In the first Eastern Conference Finals rematch between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, Miami was not able to overcome a late Celtics surge, losing 119-111 Friday evening in Boston’s opener inside TD Garden.
This matchup was slightly different between the two teams than it was in May, as the Heat were without Gabe Vincent and Max Strus while Boston added Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis to the fold (replacing Marcus Smart and Grant Williams, respectively).
Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo combined for 55 of the Heat’s 111 points on the evening; Herro led Heat scorers with 28 points on 10-of-19 shooting while Adebayo had 27 points on 10-of-24 shooting. Butler finished with 14 points on a measly 3-of-11 shooting–including 8-of-9 from the charity stripe–while Kyle Lowry finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Kevin Love, Dru Smith and Duncan Robinson all tallied nine points apiece on a combined 8-of-14 from 3-point range.
Derrick White lit up the scoreboard, posting 28 points on 9-of-15 shooting and 5-of-7 from distance. Jaylen Brown had 27 points on 11-of-22 shooting with six rebounds and two steals. Jayson Tatum had 22 points while Jrue Holiday finished with a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double.
Boston finished a plus-10 on the glass–55-45–with 16 offensive rebounds that led to 23 second-chance points. The Heat, meanwhile, had 11 offensive boards with 16 second-chance points, which was ultimately the difference. Both teams shot pretty similar: Boston shot 47.4 percent compared to Miami’s 42.7 percent with both teams canned 16 3-pointers apiece (Miami had six fewer attempts).
The Miami Heat raced out to a 26-13 lead in the opening quarter, buoyed by Adebayo’s aggressiveness on Kristaps Porzingis and Herro’s crisp–albeit sometimes risky–shotmaking.
Boston ended the final 5:14 of the first half on a 17-6 run, including back-to-back triples from Brown and White to put Boston up by six with less than a minute to go.
The Cs ultimately entered up five–60-55–shooting 46.2 percent and 38.1 percent (8-of-21) from beyond the arc. Miami shot 43.8 percent and 8-of-20 from distance; it was a minus-five on the glass at the time, though it had two fewer turnovers with one more assist.
Miami trailed by seven at one point in the third quarter, but recaptured the lead after a semi-transition pull-up triple from Kyle Lowry, who attempted only one shot in Miami’s season opener. It entered the fourth quarter up 88-87, but only sunk four of its 19 field goal attempts (1-11 inside the arc; 1-6 in the paint).
Conversely, Boston went 11-of-22, including 10-of-18 combined from Tatum, Brown and White. All things considered, the Heat played better than it did Wednesday, but it was still not enough to knock off the presumptive favorite in the East this season.
Miami drops to 1-1 and will travel to Minnesota for a second leg of a back-to-back Saturday evening. Boston improves to 2-0 and will face the Wizards on the road Monday.
I am encouraged by certain things so far.
1.Not a blow out game.
2. We certainly saw what the new Celtics will look like down the road.
3.Celtics are going to play tougher, it is the new mantra for everyone, now that Marcus is gone (used to be Marcus alone), but will see how they will accomplish that. I don’t see Porzi and Tatum playing any tougher, will get them easily into foul trouble.
4. I expect to see Porzi post up more against the Heat when the game is close, as they have a height advantage there.
5.Celtics sending double teams at ease, saw them do it on Bam, on Herro and surprisingly on Jaquez. Tells me they are more willing to throw any scheme on defense. Something the Heat has to prepare every player for.
6.Celtics had problems when the Heat played really fast on offense and also could not beat the Heat’s defense easily when all Heat’s 5 starters were on the floor together. I must say, it was a good game for the Heat.The Heat has to solidify the 2nd unit.
The new look for the site looks nice. Glad you guys are back.
Good to see you too
for a jimmy no show(hes hard to figure out)no caleb hh jrich not bad vs #1 or 2 team in east.have to see about 20 games to make an evaluation of current squad.with caleb hh josh out to see no cain is a spo scratcher.theres something spo sees in cain that he doesnt trust him or like him i beg to disagree think the guy is real good
b2b games…first for this season. vs wolves lets get to 2-1 🔥💪🏻🏀
its not b2b for jimmy
I’m still worried even though I realize logically that it’s not time yet to make any evaluations of what we have. But, we did give them a good game. Still, I am wondering what we will do if we are doing badly by next week. And honestly, I expect that to be the case. Being good enough to keep a game close is far different from winning. Everyone keeps games close.
Spo is such a weirdo. Playing together only two point guards we have.
Anyway, we can play with Boston, which one or two injuries away from serious troubles.
They are good, but not that good.
Lets save Boston wins for playoff.
This wasn’t a game we suppose to win.
We need the next one.
Do the heat have enough to compete with the best teams?
After only 2 games, it’s a little difficult to say. However, if you consider Boston to be one of the best teams in the league (I do), the Heat played them even until the very end while missing 3 rotation players.
Pretty even until white did it again. We’ll get them next time lots of newbies used by Spo
Spo still trying out rotation combination and making the newbies play to get them more comfortable and see if any of them got what it takes to have a permanent spot.
I agree, we could have use HH here. Hopefully Herro can still improve his offensive efficiency and while its better than last game, there are still room to improve
I am glad they are limiting JJJ minutes. No need to risk further injuries while avoiding bb rust
My only question is why they are not playing jovic?