The Miami Heat tied up the first round series on Wednesday night, after they shattered their playoff high for 3-pointers. Miami shot a mind boggling 53.5% from beyond the arc after shooting just 32.4% in game one. The Celtics all year have outshot their opponents in both makes and attempts, however this time Miami flipped the math upon Boston and shot 11 more threes but allowed the Celtics to drive to the rim more often. Jayson Tatum saw a double team waiting for him nearly every trip down the floor in game one, yet on Wednesday he was left to play one-on-one. As a result, he had seven less assists, and the Heat claimed a 10-point win to even up the series.
There was an obvious change to Miami’s gameplan right of the bat, they opened the first quarter by putting up eight 3-pointers and creating a five-point lead. But Boston made sure it remained a close fought contest, mainly thanks to Tatum who had 14 points in the opening period. Tatum eventually finished the game with 28 points and grabbed eight rebounds despite the disappointing loss.
The most apparent issue in the Celtics defence was that they allowed the Heat role players to get hot from beyond the arc, gifting players Like Caleb Martin, Nikola Jovic, Duncan Robinson, and Haywood Highsmith multiple wide-open looks from the 3-point line. Martin was a main driving factor in the Heat’s victory over the Celtics last year and he will have to be again this year for the Heat to have any success. Martin hit five threes and ended with 21 points to drive Miami to an impressive win. However, Boston took the lead into the half mainly thanks to Jaylen Brown who played out of his mind to end the quarter, hitting three consecutive 3s and scoring 11 points in just 1 minute 55 seconds to provide the Celtics with a 3-point lead.
Unfortunately, Boston came out of blocks incredibly slowly in the second half, their offense ground to a holt and they failed to execute especially in transition, as their pace slowed, and they continued to hunt for matchups. On the other hand, Miami ran in transition and continued to get open looks from beyond the arc. Another player who bounced back excellently from a really poor performance in game 1 was Tyler Herro, he scored 24 points including six 3s and dished out 14 assists (a career-high).
The fourth quarter was little different for the Celtics as they were unable to push their way back into the game, despite reducing Miami’s advantage to around five points multiple times. It was Bam Adebayo who really damaged Boston in the final period, as both Al Horford and Kristaps Porzinigis failed to really both his shots both at the rim and in the midrange. Adebayo ended up with 21 points and 10 rebounds as the Heat eventually escaped Boston with a 111-101 victory to level up the series.
After the game Jaylen Brown spoke to ESPN about the Heat’s response after game one: “It seemed we could not get them to miss, they had a record-breaking night… They made a lot of shots that we are usually comfortable with”. The Celtics will now head to Miami for games 3 and 4 needing to win both games to close out the series upon return to Boston.
By Will C
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