When we last observed action between our heroes and Miami Heat, the latter was—very rudely, IMO—ending the winning streak of the previously indomitable “Suck My D***” Boston Celtics. But that was in the cozy environs of American Airlines Arena, not in the Garden surrounded by banshee-screaming fans who remember exactly what Dion Waiters did to them. So there was hope for sweet revenge.
The revenge was not had. While it was an exciting wire-to-wire game, which couldn’t be said of these teams’ first meeting, Miami’s defense and Boston’s inconsistent offense—aside from a barnstorming Kyrie Irving performance and strong work from Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown—combined to blow this one for the Cs.
THE GAME FLOW
Things started slow. And sloppy. Which kind of makes sense, given that this year’s Celtics have built their identity on a hard-nosed defensive grind and the post-LeBron James iterations of the Heat aren’t much different. For much of the first three minutes, the only points came from an Al Horford layup and a free throw by Tyler Johnson on Miami. (He missed the second. Also, he is gross and rodent-looking, which is germane to precisely nothing but endlessly amusing to me.)
Energy began to enter the game about halfway through the frame, with Brown functioning as its primary supplier, showing off all of his scoring modes—from three, off the finger roll, via runs to the basket. Kyrie didn’t score wildly at first, instead settling into his floor-general hustle, keeping it all moving. An entirely unwanted heart-jolt came in the form of Jayson Tatum dislocating a finger, but it was more gross-looking than detrimental; he re-entered the game after it was reset. A running dunk not long after returning from the locker room confirmed this.
Though Miami could stop the Boston offense early on, they ran out of meaningful defensive moves fairly soon, and before you knew it, the Cs had a 16-7 lead. Kelly Olynyk made the only real offensive dent for his new team, as his compatriots were essentially useless even when coach Erik Spoelstra ran plays that got them decent shot opportunities. (Their rookie center Bam Adebayo had nice plays, though.)
The gap the Celtics created in Q1 essentially held through much of the first half, varying in size from double digits to around 5 points give or take. This, in no small part, stemmed from both squads’ shooting going fairly cold—Boston’s just went less cold. In the concluding half of the second quarter, Miami made a bit of noise thanks to Josh Richardson, who started the season atrocious but recently began resembling the exciting form of his rookie campaign. Former Celtic sophomore Jordan Mickey brought good post work as well, scoring 8 points off the bench. Kyrie and company managed to maintain the lead, with the secretary of offense and geography himself scoring a buzzer-beating, tornado-whirling layup to put the second half to bed ahead by 44-36.
(Brief interlude: Guerschon Yabusele, who hasn’t received as much playing time as Weird Celtics Twitter might like, got some early tick tonight: in which he exhibited a good three-point shot, respectable defensive hustle and an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING dab/bow-and-arrow move combination after hitting his second trey.)
As Tommy Heinsohn noted on the NBC Sports Boston broadcast in between sips of Lagavulin, the Heat started Q3 by trying to keep Al Horford away from the rest of the squad in a zone-esque defensive formation. Spoelstra, who is nobody’s fool, knows well Al’s function as the secondary facilitator of Boston’s offense alongside Kyrie. In addition to the Heat’s obstructions, Richardson and Waiters got their scoring going finally as Olynyk kept up his efficient work from the first half, and the suffocation/made shots combo got Miami their first substantive lead of the night.
The current iteration of the Heat matches up better against the Celtics than any previous edition, due in part to the quick, aggressive offense of Richardson and the Waiters/Johnson backcourt—and, of course, the disciplined defense that’s always been a Spoelstra hallmark. Before the Heat could get too alarming a lead, though, Kyrie got himself to the line and Smart hit two consecutive treys, cutting down Miami’s lead before it could get near double digits. Unfortunately, Kelly fucking Olynyk decided to score from deep and Wayne Ellington, largely anodyne on the offensive end in this game, got himself to the line, as did Richardson.
With 10 minutes left in the contest, things would soon become dire if our heroes in green and white didn’t get themselves together, better matchup be damned. But Miami’s hard focus on Horford gave him no choice but to foul, which he did, eventually out of the game—when eight minutes still remained. This, and the Heat’s shots consistently going in, got the Miami lead to 10. NOT GREAT, BOB.
Irving and Tatum did their damnedest to keep the Celtics going, but didn’t make shots they way they should have, only managing to reach the charity stripe for free points early in that quarter. Kyrie and SMARF did more damage later, but the stubbornness of Olynyk (and, let’s face it, quality play) couldn’t be stopped. Until Uncle Drew decided to just straight up bait the sumbitch, and not only got to the line off Olynyk’s fouls but also got him to 5 personals. Spoelstra kept him in the game in a high-risk/high-reward move (in fairness, Spo’s made many of those that have worked).
After a running dunk that he never even attempted in Boston, Olynyk fell awkwardly on an ankle, rolled it and had to leave the game. But despite Kyrie’s best efforts—and they were spectacular, even with him missing that would-be game-winner—the Heat had done too much damage in the 3rd quarter and early 4th for the Cs to overcome. Miami took a 2-0 advantage in the 3-game series the squads are slated for this season, serving Boston a 90-89 loss.
HOT ISH: Yabu looking good early on, Jaylen’s first-quarter punch, SMARF’s clutchness in sticky situations, Kyrie firing on all cylinders.
NOT IT: Horford’s been in the league 11 years, and all things being equal shouldn’t fall for the ticky-tack shit Miami’s defense baited him into. But sometimes your night just sucks, and Al’s sucked, including some terrible shooting. Boston’s too-weak defense and moments of offensive stagnation came back to haunt them.
GREEN FIRE:
YABUUUUUUUUUUU FOR THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Yabu from deep! https://t.co/1aFbELdAqx
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 21, 2017
Dunking after an injury is one thing. Dunking post-injury and doing airplane arms after is goddamn amazing.
Seems okay to me. 🤔 https://t.co/ywfoCTTHf0
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 21, 2017
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
