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Jayson Tatum (0) of the Boston Celtics directs a play during the second half of an NBA conference postseason basketball game against the Miami Heat on Friday, Sept. 25, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo / Mark J. Terrill)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics are clearly not ready to see the world that exists outside of the NBA’s reset bubble.
And a great second half extended your stay at Walt Disney World.
Tatum had 31 points and 10 rebounds, Jaylen Brown added 28 points and the Celtics avoided elimination by beating the Miami Heat 121-108 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on Friday night.
The Heat lead the series 3-2, with Game 6 on Sunday.
Daniel Theis scored 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Celtics, who trailed 12 points early but took control with a great third quarter. Kemba Walker scored 15 points, Marcus Smart added 12 and Gordon Hayward had 10 for the Celtics.
Goran Dragic scored 23 points before fouling with 4:27 left for Miami, which got 20 from Duncan Robinson. Jimmy Butler scored 17, Tyler Herro and Jae Crowder each had 14 and Bam Adebayo had 13 for the Heat, which couldn’t bring anything down from 3-point range.
Miami was 7-for-36 from beyond the arc, now shooting 24.8% on 3s in its final 13 quarters, after shooting 38.3% in the playoffs before that drought.
Brown made three straight in the fourth quarter to convert an eight-point lead into a 103-89 margin with 8:05 to play.
He gave the Heat bench a kiss after the second, which recalls something Herro did during his 37-point barrage in Game 4.
The opening minutes did not go as planned for Boston, which missed 11 of its first 12 shots, committed four turnovers in that dismal stretch to make matters worse, and hit a 17-5 hole very early.
But they resisted all of that and, even after shooting just 40% in the first half, Boston was trailing 58-51 at the break, never leading, but never letting Miami get too far out of sight.
The Heat scored the first basket of the third quarter. The next few minutes were all Celtics.
They ran a 13-0 streak over a stretch of just 3:06 to turn a nine-point deficit into a 64-60 lead, and the game turned that fast. A separate flurry of 7-0 followed, Walker hit a 3-pointer with 4:26 remaining for a 77-67 lead, Boston’s first double-digit mattress of the night, and the Celtics finally led by 14 before settling for a 92-83 advantage entering the room.
“In all honesty, the first time I’ve seen Celtics basketball in the last few games,” Stevens told his team during a timeout.
And it was good enough to make sure Friday wasn’t the last time I would see Celtics basketball this season.
TIPS
Heat: Added to the problems in the third quarter was this: Miami was rebounded 16-5 in those 12 minutes. … With their fourth triple on Friday, from Robinson with 47 seconds left in the first half, the Heat edged the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors (1,161) for 14th place on the season three roster. Next up: the 2016-17 Warriors, who had 1,198.
Celtics: Not that any of this should have a neutral floor, but Boston ended what is officially considered a five-game losing streak “at home.” … The Celtics are 2-0 when they face knockout games this season. The last time Boston won multiple knockout games in the same season was in 2008, when it prevailed in games 7 of the first and second rounds and won the NBA title.
GOOD THIRD
This was the 18th postseason game in Celtics history in which they scored at least 41 points in a quarter, and probably not surprising, they are 18-0 in those games. It has happened in 20 different neighborhoods; They did so in three separate quarters in a 157-128 victory over the Knicks on April 28, 1990.
THIRD EVIL
The only other time Miami allowed 41 points in a postseason quarter was on June 10, 2014, when the Heat were outscored 41-25 in the first quarter of Game 3 of the NBA Finals that season against San Antonio. . Coincidentally, Friday’s third-quarter debacle had the same score: 41-25.
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