Underdog Heat makes another statement with win over Celtics to open East finals. Takeaways
The Miami Heat still has not trailed in a series during this year’s playoffs.
Just like the first two rounds, the eighth-seeded Heat immediately stole home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference finals with a 123-116 win against the second-seeded Boston Celtics in Game 1 on Wednesday night at TD Garden. The Heat now holds a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series and is three wins from becoming just the second No. 8 seed in league history to advance to the NBA Finals.
“We are just playing really good basketball,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said. “More than anything, we are staying together through the good and through the bad.”
There was some bad on Wednesday, as the Celtics led by as many as 13 points in the first half and entered halftime ahead by nine points.
But there was also plenty of good, as the Heat took control of the game by exploding for 46 points in the third quarter. It marked the most points the Heat has scored in any playoff quarter in franchise history.
Miami won the third period 46-25 to turn a nine-point halftime deficit into a 12-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
“We’ve been in a lot of these situations where we’ve had to battle back from deficits, even on the road,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So we just started to chip away at it, and finally got the lead and were able to take control from there.”
The Celtics didn’t go away, opening the fourth quarter with seven unanswered points to cut the deficit to five. And Boston kept pushing to pull within four points with 2:31 to play.
That’s the closest the Celtics would get, as Caleb Martin hit a corner three off an assist from Butler on the other end to push the Heat’s lead to seven with 2:10 remaining.
After Celtics star Jayson Tatum was called for traveling on back-to-back possessions, Butler sealed the victory with a three-pointer of his own to put the Heat ahead by 10 with 1:03 left.
The Heat’s leading duo of Bam Adebayo and Butler did what they were supposed to do and led the way.
Adebayo finished with 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field, eight rebounds and five assists.
Butler closed with a game-high 35 points on 12-of-25 shooting from the field and 9-of-10 shooting from the foul line, to go with five rebounds, seven assists and six steals.
After Celtics outscored the Heat 40-16 in the paint in the first half, Miami flipped the script and outscored Boston 24-22 in the paint in the second half.
Tatum scored a team-high 30 points for the Celtics.
Game 2 of the series is Friday in Boston (8:30 p.m., TNT).
Five takeaways from the Heat’s Game 1 win over the Celtics on Wednesday:
The Heat’s incredible shot-making won Game 1.
The Heat finished with 122 points on a scorching 54.1 percent shooting from the field and 16 of 31 (51.6 percent) shooting from three-point range. It marked the 16th time in franchise history that the Heat has shot 50 percent or better from the field and three-point range in a playoff game and just the second time since 2016.
As a result, the Heat outscored the Celtics 48-30 from beyond the arc in Game 1. Boston, which shot 10 of 29 (34.5 percent) from deep, dropped to 29-29 this season when shooting under 40 percent from three-point range.
In addition, the Heat shot an ultra-efficient 10 of 15 (66.7 percent) on non-paint twos. For perspective on how impressive that level of efficiency is from that area of the court, the Brooklyn Nets shot a league-best 48.9 percent on non-paint twos in the regular season.
The third quarter was especially eye-opening, as the Heat totaled 46 points on 17-of-26 (65.4 percent) shooting from the field, 6-of-9 (66.7 percent) shooting from three-point range and 6-of-8 (75 percent) shooting from the foul line. Miami committed just one turnover in its highest-scoring playoff quarter in franchise history.
Led by Adebayo and Butler, six Heat players scored double-digit points in Game 1:
Max Strus scored 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes.
Gabe Vincent scored 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes.
Caleb Martin scored 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 shooting on threes.
Kyle Lowry scored 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes.
“We got two guys, our stars, that give us all the confidence that we need. I’m dead serious,” Lowry said when asked what’s behind the Heat’s timely shot-making this postseason. “Jimmy and Bam and these guys and our coaching staff, and we know the work that we put in. When you have guys that are so unselfish and give us the confidence to do it, we are going to do it. We don’t want to let them down.”
This was an impressive performance against the Celtics, which closed the regular season with the NBA’s second-best defensive rating.
Meanwhile, the Heat finished the regular-season with the 25th-ranked offensive rating (scoring 112.3 points per 100 possessions).
But suddenly, the Heat’s offense is one of the best in the NBA. Miami holds the NBA’s third-best offensive rating in the playoffs (scoring 116.6 points per 100 possessions) behind only the Denver Nuggets and Celtics.
More good news for the Heat: Butler looked healthier than he did at the end of the second round and was the best player on the court in Game 1.
After spraining his right ankle in the opening game of the second round, Butler missed Game 2. He then returned to average 24.5 points per game on an inefficient 41.7 percent shooting from the field in the final four games of the series.
That’s far off from his incredible production of 37.6 points per game on 59.7 percent shooting from the field in the Heat’s first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks.
But with four days off between the end of the second round and the start of the East finals, Butler looked more like himself Wednesday.
Butler started strong, totaling 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, two rebounds, two assists and two steals in the opening quarter of the conference finals.
After scoring just three points in the second quarter, Butler was the catalyst behind the Heat’s second-half surge. He recorded 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 6-of-7 shooting from the foul line, three rebounds, five assists and four steals while playing the entire second half.
With Butler on the court for all 24 minutes, the Heat won the second half by 16 points to rally from a nine-point halftime deficit.
“Down the stretch, Jimmy was able to just do everything we needed as a scorer or as a facilitator,” Spoelstra said. “He’s willing to do both.”
With his performance on Wednesday, Butler became just the fourth player in NBA history to finish a playoff game with at least 35 points, five rebounds, seven assists and six steals. The others to do it are Michael Jordan (twice), Rick Barry and Gary Payton.
Butler is now averaging 31.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.1 steals per game while shooting 52.2 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from three-point range in this year’s playoffs.
Adebayo was a force who the Celtics’ elite defense struggled to stop on Wednesday.
Adebayo was aggressive from the start, putting up five field-goal attempts in the first five minutes of the game.
With the Celtics not sending much help, Adebayo took advantage of the single coverage. As Celtics big man Robert Williams dropped back to protect the rim, Adebayo made the most of that space afforded to him and shot 7 of 9 (77.8 percent) on non-rim twos.
Wednesday marked the eighth time in Adebayo’s NBA career that he has finished with at least 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists in a playoff game.
The Heat outscored Celtics by 18 points with Adebayo on the court. In the 11:03 he spent on the bench, the Celtics outscored the Heat by 11 points.
“Bam is a major part of what we do,” Spoelstra said. “It wasn’t like we reinvented an offense. We kind of got to what we do a little bit more consistently, and he was just really good on both ends of the court.”
The Heat stuck with the same starting lineup to open the East finals, and that decision paid off.
The Heat opened the East finals with the same starting lineup it has used for most of the playoffs: Vincent, Strus, Butler, Kevin Love and Adebayo.
After starting guard Tyler Herro broke his hand in Game 1 of the first round, the Heat’s lack of size was exposed in the second game of the first round with Duncan Robinson starting in Herro’s place. So the Heat then moved Love into Herro’s spot in the starting lineup for Game 3 of the first round and has never looked back.
Wednesday marked the ninth time in the last 10 playoff games that the Heat has opened with the Vincent-Strus-Butler-Love-Adebayo combination. The only time Miami didn’t start this lineup during that stretch was when Butler missed Game 2 of the second round against the New York Knicks because of a sprained ankle.
With the Celtics opting to stick with their double-big starting lineup of Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Tatum, Williams and Al Horford to begin the East finals, the Heat opened Game 1 with these defensive matchups: Vincent on Brown, Strus on Smart, Butler on Tatum, Love on Horford and Adebayo on Williams.
The Heat’s preferred playoff starting unit has been a positive this postseason, as the group outscored opponents by 7.8 points per 100 possessions in 129 minutes together during the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The Heat’s starting lineup was again a big positive on Wednesday, outscoring the Celtics by 13 points in their 15 minutes together in Game 1. This unit was responsible for the Heat’s 29-15 run to open the third quarter.
The Heat improved to 8-1 in this year’s playoffs when using the Vincent-Strus-Butler-Love-Adebayo starting lineup.
The odds are now in the Heat’s favor to make the NBA Finals.
Entering this season, teams that have won Game 1 of a best-of-7 series have gone on to win the series 75.2 percent of the time (442-146).
It has been a successful formula for the Heat this postseason, as it has won Game 1 on the road in each of the first three rounds of the playoffs. Miami went on to eliminate the Bucks 4-1 in the first round, the Knicks 4-2 in the second round and will look to continue that trend in the conference finals.
The Heat is just the fifth team in NBA history to win Game 1 on the road in each of the first three playoff series, joining the Atlanta Hawks (2021), Knicks (1999), Chicago Bulls (1989) and Houston Rockets (1981), according to ESPN Stats & Info. The 1981 Rockets and 1999 Knicks made the NBA Finals, but neither won it.
“We just go out there and try to win basketball games,” Lowry said. “At the end of the day we are the No. 8 seed, so we are on the road.”
This story was originally published May 17, 2023 at 11:02 PM.
