The Celtics are suddenly feeling the heat in their NBA first-round playoff series against Miami.
The series is tied after Miami had a dominant 111–104 victory in Game 2 at the TD Garden on Wednesday.
The Celtics and Heat have met in the postseason in four of the past five years. Last year, Miami knocked the Celtics out of the conference finals in seven games, so the Heat had confidence heading into this series.
In Game 2, the Heat made a franchise-record 23 3-pointers to pull away from their conference rival. Tyler Herro made six of those shots beyond the arc and finished with 24 points and 14 assists.
What’s even more impressive is that Miami is playing with six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler, who is out for the entire series with a knee injury. Butler is encouraging his teammates behind the scenes.
“Before the series, JB texted me to take the team and lead these guys,” Herro said. “Just make every right play. It’s not all about scoring. In the playoffs, you have to make the right play and our guys showed it tonight. Everybody came to play. We lost badly in Game 1, and everybody responded. That’s all you can ask for from a group of guys.”
Miami still faces an uphill climb to win this series but now the Heat get to head home for Games 3 and 4. Miami was 22–19 at the Kaseya Center this season.
The Celtics have home-court advantage throughout the postseason after finishing the regular season with the league’s best record at 64–18. Boston is led by All-Star Jayson Tatum, who averaged 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists in the regular season.
Tatum finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists — his first career playoff triple-double — in a 114-94 victory to open their first-round playoff series. The Celtics had six players finish in double figures and led by as many as 34 points in the final quarter.
Tatum had a team-high 28 points in the setback in Game 2, but it was not enough to overcome the hot-shooting Heat.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,“ Tatum said. ”There’s a lot of history between these two franchises, especially recently, regardless of seeding and who’s in and who’s out. It’s the playoffs and it’s never going to go exactly as people expect it to go and that’s the beauty of being in the playoffs and playing at the highest level. We lost the game and we have a chance to play again on Saturday. It should be another fun one.”
Defensively, Boston will have to lean on Jrue Holiday, who recently signed a four-year, $135 million contract extension. In his first season in Boston, Holiday was the starting point guard and averaged 12.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 4.9 assists.
Holiday had nine points, two assists, and two steals in Game 2.
“The guys that we wanted to shoot, not that we let them, but it wasn’t like a get out to them and put it on the ground,” Holiday told reporters after the game. “It was kind of like, ‘Protect the basket but still get a close-out.’ But they started knocking them in. We know Martin can shoot, but they had guys out there that were knocking in everything, even Jaime Jaquez just knocking it in. So they’re shooting them confidently and they’re taking them, and they made them tonight.”
Despite being the best team in the regular season, the Celtics players know the playoffs are a different dynamic. The Heat are also confident that anything can happen in the postseason if a team gets hot at the right time.
Last year, the eighth-seeded Heat beat the No. 1-seeded Bucks in five games, so the players are confident in this series against the Celtics.
Game 3 is Saturday in Miami.
“We’re here. Anything can happen,” Herro said. “We don’t even want to mention last year. This year is a whole new year. We feel like we have a great group of guys. We are not fully healthy, but we have a bunch of guys who want to play and want to be out here. That really makes a difference. This playoff opportunity is big for everybody. We just love to compete and that’s all it’s about.”
