Celtics Disastrous First Quarter Costs Them Game 3
May 21, 2022
To say the Celtics came out flat to start game three in TD Garden on Saturday night would be an understatement of epic proportions. With the series tied at one, the Celtics came home and laid an egg on their home floor against the Miami Heat. For the second time this series (third quarter of game one) the Celtics played a historically bad quarter that was simply impossible to overcome. This time it came immediately, as the Heat raced out to a 39-18 lead by the time 12 minutes had elapsed. They’d stretch that lead all the way to 26 early in the second quarter before Boston finally woke up and responded, putting up a valiant fight, but ultimately falling 109-103, falling behind 2-1 in the series, and surrendering home court advantage in the process.
Much like in the game one loss, the story of this game was ball security. Boston turned the ball over a ridiculous 23 times, including 19 on Miami steals. They simply did not take care of the ball, especially in the first quarter, allowing the Heat to get out in transition and find easy offense. Much like the disastrous quarter from game one, once things started to go south they just spiraled. Boston had no urgency, no focus, and really no fight. They looked like deer in headlights, continuing to force bad offense and throw the ball to Miami, or let them take it from them. Miami turned those 23 turnovers into 33 points while the Celtics only forced eight turnovers for the entire game. The return of Kyle Lowry was a huge factor in this game as helped ratchet up the defense, including four steals, plus settling the offense, helping Miami take care of the ball and running the show.
The Heat would need Lowry because star of the series, Jimmy Butler was ruled out at halftime with knee inflammation. The Celtics had ripped off a 10-0 run to end the half and cut the lead to 15, just to find out they’d be facing a Butler-less Heat in the second half. The Celtics were the better team for most of the second half, and miraculously cut the 26 point deficit all the way down to one in the fourth quarter, but the Heat made all the big shots when it mattered and the Celtics just couldn’t get over that hump, even with no Jimmy Butler. Boston was dealing with injuries of its own, as Robert Williams III missed yet another game with knee soreness. His presence had been huge in the first two games of this series and the Daniel Theis minutes (who got the start) were not pretty. On top of Williams’ absence, the Celtics saw both Marcus Smart (ankle) and Jayson Tatum (shoulder) exit the game in the second half with what looked like fairly serious injuries (especially Smart’s sprained ankle), but both would heroically return from the locker room for the stretch run.
But it wasn’t enough for the Celtics and they still fell short, and gave away yet another game in this series. This effort just wasn’t acceptable for an Eastern Conference Finals game against a team as tough and physical as the Heat. For the second time in three games it felt like Boston got punked and wasn’t ready for the intensity of Miami. The Celtics have only been outscored in 2 of the 12 quarters in this series, and yet they’ve lost 2 of the 3 games. That’s inexcusable, and clearly a lack of focus, something the Celtics absolutely cannot afford against this Heat team. That performance starts with their leader, Tatum. Tatum put up a complete dud in this one, scoring only 10 points on 3/14 shooting and 1/7 from three to go along with 6 turnovers. He was bad straight up, and when things got tough he compounded bad shooting with poor decisions. There were multiple times where it felt like he was on the verge of busting loose, and that was all the Celtics would have needed to get over the hump and take the lead, but alas on this night it was not meant to be. It will go down as a game to forget for Tatum, and he’ll need to bounce back in a big way and figure out a way to handle this Miami pressure for Boston to have a shot at coming back in this series.
Tatum’s running mate came to play at least, as Jaylen Brown put up 40 points on 14/20 shooting and did everything he could to get Boston back in this game. But even despite the hot shooting, Brown had 7 frustrating turnovers and was also having all kinds of problems with the ball pressure from Miami. Al Horford stepped it up with 20 and 14, and Smart was very solid even after the ankle injury, finishing with 16, 4, and 7 on 6/11 shooting. But Boston got next to nothing from Theis, Payton Pritchard, and Derrick White, and Grant Williams added just 10 points on 2/6 shooting. On a night where Tatum is completely off, that’s just enough for the Celtics, especially without Rob Williams. Even still, Boston had their chances to win this game and stage a comeback for the ages, mostly because their halfcourt defense continues to generally stifle the Heat. After their 39 point explosion in the first, which was fueled by transition and Celtics turnovers, Miami put up 23, 25, and 22 points in the remaining three quarters. When the Celtics limit transition, they have been able to keep the Heat in check, but the extended lapses and resulting Heat runs are absolutely killing them, and more than anything it’s a result of turning the ball over.
For the Heat, the story was Bam Adebayo. Bam had been very quiet in the first two games, scoring just 16 points combined. It was clear that he was going to have to be much more aggressive on offense for Miami to stay in this one and that’s exactly what he did. Bam had 31 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists on 15/22 shooting and was clearly looking for his offense from the get-go. He said after game two that he looked at the tape and he knew what he had to do, and clearly he did it. The Celts had no answers for the young big man, and he picked up the slack for Butler in a potentially season-saving way. Beyond that it was the combo of PJ Tucker and Max Strus, who hit backbreaking shots all night to bury the Celtics. The two combined for a huge 33 points on 7/13 from three, including several late daggers to put the Celtics away for good.
Boston is going to be kicking themselves after this one. They blew a golden opportunity to take a lead in this series and instead blew a home game with Miami missing their best player for the entire second half. The Celtics won the final three quarters and there were some silver linings, sure. But at the end of the day, there are no moral victories in the playoffs and no matter how you want to spin it, the Celtics are down two games to one, and their season is hanging in the balance. The Celtics suffered a similarly agonizing loss in game three last series and bounced back with one of their most impressive showings of the season, pulling out a big win in Milwaukee to tie the series at 2. Boston will need another performance like that on Monday night at home, or they’ll be heading back to Miami where they’ll have to win to keep their season alive, and things will be feeling a hell of a lot like 2020 all over again. The good news is that the Celtics have clearly shown that they know how to beat this team and that they can do it, but if they don’t put it all together and do it for 48 minutes it’s not going to matter.
Ben Handler