How a Bam Adebayo block pushed the Heat to a 1-0 lead in East finals. And other takeaways
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 117-114 overtime win over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday in the Eastern Conference finals at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista. Miami holds a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series:
Bam Adebayo’s game-saving block will be remembered for a long time. In fact, Adebayo called it the best play of his basketball career.
Here’s how it happened ...
With the Heat ahead by two points and just 12 seconds remaining in overtime, the Celtics called timeout.
Boston came out of the timeout and ran a play for All-Star forward Jayson Tatum. With forward Derrick Jones Jr. on Tatum above the three-point line, guard Kemba Walker ran into the play and forced a switch.
The problem for Boston was the switch resulted in Jimmy Butler guarding Tatum. But before Butler could set his feet after switching onto Tatum with 6.8 seconds remaining on the clock, Tatum drove past him and it looked like he was about to tie the game on a dunk.
But Adebayo emerged from the weakside and blocked Tatum’s game-tying dunk attempt with 3.7 seconds remaining in overtime. Adebayo, a righty, blocked it with his left hand.
“No. 1. No. 1. Playoffs, game on the line, No. 1 play,” Adebayo said when asked where the block ranks among plays he has made during his basketball career at any level. “... You just got to make a play. I did that. It’s hard to explain because it happened so fast for me. Y’all want answers from me? Instincts, I guess.”
Adebayo’s wrist bent all the way back as the ball seemed to be above the basket at one point, but Adebayo’s wrist never gave in.
“That can be a poster dunk and a lot of people won’t be willing or aren’t willing to make that play and put themselves out there,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Jayson Tatum, get into the launching pad, and he just made a big-time save for us. I mean, Tatum did have an angle, and it looked like he had an open lane to the rim and sometimes when you have great competition like this, you just have to make plays that you can’t even really explain. That was Bam tonight.”
According to ESPN Stats & Info, Adebayo is the first player to block a potential game-tying or go-ahead dunk in the final minute of a playoff game since the advent of play-by-play in 1996-97.
Following the game, Butler went to Instagram and posted a video of the block and captioned it: “this is why [Adebayo] is the heart and soul of our team...”
“That seals the game for us,” Butler said of Adebayo’s block. “I love how he does anything and everything that you ask him to do, I really do. You ask him to pass the ball, he does that. Ask him to score, does that. Come up with a huge defensive stop and block, did that. He’s a huge part to why we’re winning. I’ve been saying it all year long and I’ll repeat it again.
“That’s a winning play, putting your body on the line and then rotating the way that he did. We talk about it. We go through it over and over, but Bam has been our savior on that so many different times throughout the year.”
Following the block, Adebayo grabbed the rebound and was intentionally fouled with 2.5 seconds remaining in overtime. He made one of two free throws to put Miami ahead by three points.
“He made a great play,” Tatum said of Adebayo. “He made a good play. Can’t do nothing about it.”
Tatum then missed a three-pointer from 29 feet out as the buzzer sounded, which clinched the three-point overtime win for the Heat.
“It’s championship-stye defense, man,” Heat forward Jae Crowder said of Adebayo’s block. “That’s the stuff that we’ll look back 10, 15 years from now and watch that play. It was an amazing play. We’ve got to trust each other. We’ve been talking about it all series, all playoffs — just trust each other, and Bam came over and made a hell of a block.”
The 23-year-old Adebayo finished with 18 points, six rebounds, nine assists, one steal and two blocks in 43 minutes. He posted a plus/minus of plus-12.
Miami, which sprinkled in a 2-3 zone look throughout Tuesday’s win, wasn’t great defensively in Game 1. The Celtics shot 44.3 percent from the field and committed only 11 turnovers, while recording an offensive rating 115.2 (Boston’s second-best offensive rating in its last eight games).
But over the final 12 minutes of the game (final seven minutes of regulation and the five-minute overtime period), the Heat held the Celtics to 20 points on 7-of-22 shooting from the field and 1-of-8 shooting on threes. Tatum, who finished with a game-high 30 points, was 0-of-7 during that crucial stretch.
One of those missed shots came because of Adebayo’s block, which is already being called one of the best defensive plays in NBA history.
Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson tweeted after the game: “Bam Adebayo’s block on Jayson Tatum’s dunk attempt was the best defensive play I’ve seen ever in the playoffs!!!!”
“You hear that? Magic [is talking about me],” Adebayo said when told of Johnson’s tweet. “It’s just you get on that big stage, you just got to make big plays and I made a big play. Coming from Magic, that’s a great comment from him, and you just have got to keep getting better throughout the playoffs.”
Despite two ugly quarters, the Heat’s elite offense won its matchup against the Celtics’ elite defense.
Miami, which finished the regular season with the league’s seventh-best offensive rating, scored 117 points on 47.1 percent shooting from the field and 16 of 36 shooting on threes while committing 13 turnovers.
The result: The Heat scored at a pace of 118.2 points per 100 possessions in Game 1. It marked the Celtics’ worst defensive rating this postseason.
But in the first quarter, it looked like Boston’s defense was the unit on its way to a dominant night as Miami fell behind by as many as 13 points in the opening period. The Celtics, which posted the NBA’s fourth-best defensive rating in the regular season and the top defensive rating through the first two rounds of the playoffs, limited the Heat to just 18 points on 6-of-22 shooting from the field in the first quarter.
“We got down because they were playing great,” Spoelstra said. “This is a very good team we’re playing against. It’s not as if it was just about us. I would love to say that, oh, yeah, we were just kind of going through the motions. We weren’t. We weren’t. They were putting it to us. They are a very good defensive team and you have be so detailed and purposeful every single possession against them. Otherwise, they can really get you to the end of the clock.”
Miami’s offense came alive in the second quarter, though.
The Heat erupted for 37 points on 15-of-22 (68.2 percent) shooting from the field and 6-of-8 shooting on threes in the second quarter to win the period 37-29 and enter halftime with the score tied at 55.
Goran Dragic was the catalyst behind Miami’s offensive push, scoring 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the second quarter. Dragic attacked mismatches on switches throughout the game, finishing with a team-high 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting, seven rebounds and four assists in 39 minutes.
But the third quarter, much like the first quarter, wasn’t pretty for Miami’s offense. The Heat scored only 16 points on 6-of-20 shooting from the field and 1-of-8 shooting on threes in the period.
Then the fourth quarter, much like the second quarter, was exceptional for Miami’s offense. The Heat scored 35 points while shooting 71.4 percent from the field and 5 of 9 on threes in the final period of regulation.
Threes were important for the Heat’s offense, as usual. Miami, which finished the regular season with the second-best team three-point percentage, made 16 threes and shot 44.4 percent from deep in Game 1.
Miami won overtime 11-8 with the help of 4-of-5 shooting from the foul line to escape with the win.
The Heat was also effective around the rim, outscoring the Celtics 48-26 in the paint.
Ball movement and off-ball movement were also important against a switch-heavy Celtics defense. Miami finished with 32 assists on 40 made baskets.
Playoff Jimmy came through when it mattered most once again.
The Heat’s leading man entered the conference finals averaging 7.4 fourth-quarter points per game this postseason, which was the third-most among players remaining in the playoffs.
Butler stepped up again late in Game 1 of the East finals, scoring eight of his 20 points between the fourth quarter and overtime.
Most of those points came in some of the most important moments of the game.
Butler made a three-pointer with 22 seconds remaining in regulation to put the Heat ahead by one point before the Celtics tied it to force overtime.
Then with Miami trailing by one point, Butler made a difficult and-1 floater over Tatum and made the free throw to put the Heat ahead by two with 12 seconds remaining in overtime.
“You just put the ball in your best players’ hands and they have got to make a play, make or miss,” Spoelstra said of Butler’s and-1 basket late in the extra period. “The most important thing about that is having guys that are willing to put themselves out there.”
Miami never trailed again.
Butler became the third player in the play-by-play era (since 1997) to make multiple go-ahead field goals in the final 24 seconds of the fourth quarter/overtime of a playoff game, joining Luka Doncic and LeBron James, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Butler finished the first conference finals game of his NBA career with 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting on threes, five rebounds, five assists and two steals in 43 minutes.
In the playoffs, Butler has averaged 7.2 points on 59.4 percent shooting from the field and 5 of 10 shooting on threes in the fourth quarter. He’s a plus-55 in the final period during the Heat’s playoff run.
“I think I’m just calm because I know my role,” Butler said. “I know what I’m supposed to do down the stretch. Of course Spo is barking at me to make a play or to get a bucket, something like that. But I mean, my teammates are the same way. I think we do a great job of knowing where the ball has to go, who has a mismatch.”
In his first conference finals game, Heat rookie Tyler Herro nearly recorded a triple-double.
Herro recorded 12 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in 40 minutes in Game 1.
According to Couper Moorhead from Heat.com, Herro is the second player ever to finish a conference finals game with 12 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists before his 21st birthday. The other player is Magic Johnson.
The 20-year-old scored 10 of his points in the second half, including two important threes in the final 3:17 of regulation. The first three cut a six-point Celtics lead to three with 3:17 remaining and the other trimmed a five-point Boston lead down to two with 1:02 remaining in regulation.
“He has played now for 12 months,” Spoelstra said of Herro. “Gone through two training camps. He has been in a lot of these big moments, and right now at this point, we need a lot of the skill set that he brings off the dribble, behind the three-point line. His passing, again, against a really good, well-drilled, well-disciplined defense, you need some plays that are unscripted. Tyler is pretty good in those situations.”
Herro has averaged 14.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists in his first postseason. He has played a team-high 111 minutes in the fourth quarter during the playoffs.
Before the game, Herro was named to the NBA’s All-Rookie Second Team. Fellow Heat rookie Kendrick Nunn was voted onto the All-Rookie First Team.
This Heat still has only one loss this postseason.
Miami is 9-1 in the playoffs and still hasn’t trailed in a series. After sweeping the Indiana Pacers in the first round and eliminating the Milwaukee Bucks 4-1 in the second round, the Heat holds a 1-0 series lead in the conference finals.
If history is any indication, Miami in a good position.
That’s probably obvious because the Heat now holds a 1-0 lead in the conference finals, but Miami also owns a 19-5 all-time record in playoff series that it has taken a 1-0 lead in.
But if Game 1 is any indication, this could also be a long series with a lot of close games.
“I don’t think you can set the tone in a long series,” Spoelstra said. “You just have to get to work the next day. I can’t say it enough. Boston is very good. They are where they are for a reason. They present a lot of different challenges. So we just have to get to work tomorrow, stay humble. You know, obviously it’s much better to get the win and go work on your teaching points from there. But we understand how we can’t get too carried away with just one win.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2020 at 12:03 AM.
