Even though a new season is about to begin, the Boston Celtics’ disappointment from the summer may still be fresh in their minds. Just five short months ago, at TD Garden—the same place where Jayson Tatum hurt his ankle and the Celtics’ aspirations for Banner 18 were dashed—they hosted the Miami Heat, an Eastern Conference opponent. The Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 119-111 today to find some measure of satisfaction, however true retribution might not come until the playoffs.
With Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, and Kristaps Porzingis all scoring at least 17 points and combining for a game-high 111 points, the Celtics had a well-rounded attack from their starting five. But the bench turned out to be a source of problems. Horford led the backups, who scored just eight points apiece for the second straight game despite being the team’s sixth man. For Miami, Jimmy Butler laboured through a 3-of-11 shooting line and scored just 14 points, while Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro combined for 55 points.
Halfway through the first quarter, Herro went on a rampage that signalled trouble. Despite being out for most of the Eastern Conference Finals, Herro seems keen to establish himself as a significant player. He made back-to-back three-pointers to give the Heat an early double-digit lead, capping a difficult Holiday turnover. The Celtics rallied to get within striking distance of the Heat after a 10-0 run, but Tatum’s shooting foul on a three-point attempt, which appeared to be a good opportunity to tie the game, was ruled to have occurred after the buzzer in the first quarter, and the Celtics went into the second quarter behind 28-25.
We have to look back on Ben Simmons’ early career in order to understand this conflict. Let’s let our thoughts to drift back to the late 1920s, when Ben Simmons was seen as the successor to Magic Johnson, we were youthful, optimistic, and full of vitality.
The fact that the Celtics’ new-look offence appeared even more disorganised than what we had seen in the few minutes we had seen of it so far did not help. Passes were dealt out a bit too early into windows that were a bit too small, giving the impression that the decisions were made quickly. In contrast, The Heat had no such problems. Their offence, which shot 40% from beyond the three-point arc in the first half, was reminiscent of the potent shooting team that defeated the Celtics in the postseason.
Fortunately, Tatum showed signs of improvement in the second quarter. With 11 of his 14 points in the first half, he kept the Celtics improbably close to the Heat advantage. A ferocious Boston run put the Celtics back ahead as halftime approached. Holiday scored a layup of his own following a stop on the opposite end, and Tatum finished at the rim with a lovely layup. Brown caught the subsequent Miami inbound pass and hammered it home to give Boston a two-point lead before the broadcast camera could even flinch. The Celtics went on a 16-4 run after the outburst, leading them by five points at the half, 60-55.
Herro led the Miami offence in the third quarter, just as he had in the first. In an attempt to put the Heat back in front, he scored back-to-back threes once more. Miami eked out a lead just before the halfway point of the third thanks to a pull-up jumper from Kyle Lowry, who finished the game with 13 points overall. For the majority of the remaining quarter, the two teams would be separated by just one point; in fact, the Celtics would trail by just one, 88-87, going into the final stanza.
The Celtics’ problem tonight was the Kristaps Porzingis vs. Bam Adebayo matchup. Despite scoring 17 points on 6 of 12 shots, Porzingis had a good night overall, but he had trouble stopping Miami’s 26-year-old centre. With 27 points, Adebayo was the Heat’s second-leading scorer. He mostly intimidated Porzingis in the paint and at the free throw line. With only three minutes remaining in regulation time, Porzingis compounded the problem by picking up his fifth personal foul of the game halfway through the fourth quarter. The unicorn player for the Celtics had a far rougher game than his brilliant debut.
The fourth quarter saw the Celtics come out firing, going on a 9-2 run that was capped off by a three-pointer from White that forced an Erik Spoelstra timeout and gave Boston a six-point lead again. From then on, Boston applied more pressure, responding to Miami’s attempts to rally with some well-timed baskets of their own. Brown’s assured pull-up three midway through the fourth quarter gave the Celtics a 101-96 lead.
With just over four minutes remaining, White blocked a layup by Butler to score his third block of the game as Boston’s defence put further pressure on the Heat in the closing minutes of the game. With just over three minutes remaining, Porzingis fouled out, giving Boston a seven-point advantage. Horford then took over at centre for the rest of the game.
It was a race against time for the final minutes. With less than ninety seconds remaining in the game, a three-pointer by Lowry helped Miami cut the Boston lead to four. Holiday answered with a two-point jumper, but the Heat were just three points down after Kevin Love’s second three-pointer. But that was the closest they would come. In the last minute, Spoelstra disputed a foul committed against
Next up, the Washington Wizards and the Celtics will square off in the nation’s capital on Monday at 7 p.m. EST on NBC Sports Boston.
