The Way The Celtics Beat The Shit Out Of The Heat In A Quick 5 Games Was Cathartic As Hell

Brian Babineau. Getty Images.

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The Celtics had 2 main goals in their first round series against the Miami Heat

1. Win it quickly

2. Stay healthy

Achieving the first one wasn't all that hard seeing as how the Celts won in 5 and trailed for under total 1 minute in the final 3 games of the series. It's not their fault or their problem that the Heat were injured and missing players, that's life in the NBA and why the regular season should be taken seriously. When you don't punt on Oct-April, you put yourself in a position to avoid the Play In and get a favorable matchup in the playoffs. 

The second goal wasn't as successful as Kristaps Porzingis has a strained calf and will probably be out a month, but while Bam Adebayo and Caleb Martin tried everything they could to take out additional Celtics, for the most part outside of KP the Celts are moving on with good health.

As a big facts guy, we should also talk about the fact that this is now the 2nd time in 3 postseasons the Celts have eliminated the Heat from the postseason, and they have currently won 10 of their last 12 games against MIA. Yes, even the ones where Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier played! 

And while there is not a soul that is cueing the duckboats for beating the lowly Heat in the first round, that doesn't make it any less sweet. Given the history of these two teams, it's always going to feel nice when one side beats the other. Did Heat fans give a shit that Gabe Vincent slid his foot under Jayson Tatum in the first play of Game 7 last year and then won? Hell no. Do I give a shit that the Heat were injured as the Celts completely kicked their ass? Hell no. 

I think Jayson Tatum said it best

While the talent level will certainly increase as the playoffs roll on, I'm not sure there is a team out there that provides the same sort of mental challenge for the Celts as the Heat do. The Celts needed to exorcise their demons against this team, get revenge for last year, and show that they could be focused throughout a playoff series against a team that has given them trouble in the past. Both the players and Joe Mazzulla needed to experience the Spo test, and their response was nothing short of an A+.

All the Celts did in this series was what was expected of them, which is fine by me. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't need anything more from the Celts this playoff run other than just being themselves. Play at the level we saw all season long, nothing more and nothing less because if they do, we'll all like how it ends. If the expectation was the Celts were going to smoke that Heat pack in a quick 4 or 5 games and then they won the series in 5 games, that's called living up to expectations where I come from. Now if ORL/CLE somehow goes 7 games, the Celts have another 5 days to rest and recover/prepare for the next round. 

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Finally, they can benefit from not playing with their food in a series against an inferior opponent. Last time I checked, that's growth. 

So this first round isn't really about the Heat, they stink. We knew they stunk. It took a franchise record performance just for the Heat to beat the Celts a single time this entire season. Unfortunately for them, they have a plethora of matchup problems across their lineup that aren't suddenly going to get better. This series was more about the Celts, and their opportunity to show us as fans that they are ready to take that next step. That they learned from their previous failures and understand what type of opportunity is in front of them as long as they handle their shit.

This run is about winning a title, not beating the Miami Heat. But man did it feel fucking great. Let's dive in.

The Good

- New blog rule. When you call your last game after 43 years and are the very definition of a living legend, you kick off the blog. For everyone who didn't have the pleasure of being able to watch the local feed (Adam Silver is going to hell for this) and were stuck with another SVG performance, let's all take some time to once again honor the GOAT

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Even though we all knew it was coming, I was still nowhere near ready for it in the moment. If we're being honest, I don't think I'll ever be ready to accept that Mike Gorman is no longer the voice of the Boston Celtics. It's all I've known for my entire life. His voice is at the root of all of our fandom. The highs, the lows, Mike Gorman has been there through it all. There will never, ever, EVER be another Mike Gorman, and I couldn't think of a better sendoff for the HOFer. 

Giving him a blowout so the crowd could give him all the time in the world for a proper send off was something straight out of a movie. I feel like there had to be some help from Tommy looking down from heaven, because it was all too perfect. He wanted to give his guy the best moment possible, and that's exactly what we got. 

Also, whoever the producer is that's responsible for this

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I must say thank you from the bottom of my heart. It was pretty surreal to see in the moment, and the fact that for the rest of time, I'll be able to tell everyone I know that I was a part of Mike Gorman's farewell game is arguably one of the greatest accomplishments of my entire life. 

Now all that's left to do is to get Mike Gorman on that duckboat one final time. He deserves it.

- In terms of the players, well I'm not sure how anyone could kick us off other than our beautiful bald point guard Derrick White

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There's being on a heater, and then there's the play of Derrick White in this series. What we witnessed wasn't just dominant, it was historic. The closer you look, the more ridiculous it gets. White became just the 4th Celtic ever to have at least 25 points and 5 3PM in back to back playoff games. He put up a legitimately insane 58/48/90 on high volume, and it feels like we're watching something special unfold right before our eyes

I have zero idea why Spo kept throwing out defenses that kept giving Derrick White wide open looks, but that's not my problem. It was pretty clear since the start of this series that we were getting Aggressive Derrick White, and that is a player who you should never give consistent clean looks to. His shooting is not a fluke. He's been well over 40% for like two seasons now, not to mention it was pretty obvious that he's clearly in one of those big time shooting zones where everything he lets go doesn't even consider hitting the rim. 

With KP out, White stepping up like this is going to be crucial, and the beauty of it is all of this is sustainable. This is not a Heat Game 2 situation where White is randomly hitting these 3s. This is what he's done for hundreds of games now. We're seeing a player start to enter his NBA prime years, and look at the results. You could make the case that White was the best player in this entire series, and that may even be underselling it.

- As I've stated, I do not care who was playing or not playing for the Heat. When you hold a team to 94, 84, 88 and 84 points in your 4 wins, that's big time stuff in 2024. As it turns out, maybe Joe Mazzulla's defensive strategy was correct! You know, when all the armchair coaches on Twitter wouldn't shut the fuck up after Game 2, well here we are. As anyone who doesn't have a weird hate boner for Joe Mazzulla tried to tell you, it wasn't really a strategy issue in Game 2, it was an execution issue.

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The Celtics didn't drastically change their defensive strategy after that Game 2 loss. They made small tweaks and simply were much better at executing the gameplan. They played with more energy and effort, and the results speak for themselves. 

Speaking of Joe Mazzulla, what a series from him. Perfect timeout usage, rotations were good, he had this team prepared and focused the entire way through, and he had a counter for every single thing Spo threw at him. Even without Porzingis, this team was extremely ready for the Heat's zone, and for all this talk about a drastic coaching difference in this series, I'm not sure what people were watching.

For those keeping track, Joe now has a .600 winning percentage in the playoffs for his career (49.2 win pace) at 15-10, and while it's just one series, I'd say it's pretty obvious Joe is much more prepared and much more comfortable this time around compared to last year. 

- Pace, pace, pace. That's the name of the game. When I think about playing with pace, it's not just the literal act of playing fast. It's also about making quick decisions and playing with purpose. The ball doesn't stick and the Celtics force the defense to actually defend, which causes rotations and open 3PA.

We hear everyone talk about it all the time. Playing faster, being quicker, and there's a reason for that. When the Celts play that way, they are virtually unbeatable. When they are decisive and play with force, few teams have the defenders/firepower to match them. It's when they screw around, play slow, hold the ball, and don't make quick decisions that they get into trouble. To be able to avoid that in a game against Spo's defensive black magic is big time stuff, and will be valuable moving forward.

- I absolutely love how Jayson Tatum played in this game, and honestly really this entire series

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Is it crazy that the Celts can blow teams out while Tatum only takes 9 FGA? Definitely. But as a fan it's all I've ever wanted. Do you know how great it is that we didn't need to overuse Tatum in order to win this series in 5? I know there are some that complain about his usage or his FGA in this series, and to me that misses the mark. This is actually the best case scenario. Tatum was able to manipulate the game while also not having to burn out. 

It won't always be like this, and it is important that the team remembers that Jayson Tatum is on the team and he's pretty good, but I'll never complain about Tatum playing the right way and finding ways to impact winning outside of just scoring. For a team with bigger aspirations than just winning Player X vs Player Y debates, having your best player being willing to do whatever it takes to win is more important than anything else.

As we know, when Tatum is locked in and engaged, the first place that shows up is on the glass. When you look at how Tatum did on the boards in this series, you see a common trend

He kept his turnovers low, his defense was great, and when it came time to talk his own shit, Tatum crushed that as well

- When the Celtics have an opportunity to close out a series, that is the time when the two best players need to tell the rest of the team not to worry, they've got it covered. Getting the "others" to contribute helps, but at the end of the day, we all know things are going to come down to the play of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. We just saw Tatum's performance, and Jaylen's was just as good (outside of the TOs)

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25/6/2 on 11-19 for Jaylen in his 26 minutes, you could tell this series was a little personal for him. With every dunk or every made shot, you could feel the weight being lifted off Jaylen's shoulders. Hearing him after the game, he pretty much confirmed it

To win a title he'll need to be better, but that's true of everyone. He's not perfect, but no player is. But in a closeout game when you needed your two best players to show up and not lay an egg, that's exactly what happened.

- Another wire to wire ass kicking, with only 3 ties, 0 lead changes, and a lead as high as 37 points. Celts won the 2nd chance points battle 11-0, the rebounding battle 56-29, and the 3pt battle 16-3. When they do all that, they are not losing. Period.

- How about the return of Sam HAUS3R? After a couple no shows from him in this series, boy did this look familiar

It was only a matter of time before Hauser caught his rhythm, and when he does there are few players on the planet who can replicate what happens next. I'm not sure Hauser even considered hitting the rim on any of these threes. With no KP I feel like the talk has been about more minutes for Kornet/Tillman, but what if the answer is actually more Hauser? His defense is more than playoff capable, and the shooting is a legit weapon. 

- I also thought Luke Kornet was great in his 18 minutes off the bench. His length guarding Bam made his life hell, holding him to just 2-10 shooting in his 21 possessions against Adebayo. 

- While his shooting still makes me very nervous, we have to give credit where credit is due. Jrue Holiday was perfect in this win. The efficiency was great (3-5, 2-4), the defense was solid as always, he rebounded well (6), he created for others (5 AST), and I felt like his decision making was perfect. Nothing was forced offensively, playing within the flow of the game and taking his opportunities when they came up. He exposed mismatches against smaller players and played in control the entire series.

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THIS is the version of Jrue the Celts will need with KP out. If he's going to struggle shooting, fine, but he has to show up everywhere else. That's something I feel like Holiday did in Games 1, 3, 4, and 5, which is no surprise those are the games the Celts won.

The Bad

- It's nitpicking, but there is a slight level of concern over the 3pt shooting from the Jays. Both guys are high volume 3pt shooters, and so far this postseason neither guy is shooting above 33%. Jaylen is at 32.1% and Tatum at 29.0%. The concern here is that this isn't a fluke, as you'll remember Tatum shot just 32.3% last playoffs, and Jaylen 35.4%.

This matters to me because moving forward, they are going to be playing more talented teams than MIA. Teams that will actually be able to crack 90. With KP gone and his outside shooting not available, the Jays are going to have to be much more effective from beyond the arc moving forward. You can survive dogshit outside shooting when the other team can't score, but that is not going to be their life as they continue on this postseason run. 

- We live in a world where this was not called a foul

It is legitimately insane what Bam was allowed to get away with in this series. We all know why he did this too on the opening play of the game. Horford gave him a shove after Bam tried to injure Jayson Tatum, then after the game talked about how fucked up of a play it was for Bam to make. So how did Bam respond? By immediately pulling that shit. What a loser.

Can you imagine if Horford fell into Tatum's knee there?

Then you also had Tyler Herro with his own bullshit after the whistle in this game as well. As we've seen all series, this is Heat Culture. This is what they do, and then they try to spin it as being tough. There's nothing tough about this play from Bam. 

For the officials to allow him to have illegal screen after illegal screen and then to let something like that play slide is very pathetic. 

- Time for Pritchard to shake this series off. Not a great matchup for him, but things should ease up. Just 2-8 (0-3) last night and a couple of 0 point games in this series, this wasn't exactly the best 5 games for a guy who has been nails all year.

- We really couldn't get Jordan Walsh minutes? Really? 

- Whether it's either CLE or ORL, the one thing I know for sure is that Jaylen cannot have games where he has 11 TOs in 2 games. He had 6 in Game 4 and 5 last night, which is about 3x too many. Part of this was driving into traffic, part of it was being sloppy with the basketball, and after being so good at his ball security to start the series, the way he ended it was nowhere near good enough. Against a team with a pulse on offense, that's going to burn this team. 

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It seems like he realizes that which is great, but I'm going to need to see that start to translate onto the court. If this team takes care of the ball and makes opponents beat them in the halfcourt, they are going to be successful. If they don't and teams get free points off TOs in transition, their life will be much, much tougher.

The Ugly

- I don't mean to be rude, but what the fuck is going on with the FT shooting of this team? Serious question.

An abysmal 18-27 (66.7%) last night, this is starting to get a little concerning. I think we've all accepted Jaylen's struggles (2-5) from the line, but it's almost as if this issue is starting to spread. Tatum went 6-9 himself, and shot only 80% from the line (which is very low for him). Jaylen shot 45% (!!!!!) from the FT line in this series. Hell, even Derrick White missed a FT last night and he NEVER misses FTs.

For a team that was among the league leaders in FT shooting all season long, we cannot be having playoff games where the Celts are missing 9 FTA. Sure it didn't burn them in this blowout, but that's not the point. The point is in the playoffs, you can't get into a habit of leaving points on the table. Things are too important. It's hard enough for the Celts to get to the FT line with no Porzingis, so one they finally do I would like them to actually make their goddamn FTs.

And now we wait. I think we're all praying ORL/CLE goes 7 just for the fact it gives everyone (especially KP) more time to rest, and in terms of the matchup there are pros and cons to both teams. But at the end of the day, just like this series, the playoffs are not about who the other team is. These playoffs are about the Celtics, and if they are ready to take that final step and become champions.

So far? That's exactly what they look like.