket regularly, finishing in traffic, making tough contested shots, and looking like the best player on the floor by a healthy margin. Robert Williams III looked like he had his old bounce back, flying around on both ends, Payton Pritchard was able to bury a few big shots, even Aaron Nesmith was able to supply some solid minutes. The good guys went into the half with a 62-54 lead and it seemed like they might be able to survive the loss of Horford and Smart after all.
But then the third quarter happened, where everything flipped…and then some. Something changed with the Miami Heat in the locker room and a completely different team appeared to take the court. The Heat hit the Celts with a level of physicality, toughness, brute force, and pure dominance that Boston simply was not prepared to handle. Those 12 minutes were an abomination for the Celtics, and their worst display of basketball in a long time. Miami started the quarter on a 22-2 run and the Celtics didn’t make a field goal for more than seven minutes. The Celtics just got completely emasculated and seemed to wilt under the pressure. The Heat turned up the pressure and caused the Celtics to lose their composure; turning the ball over repeatedly, giving up fast breaks left and right, letting players waltz to the rim - or fouling them instead. Boston couldn’t buy a basket and Miami was scoring at will. All told it was a 39-14 quarter that left the Celtics looking hopeless. The Heat would stretch their lead all the way up to 20 in the fourth quarter before Boston made a run to get the deficit down to seven with just under a minute and a half to play. But the Heat would score the game’s final four points to finish off the Celtics and defend home court in game one in impressive fashion.
The most impressive part of the Heat’s dominance was the performance by Jimmy Butler. Butler finished with 41 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists on 12/19 shooting while making 17/18 free throws. On top of that offensive brilliance, Butler put up four steals and three blocks on the defensive end. He looked like a man amongst boys in the second half, and imposed his will physically and mentally on both ends. He disrupted everything the Celtics wanted to do on offense with his pressure on and off the ball, and offensively he lived inside the paint, getting to the rim and/or the free throw line relentlessly, and appearing to break the Celtics will in the process. Tyler Herro added 18 points off the bench and Gabe Vincent was huge filling in for Kyle Lowry with 17 points while giving the Celtics fits with his defense. Bam Adebayo and PJ Tucker were great defensively, Max Strus hit a few big shots, and Victor Oladipo and Caleb Martin brought great energy off the bench. But this game and especially this fourth quarter felt like the Jimmy Butler show.
So where did it all go wrong? To put it simply, the Celtics just got punked. The Heat started pressuring the ball and the Celtics couldn’t hold onto the ball. They certainly missed Smart and his ball handling and composure, but the Celtics need to be able to take care of the ball regardless. Tatum and Jaylen Brown were burdened with more ball handling and initiating on offense and they didn’t appear to be up to the challenge. Brown looked shaky with his dribble frankly, and Tatum was passing the ball away or having it taken from him. The Heat were turning steals into fast break layups at the other end and the Celtics weren’t getting back on defense. The officiating clearly got in Boston’s head as well, as they weren’t drawing fouls and were complaining while Miami was running out and scoring. Plus Butler was getting to the line basically any time a Celtic defender got near him. Boston needst to do a much better job of defending Butler without fouling and getting back on defense. On the offensive end they need to value the basketball and every single possession. When they weren’t turning the ball over they were forcing bad shots and getting them blocked, shooting just 2-15 for the quarter. Boston fell back into old habits and Tatum tried to take on everybody, which the Heat were more than prepared to handle.
As good as Tatum was in the first half, he was equally bad, if not worse, in the third quarter. He had six turnovers just in that quarter and when things started going poorly he seemed to press, trying to force the issue instead of generating good shots for the team, which only made matters worse. With Tatum struggling, Brown was nowhere to be found. Jaylen hit a few (mostly) meaningless buckets late in the fourth quarter comeback attempt, but he struggled to get it going all night. Role players like Grant Williams and Derrick White weren’t able to get anything going either, and Payton Pritchard was targeted mercilessly on the defensive end. Being short handed definitely didn’t help, but things that were there for the Celtics in the first half, straight up weren’t in the third quarter. It was a historically bad quarter by the Celtics, and it cost them game one of the Eastern Conference finals (they actually outscored Miami in every other quarter). Despite the disastrous quarter, Tatum finished with 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists, and Brown had a deceiving 24 and 10. Prtichard had 18 points but shot just 6/16. The one real bright spot for the Celtics was the play of Rob Williams, who looked by far the best he has since returning from meniscus surgery. Rob looked springy and explosive out there, was able to hold up for 28 minutes and contributed 18 and 9 but did come out of the game with cramps at one point. If he can keep up that type of production that would be a huge boost for the suddenly thin Celtics.
Now the Celtics need to figure this out in a hurry. Luckily Smart is probable to return on Thursday night for game two, but Horford is doubtful to clear the protocols. It’s hard not to be concerned by what the Heat did to the Celts in the third quarter of game one, but let’s remember that the Celtics were similarly dominated physically in game one by the Bucks and were able to bounce back in a big way. On top of that, the Celtics were caught off guard by the Horford news and had basically no time to adjust to life without Al in time for game one. At least in game two Boston should be prepared to have a game plan without the veteran big man. For most of the game they showed a lot of reasons to be positive, but the Celtics are going to have to raise their level and sustain it for 48 minutes if they hope to steal a game in Miami. Boston got punched in the mouth and fell to the mat in round one; let’s see if they can scrape themselves off the mat for round two.
Ben Handler