Takeaways from Heat’s playoff-clinching win over the Celtics, and how defense led the way
How important was Wednesday’s game between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics? The difference between a win and a loss was worth three spots in the Eastern Conference standings for the Heat with less than two weeks left in the regular season.
Good thing for the Heat (49-28), it found a way to escape with a 106-98 playoff-clinching win over the Celtics (47-30) on Wednesday night at TD Garden.
“There was a lot on the line between this loss and this win,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said.
The first-place Heat moved one game ahead of the second-place Milwaukee Bucks in the East standings. The Celtics dropped to fourth place and two games behind the Heat.
Paired with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ loss on Wednesday night, the win in Boston also assured the Heat of a trip to the playoffs as one of the East’s top six seeds. Miami will open the postseason on either April 16 or 17.
It marks the 23rd time the Heat has clinched a playoff spot in the franchise’s 34 seasons, and the 21st time in the last 27 seasons since Pat Riley joined the organization in 1995. This is also the 11th time the Heat has qualified for the playoffs in Erik Spoelstra’s 14 seasons as head coach.
The Heat found itself in a four-point hole with 6:28 to play, but controlled the game with its defense the rest of the way. The Celtics scored just six points over the final 6:28, as the Heat closed the game on an 18-6 run.
Max Strus, who started his second straight game in place of Duncan Robinson, delivered in the clutch with a few big defensive plays. Strus blocked two shots and drew a charge in the final three minutes, and also finished with 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting on threes and seven rebounds.
Jimmy Butler ended the night with a team-high 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting.
Kyle Lowry finished with 23 points with the help of 6-of-12 shooting on threes and eight assists.
Adebayo contributed 17 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
“This is a good win,” Lowry said. “Playing against probably the hottest team in the NBA. It’s a good win for us, a good test for us. It shows that we can find ways to win on the road and win in hostile environments against well-coached, talented teams. For us, it’s just continuing to get better and build.”
The Heat and Celtics also played a back-and-forth first half that included eight lead changes, with neither team leading by more than seven.
A wild third quarter ensued, as the Heat opened the period on a 16-6 run to pull ahead by 11 points just four minutes in. But the Celtics came back by scoring 16 unanswered points to take a five-point lead a few minutes later before the Heat dominated the final few minutes of the game.
The Heat now has two days off before continuing its three-game trip on Saturday against the Bulls in Chicago. Miami has won two straight after last week’s season-long four-game losing skid.
“The four-game losing streak, that can humble you,” Spoelstra said. “That can force you to really address things that you needed to address. That’s why I always say, I don’t mind those moments. I hate losing. Our locker room hates losing. But we did need to address some things.”
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Celtics:
The job certainly isn’t over yet, but the Heat took a big step toward securing the East’s top playoff seed.
With Wednesday’s win, the first-place Heat moved one game ahead of the second-place Milwaukee Bucks, two games ahead of the third-place Philadelphia 76ers and two games ahead of the fourth-place Celtics in the East standings. The Heat has just five regular-season games left to play.
The Bucks are the closest to the Heat in the standings. But Miami is on track to finish with the edge in a two-team tie with Milwaukee because it owns the better conference record after the teams split their season series. The Heat holds a 31-16 conference record and the Bucks hold a 29-18 conference record.
The Heat is looking to enter the playoffs as the East’s No. 1 seed for the fourth time in franchise history. Miami also pulled it off in the 2012-13, 2004-05 and 1998-99 seasons.
With a playoff spot clinched, the Heat announced shortly after Wednesday’s win that individual game tickets for Round 1 home games of the 2022 playoffs will go on sale to the general public on April 6 at 10 a.m.
There will be a four-ticket limit per household, per game. Fans can purchase tickets online at Heat.com and Ticketmaster.com.
The Celtics feature the NBA’s top-rated defense, but it was the Heat’s defense that shined on Wednesday.
Boston totaled just 98 points on 41.2 percent shooting from the field and 11-of-37 (29.7 percent) shooting from three-point range to post an underwhelming offensive rating of just 96.1 points scored per 100 possessions. It marks the Celtics’ third-worst single-game offensive rating since the start of the new year.
“I think this is just a lot of respect that brought out the competition defensively and we really had to step up and make multiple efforts,” Spoelstra said.
That’s with the Heat’s offense creating more than a few easy scoring opportunities for the Celtics. Boston finished with 24 points off 18 turnovers from Miami.
The Heat’s defense was especially dominant during its 18-6 run to close the game. Along with scoring just six points, the Celtics shot 2 of 12 (16.7 percent) from the field and 1 of 4 (25 percent) on threes during the final 6:28.
Celtics stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum combined for only seven points on 3-of-13 shooting in the fourth quarter. Brown scored five points on 2-of-10 shooting and Tatum scored two points on 1-of-3 shooting in the final period.
“We hang our hats on getting stops,” Adebayo said. “I feel like that was the biggest thing in the fourth quarter, we got stops and got out and ran and just played basketball. We kept the game simple in the fourth.”
The Heat did this with a closing lineup of Lowry, Strus, Tyler Herro, Butler and Adebayo on Wednesday. This group played the final 7:40 of the game, and Miami outscored Boston 21-8 in that span.
The Heat now holds the NBA’s fourth-best defensive rating this season.
After making a few significant changes to the rotation a few days ago, the Heat used the same rotation for the second straight game.
The Heat again started Strus in place of Robinson alongside Lowry, Butler, Tucker and Adebayo.
Then Herro, Dewayne Dedmon, Gabe Vincent and Robinson were again used off the bench to complete the nine-man rotation.
Victor Oladipo and Markieff Morris both received DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) for the second consecutive game. The only other available Heat players who did not play on Wednesday were Udonis Haslem, Haywood Highsmith and Omer Yurtseven.
The new starting group of Lowry, Strus, Butler, Tucker and Adebayo posted a plus/minus of plus-three in 15 minutes on Wednesday.
This new rotation has led to smaller Heat lineups in an effort to create more space for its top offensive players — Adebayo, Butler, Herro and Lowry — to operate. Butler played 21 of his 37 minutes essentially as the Heat’s power forward, without Tucker on the court, as Spoelstra has put more shooters around him to fuel the offense.
Lowry said he would become more aggressive with his own shot as the playoffs approached, and he has stayed true to his word.
Lowry finished Wednesday’s win with 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field and 6-of-12 shooting on threes in 36 minutes. It’s just the sixth game this season that Lowry has attempted at least 16 shots.
That aggressiveness paired with his playmaking that resulted in eight assists and just one turnover led the Heat to post a solid offensive rating of 111.7 points scored per 100 possessions with Lowry on the court. But in the 12 minutes that Lowry wasn’t on the court against the Celtics, the Heat’s offense broke down and scored only 76.9 points per 100 possessions.
Lowry is averaging 10 shots per game this season, down from 13 last season and his lowest since averaging 9.2 shots per game in 2012-13. He’s also averaging 6.2 three-point attempts per game, which is his lowest since the 2014-15 season.
But those numbers are slowly starting to tick up, as he has averaged 11.2 shots and 8.7 three-point attempts in the last six games.
With the regular season coming to an end soon, the Heat is finally close to having its entire 15-man roster available for a game for the first time this season.
Forward Caleb Martin was the only member of the Heat’s 15-man roster who was not available on Wednesday. Martin missed his second straight game because of a right calf contusion, but he could be back in the coming days.
“He just was kicked in the calf,” Spoelstra said. “We literally are protecting him from himself. He’s demanding to get back to play out there, and we just want to make sure that when he does come back, that it’s not just for one game and it’s sore. So I think these extra couple of days will really help him.”
The Heat now has two days off before its next game on Saturday against the Bulls in Chicago.
Robinson (non-COVID illness) and Vincent (right big toe contusion), who were listed as questionable for the Heat, played against the Celtics.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 10:21 PM.
