Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Celtics outclassed the desperate Heat

The Celtics stained Pat Riley Court with an 18-point blowout. It was like watching a cyclist try to keep up with a Ferrari, only catching up within a mile when the driver pulled over for gas.

Jaylen Brown was unrestrainable as he sliced to the cup for layups and buried pull-up jumpers. The Celtics were shooting 75%, forcing coach Erik Spoelstra to call a timeout that did not help because the Heat kept bleeding, and surrendered 53 points before the first quarter ended. 

Spoelstra said, “This is going to sound crazy but this game was not like the other games. Our guys were locked in and competing. There was an exceptional level of shot-making from them to start the game.” 

It stayed ugly for the Heat as the Celtics kept pushing the pace, and they made nine shots in the lane. They had a 23-point lead at halftime with as many assists (18) as the Heat had field goals (18).

The Heat were powerless to stop Brown’s encore because he was too big, strong and fast for whoever challenged him. Still, they turned it around, subsequently draining 11 3-pointers, the most in any quarter of their season, in large part because the guests got comfortable, and cut the deficit to 10 points going into the fourth.  

They didn’t have much gas in the tank after that, and the Celtics pounced on them again. Jayson Tatum worked around screens for pull-up jumpers and dished to his cutting teammates, throwing cold water on the Heat’s comeback chances. He dissected the zone easily as well, while the Celtics kept separating themselves on the glass. 

The Heat lost 147-129.

Observations:

• Norman Powell missed his third-straight game, yet the Heat’s offense scored in the 92nd percentile, so the problem is that they didn’t have the resources to hang with Boston’s attack or rebounding (48-37). There were moments the team overhelped, giving up treys, and no one was able to bother Brown and Tatum much on the dribble. Furthermore, the Heat only played six guys significant minutes because Spoelstra didn’t trust his reinforcements. Particularly, Kel’el Ware didn’t get much time because his screen-roll defense was weak and he bit on a fake.

• Brown had 20 of his 43 points in the first quarter, the most by any Celtic player this season. Tatum also did some of the heavy lifting, setting up shooters and crashing the glass like a madman. He had a double-double (13 points, 12 rebounds) by halftime, then picked up his shot creation and finished with a triple-double (25 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists) against two turnovers.

• The Heat allowed the Celtics to shoot 29% higher than the league average in the paint non-restricted area. Notably, Brown didn’t miss in that spot, going 11-for-11, and Tatum made five of seven baskets.

• Boston’s 53 points in the first quarter ties the most this season with the Heat ( against the Charlotte Hornets on Nov. 7). The Celtics made 11 3-pointers in that stretch, five of those belonging to Sam Hauser, who had 17 points in the period. Additionally, it was the third time the Celtics have scored at least 80 points in the first half.

• Bam Adebayo, Jaime Jaquez and Pelle Larsson were the top options in the lane, combining for 14 of the team’s 19 field goals. The Heat also scored 45 points in the third quarter and it was their top shooting spurt of the season, yet they were outscored in every other period. 

• The Heat are the 10th seed, being a half-game behind the Charlotte Hornets for the eighth seed, and 2.5 out of the sixth spot (Philadelphia 76ers). Regarding the Play-In Tournament, Adebayo said, “See if we can win all five and then figure out whatever happens after that. Take it one game at a time and whatever happens, happens, at this point.”