On yet another night when it felt incredibly bizarre to be writing about sports, the Celtics and Heat faced off for the first time since the Eastern Conference Finals. It wasn’t exactly a pretty one: After a mostly dominant first half, Miami broke through on drives for free throws and some serious defensive miscalculation by Boston. It took a last-minute offensive barrage by the Jays and Payton Pritchard’s improbable putback to win this one, but the Cs did, 107-105.
Jayson Tatum outdueled Jimmy Butler by a point to lead all scorers with 27 (alongside 5 rebounds, 4 dimes and a steal). Jaylen Brown didn’t shoot well at all by his standards but still racked up 21-12-5-2-2. Beyond that, scoring was pretty well-distributed across the team. Other more modest but well-rounded stat lines included Robert Williams’ 8-4-0-1-1 (in just 13 minutes), Grant Williams’ 5-6-1-2-1 and FastPP of all people racking up 4 offensive boards (alongside 6 points and 4 dimes).
to some this is seen as worse than what happened today btw https://t.co/p2KDMyq5kK
— celtics aficionada🇪🇨🇵🇪 (@TakeAShilllPill) January 7, 2021
Just saying. Anyway: The ECF specter loomed…
Celtics with an early lead against Miami!?! In order to stop bubble ptsd, STOP THE COUNT!
— Tim (@ChasingBanner18) January 7, 2021
The expected offensive aggression of Jayson and Jaylen, coupled with a Heat team that looked discombobulated on both ends, brought the Cs to a double-digit lead in the game’s first 7 minutes. (If not for free throws, Miami would only have 7 points in that span.)
Boston's perimeter defense has not been great so far this season. Very up and down https://t.co/mWo3qstQHz
— John Karalis 🇬🇷🇺🇦 (@John_Karalis) January 7, 2021
Wasn’t all perfect, of course; Miami’s too good an opponent for that.
https://twitter.com/maxacarlin/status/1346988603549761537?s=20
End of 1
Celtics: 34
Heat: 26TUNE IN NOW📱:https://t.co/uSr28gFzzp
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) January 7, 2021
Cs having an elite offense without Kemba is very encouraging
— NBA Finals Trey (@TA1297) January 7, 2021
Strong first quarter by the Celtics on what is definitely an emotional night.
— Mike Dynon ☘️🏀 (@MikeDynon) January 7, 2021
Obligatory FastPP highlight:
Pretty move from Payton Pritchard on Dragic pic.twitter.com/f5LTd59EbA
— Chris Grenham (@chrisgrenham) January 7, 2021
For all my kvetching about Semi in a recent RATIONAL THOUGHTS post, he was in his bag tonight during Q2:
https://twitter.com/CelticsNewsNBA/status/1346990976942755842?s=20
Celtics up 15, 43-28.
In the last three games, Boston has turned the ball over 59 times.
First 15+ minutes tonight?
2.
— Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) January 7, 2021
Almost everything went the Cs way in much of the second frame while almost nothing (except trips to the free-throw line) worked for the Heat.
Grant Williams finds Tristan Thompson 💥#Celtics Rewind presented by @tmobile pic.twitter.com/s8NfNH63Cw
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) January 7, 2021
Well, until things reversed in the frame’s final minutes, when Boston could hardly buy a shot and Butler grifted free throw upon free throw out of overzealous Cs defenders.
The foul itself is bad enough. That its his 4th is significantly worse. Why reach in there?
Every player is allowed a brain fart from time to time, but that's a tough one for Smart https://t.co/30WWIS9C17
— John Karalis 🇬🇷🇺🇦 (@John_Karalis) January 7, 2021
Halftime: Celtics 53, Heat 45
☘️ Tatum: 12 PTS, 4 REB
☘️ Brown: 11 PTS, 7 REB, 4 AST
♨️ Butler: 14 PTS, 4 REB pic.twitter.com/4RFHul0a3X— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) January 7, 2021
Wait a minute…
17 point Celtics lead is down to 1, 57-56.
Celtics have won 16 straight road games when leading by 17+. Last loss at Denver in November of 2018.
— Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) January 7, 2021
Yeah, I’ve seen this movie before. Kinda tired of it, TBH.
I'm glad he didn't listen and waited until they lost the lead. https://t.co/cq3icqaC5C
— Max Lederman (@Max_Lederman) January 7, 2021
Unsurprisingly, Celtics Twitter was blaming the twin-towers setup:
what more evidence does brad need to realize that the double big lineup sucks ass
— lifelong grizzlies fan (@trevorbnj) January 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/SamSheehan/status/1347003049513013249?s=20
Thompson has been the worst player on the floor this game
— Sam 🐐☘️ (@S_Scott019) January 7, 2021
The team regrouped and fought back to tie it up 80-80 at the end of Q3. And a couple of fan favorites played a big role:
https://twitter.com/Riffs_Man/status/1347006446827937794?s=20
pritchard to timelord is lob city
— smarfwater™ (@smarfwater) January 7, 2021
Pritchard and Rob Williams have had some nice chemistry this year. Imagine… this is only the beginning.
— Seamus Zarlingo (@SeamusZarlingo) January 7, 2021
Not to mention Tatum’s relentlessness. Unfortunately, while he can do a lot by himself, he can’t do everything. Miami’s ability to drive at will was, once again, confounding Boston in a second half. Somehow, Carsen Edwards was on the floor:
Take Edwards out holy shit
— Dew (@DeWPoints17) January 7, 2021
(He didn’t look atrocious or anything, but it would in no way be accurate to say he was good.)
The Celtics don't deserve to win this game, so I'll be really satisfied if they do
— Cousin Grizz (@AndrewDoxy) January 7, 2021
At least it wasn’t the goddamn zone again. Not sure I could take more Zone Discourse.
Heat go zone, Jaylen drills a 3.
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) January 7, 2021
After all that, it was Pritchard who saved the day at the last minute:
🤩🤩🤩 Game-winner 🤩🤩🤩#Celtics Rewind presented by @tmobile pic.twitter.com/XVecUxhHkQ
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) January 7, 2021
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