Boston Celtics pull away in fourth quarter against the Miami Heat

The Green Machine waited 151 nights for revenge and, in the meantime, reloaded with Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis while it licked its wounds. Game 7’s home loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals was just the fifth experience for the NBA’s third-oldest club. It was also the first time the Heat took one of those, known as the “greatest two words in sports” on the road.

Friday’s contentious affair started with the Celtics exploiting the Heat’s weak corner protection. Yet the Heat raced to an 11-point lead six minutes in as Kevin Love’s outlet passing pushed the pace, Adebayo assaulted the square, putting Porziņģis in foul trouble, while Tyler Herro bombarded over breakdowns. Then Boston went on a 12-4 run on a flurry of rim attacks.

In the second quarter, Jayson Tatum scored seven of nine points with Jaime Jaquez as his cover, splashing a left-wing triple, dusting and powering past him on the baseline. Jaylen Brown also had seven in frame two, intercepting an inbound for a dunk on Miami’s turf with a corner triple and layup against drop coverage.

For the Heat, Adebayo punched in eight more points, Duncan Robinson splashed back-to-back triples and Dru Smith canned a pair of trays as Jimmy Butler was invisible. With fewer than three minutes left in the half, the Celtics seized its first lead since early in the first quarter.

At intermission, the Heat was down 55-60, having permitted Boston 10 offensive rebounds that turned into 14 second-chance points. Equally concerning was that the hosts had scored 32 points in the paint and had recovered 57.6% of the rebounds, giving them four extra shots.

In the third quarter, Herro hit consecutive trifectas at the top and blew past Holiday on a drive. Adebayo charged at the cup multiple times and hit another faceup, midrange jumper over Porziņģis. For the stretch, the Heat converted 59.1% of its tries and were up a point entering the fourth quarter.

Then the Derrick White show began, with a 3-pointer at the key and a drive against drop coverage to extend Boston’s lead to three. He recorded nine more on his scorecard for the frame, plus Brown had a dozen. The visitors never claimed control again, despite Porziņģis fouling out with three minutes left with his team up seven. 

As the leprechauns’ fireworks display was ensuing, only four field goals dropped for the Heat- out of 19. Miami was forced to play mainly from the outside in the fourth and only scored one two-pointer– four minutes after making a singular shot in six attempts.

But the Heat had a chance, down three points with under a minute remaining.  Butler and Herro trapped White and the ball came loose. White saved it before dribbling over the halfcourt line, yet Butler was flagged for a penalty. Coach Erik Spoelstra challenged the ruling, but it was unsuccessful. He then screamed at referee Kevin Scott that he missed the call.

The Celtics were the nastier team, leading by four in loose ball recovered and offensive rebounds collected by five and won 119-111.

At the postgame presser, Spo said, “My view is one thing, and the explanation is another thing… that call didn’t go our way, but we had plenty of opportunities, particularly on the glass. I think if we just [cleaned] up those areas, we probably are playing from a position of control a little bit more often in the second half.”

In the winning side press room, Tatum was pleased not to carry the load late.  He said, “It shows the depth of our team… it felt good to win this way.”