Takeaways from the Heat’s last-second loss to Celtics in a game that almost wasn’t played
After eliminating the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals almost four months ago, the Miami Heat expected an inspired performance from the Celtics in their first matchup of the season.
The result was another close Heat-Celtics game with another dramatic finish.
In the end, the Celtics (6-3) survived to defeat the Heat 107-105 on Wednesday at AmericanAirlines Arena. Miami fell to 3-4.
The final three minutes were eventful, a stretch that began with the score tied at 95 with 3:19 to play.
Boston then used a 10-0 run to build a 10-point lead with 1:17 left on the clock.
The Heat somehow rallied, using a quick 10-0 run of their own — a Duncan Robinson three-pointer, a Robinson and-1 three-pointer and a Goran Dragic three-pointer — to tie the game at 105 with 13.4 seconds to play.
But Celtics guard Payton Pritchard made a game-winning put-back layup with 0.2 seconds left to lift Boston to the win. It’s fitting that the game ended this way, with the Celtics scoring 21 second-chance points on 16 offensive rebounds Wednesday.
“We didn’t have a handle on their run-ins,” coach Erik Spoelstra of the Heat’s offensive rebounding issues. “It wasn’t necessarily [Tristan] Thompson and [Daniel] Theis doing it. It was their perimeters and guys crashing from the three-point — Grant Williams and Pritchard that we just didn’t get a handle on it. It’s just a tough way to go at the end.”
Next up for the Heat is the start of a four-game trip that begins Saturday against the Washington Wizards.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Celtics:
Even in a loss, this was Jimmy Butler’s best game of the young season.
It has been a weird start to the season for Butler, who sprained his right ankle in the opener and then missed two of the Heat’s first four games because of the injury.
Butler returned in Friday’s loss to the Mavericks and struggled, finishing with two points on 0-of-6 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting from the foul line in 27 minutes.
Butler was better in Monday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, recording 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, three rebounds and six assists in 26 minutes.
Then on Wednesday, Butler simply looked like himself again. He finished with 26 points on 9-of-19 shooting, eight rebounds, three assists and three blocks in 33 minutes.
“He was great on both sides of the floor, taking those big matchups like he typically does and then generating a lot of offense for us,” Spoelstra said.
But the Heat couldn’t keep up with the Celtics in the minutes Butler was not on the court. Boston outscored Miami 37-27 in the 15 minutes Butler did not play.
It took until the seventh game of the season, but the Heat finally used the same starting lineup in consecutive games.
After starting six different lineups in the first six games of the season, Spoelstra chose to give the Tyler Herro-Butler-Robinson-Bam Adebayo-Kelly Olynyk combination another look to begin Wednesday’s matchup against the Celtics. This five-man group was effective in Monday’s blowout win over the Thunder, finishing with a plus/minus of plus-9 in 20 minutes together.
Things didn’t go as well for the Heat to begin Wednesday’s game. Boston opened a 21-10 lead before Miami made its first substitution of the game with 6:04 left in the first quarter.
But the the Heat’s starting lineup did look better to start the second half, outscoring the Celtics 19-10 to begin the third quarter before Spoelstra turned to the bench.
The Herro-Butler-Robinson-Adebayo-Olynyk lineup finished Wednesday’s loss as a minus-1 in 12 minutes. For the season, this group is a plus-3 in 35 minutes together.
Herro, Butler, Robinson and Adebayo have been constants in the starting lineup when healthy to begin the season, but Olynyk is the fifth piece that Spoelstra has decided to stay with for now.
The Heat’s bench rotation on Wednesday included Dragic, Precious Achiuwa, Avery Bradley and Andre Iguodala. Those four have been the core of Miami’s bench rotation to begin the season.
It seems like the Heat has settled on this nine-man rotation for now, with Moe Harkless as a 10th option will get spot minutes.
“I think the consistency of the nine or 10 guys that we’re playing at this point in the season, I think guys are pretty comfortable with that,” Spoelstra said.
Harkless, who played in each of the Heat’s first six games, was inactive Wednesday because of a left forearm contusion.
Celtics guards Kemba Walker (left knee injury recovery) and Jeff Teague (left ankle sprain) were unavailable.
Robinson became the fastest player in NBA history to reach 300 career made threes, and it’s not even close.
With his second made three of Wednesday’s game early in the third quarter, Robinson hit his 300th career three-pointer in his 95th regular-season game. It’s the fastest any NBA player has reached that mark.
Before Robinson made his 300th three, Dallas Mavericks wing Luka Doncic and Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard were the fastest to do it in their 117th game.
“It is an honor and humbling,” Robinson said. “Obviously, you want something like that to come in a winning effort, but nonetheless it is a huge testament to the group of guys I play with and the coaching staff. Just everyone who uplifts me and shows up every day trying to help me improve and get better.”
Robinson finished Wednesday’s loss with 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting on threes.
All things considered, the Heat did relatively well in its attempt at defending the Celtics’ dynamic duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
Brown (21 points on 8-of-23 shooting) and Tatum (27 points on 10-of-21 shooting) combined for 48 points on 40.9 percent shooting Wednesday.
The Heat had better luck defending Brown and Tatum than most teams early this season. Brown and Tatum entered with 425 combined points (53.1 points per game) in Boston’s first eight games, which is the second most by a Celtics duo in franchise history through the first eight games of the season, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
For both teams, the game was secondary to what unfolded at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday afternoon.
Hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, crashing through police lines and some entering the building to delay the constitutional process of certifying the Electoral College count after the Nov. 3 presidential election. There were reports of an armed standoff with Capitol police in the House chamber.
“Really disturbing images,” Spoelstra said before Wednesday’s contest. “We’ve all been talking about it the last couple of hours. And it was really disturbing. We didn’t talk about it formally as a group, but everybody is talking about it. The TV is on in the training room, it’s on in all the coaches’ offices. We just can’t believe what we’re seeing. It has been just a tough string of events. And even with the Jacob Blake ruling, that was really disheartening.”
Both teams were a few minutes late to the court for pregame warmups as they discussed how they wanted to handle Wednesday’s game. Celtics coach Brad Stevens said he called his wife 30 minutes before the game and told her he didn’t believe the teams would play, but they ultimately decided to take the court for the game.
“Brad was great,” Spoelstra said. “He called me and it was probably five minutes before I was going into the locker room. I almost did a double take at my phone. I thought, ‘Oh [expletive]. Something is going on.’”
Both the Heat and Celtics knelt during the national anthem, and the teams issued a joint statement minutes before tip-off.
The joint statement read: “2021 is a new year, but some things have not changed. We play tonight’s game with a heavy heart after yesterday’s decision in Kenosha, and knowing that protesters in our nation’s capital are treated differently by political leaders depending on what side of certain issues they are on. The drastic difference between the way protesters this past spring and summer were treated and the encouragement given to today’s protestors who acted illegally just shows how much more work we have to do.
“We have decided to play tonight’s game to try to bring joy into people’s lives. But we must not forget the injustices in our society, and we will continue to use our voices and our platform to highlight these issues and do everything we can to work for a more equal and just America.”
Adebayo said after the game when asked about the Heat organization standing behind its players: “They support us. That’s the bottom line. We can’t have African-American players on this team and not support them. The thing I like about the Heat, we’re so diverse. We want better for one another. The whole organization just wants better for the African Americans in this world. We just want to be treated equal. We’re not asking for a lot. We’re not asking for revenge. We’re just asking to be treated fair, that’s all. Today showed that we’re not being treated fair.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 10:14 PM.
