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CHICAGO – Down 3-1 in the Eastern Finals and trailing 58-51 at halftime in Game 5, the Boston Celtics looked broke and seemed resigned to the fate of another season of unfulfilled expectations.
“I felt like early in the game we were a little frustrated, arguing with each other, with the umpires, and all the little things that frustrated us,” said Kemba Walker, the Celtics All-Star. The Boston Globe.
But instead of getting into another fight in the locker room that stole the headlines after their Game 2, the Celtics used the halftime break to cool their emotions and ignite the pressure on their offense.
And then there were fireworks.
Kemba and the gang put on what head coach Brad Stevens called one of the best displays of “Celtics basketball” his eyes had seen in a long time.
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And for the Miami Heat, it was a third quarter from hell, 12 forgettable minutes where everything went wrong.
The Heat started the period without eight of their first nine field goals and the opportunistic Celtics used that terrible drought as fuel for a 13-0 run that helped build a 71-63 lead.
Jayson Tatum led the attack with 17 points and when the smoke thankfully cleared, the Celtics had bombed Miami 41-25 in the third quarter, employing an inside-out attack that made them 11 free throws.
“They started attacking. We stopped defending,” lamented Jimmy Butler.
Even on the playground, that toxic combination won’t win any games.
Miami’s troubles, however, weren’t just contained in that fatal third quarter. They just played poorly early on and couldn’t make the most of it in the first half when the Celtics were in a bad time.
The Heat ended up making just 39 of 86 field goals (45.3 percent) while their shots from three hot spots cooled off when the Biscayne Bay breeze, just 7 of 36, a lousy 19.4 accuracy rate.
His defense also didn’t have the same doberman bite that had stolen some of the Celtics’ confidence throughout the series.
This time, Boston invaded the paint with abandon and scored 58 points on the inside and their outings allowed them 17 fast-break points, 11 more than Miami.
And Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, and Tyler Hello got lazy, sloppy on defense. Each of them were called two fast fouls in the first quarter and forced coach Erick Spoelstra to stretch his rotation.
But here’s the stat that will make Spo’s dream difficult heading into Monday’s Game 6: Boston outscored Miami 50-37 in rebounding.
For a Miami Heat team that revels in a culture of hard work and perseverance, being outclassed and delivering 13 offensive rebounds is a mortal sin.
Oh how I would love to be the fly on the wall during the Game 5 movie session.
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The Celtics obviously have momentum on their side now, but the Heat, while battered and bruised, are still in a good place, leading 3-2.
In NBA playoff history, teams that held a 3-1 lead have won the series 244 of 257 times, an excellent 94.9 percent success rate. And the Heat are 11-0 all-time when they have such an advantage.
So relax, Miami fans. It’s just a hiccup, not a full-blown cold.
