For 3 quarters, the Boston Celtics looked nothing like the team that made so many of us get excited for their improbable playoff run. They looked lost, slow, and unfocused while letting Miami take a massive lead without Dwyane Wade, Hassan Whiteside, and Chris Andersen. There was no redeeming quality to the Celtics effort in any way (well, except for Avery Bradley, who was the only Celtic to play well early). It looked like they were on their way to getting blown out until Miami took their foot off the gas and let them back into it. Unfortunately the Celtics missed a number of opportunities (and free throws) and their huge 4th quarter comeback fell just short. Making it worse, the Indiana Pacers won, moving them into a tie for 8th (the Celtics own the tiebreaker).
The first quarter was a disjointed mess. It was sloppy (7 Celtics turnovers leading to 10 Miami points), foul-riddled (and poorly officiated with two highly questionable techs called, 1 on each team), and just, well, crappy. Goran Dragic dominated despite being checked by Marcus Smart for most of the quarter, and the Celtics allowed Miami to shoot 59% for the quarter. Of course, when you’re committing live-ball turnovers (including one HORRIBLE pass by Jae Crowder on an inbound that might make Shaqtin’ a Fool), it’s hard to stop a team. They were down 7 after 1, and lucky that it was only single digits.
The second quarter, somehow, was worse. 6 more turnovers (and 5 more points off them) and even hotter Miami shooting got the lead as high as 19. The Celtics limped into halftime down 17, literally, as Isaiah Thomas took another hard fall right on his right hip… and showed he’s clearly not 100%. Well, we could see he was not 100% because he had neither the lift nor explosion we’ve been from him in the past. The fall just hammered the point home… Thomas isn’t healthy. I tweeted going into the half that the Celtics should keep him in the locker room for the second half and just go with the healthy group.
Not only did Thomas come out for the second half, he came in early for Marcus Smart, who had not been having a very good night. That didn’t work. Neither did going zone. Neither did anything else the Celtics tried as Miami pushed their lead up as high as 22 in the 3rd.
Halfway through the 4th, the Heat decided to go into some kind of stall mode hoping to just run out the clock. They were milking a 17 point lead with just about 9 minutes left when the Celtics whipped off a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 10 with 5:11 left. Interestingly, it was led by Pressey, Datome, and Smart… and Isaiah Thomas stayed on the bench. A Datome 3 cut it to 8. A Pressey layup cut it to 6 with 1:47 left. They got it down to 4, but they missed make-able shots and a bunch of free throws, and couldn’t quite complete the comeback.
The Green:
Avery Bradley and Tyler Zeller were the only players who could score in the first half. They had 22 of the Celtics 40 points on 8-12 shooting.
Phil Pressey and Gigi Datome carried the C’s in the 4th. Pressey was 3-4 for 9 points. He added 4 assists and 3 rebounds. He was so good, Isaiah Thomas did not play in the 4th. Datome had 6 points, both on 3’s.
The Gross:
The rest of the Celtics were 3-13 in the 4th quarter.
Thomas should not have come back for this game. I think he was feeling ok, and he may have wanted some revenge on Miami, or maybe he just wanted to be back in the playoff chase… but he’s not ready yet.
The refs were really whistle happy tonight. I guess we should be happy about that because the Celtics took 14 more free throws than Miami… but it made that game tough to watch.
The Greenlights:
The Grid:
- The Celtics missed 12 free throws (25-37).
- Celtics had 17 turnovers tonight, 13 in the first half
- Goran Dragic: 22 points (8-16 fg, 2-3 3pt), 7 assists, 5 rebounds
This loss puts the Celtics 2 games behind Miami now, and the Heat hold the tiebreaker, so you can essentially consider that a 3 game lead with 11 games left. That’s possible, but the probability of that just dropped a whole lot. Boston and Indiana are now tied, but the Celtics hold that tiebreaker.
