BOSTON — The Boston Celtics are turning the Eastern Conference Finals from a winning streak into a serious streak.
They’re still stuck in a big gap, but they won again easily 110-97 in Game 5 against the Miami Heat on Thursday, with four of their starters scoring at least 20 points, and are now two wins away from becoming the first team become NBA history to win a series from a 3-0 deficit.
Game 6 takes place in Miami on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. The Celtics have won their last two games by a combined 30 points. Boston never fell behind on Thursday, leading by as much as 24 points — it was a 15-point game after the first quarter.
“It just means we have our backs to the wall and stick together and compete at a high level to give us a chance,” said Boston coach Joe Mazzulla.
The Celtics’ backfield of Derrick White and Marcus Smart easily had their best games of the series. They took advantage of missing starter Gabe Vincent (sprained left ankle) on the Heat, victimizing Max Strus and Vincent’s backup Kyle Lowry.
White, who opened the conference finals as reserve, walked away with 24 points on six 3s and two steals. Smart added 23 points (four 3s) and five steals.
“He just plays with defensive versatility and does a great job paying attention to the details of staff tendencies,” Mazzulla said of White. And of Smart he said: “He’s just an emotional key for us. When he’s stuck and playing both sides of the ball at different paces, that kind of gives us our identity and our lives.”
Jayson Tatum almost had a triple double (21 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds and Jaylen Brown added 21 points). Tatum got Boston going with twelve points in the first game, including a dunk 3:18 from time that triggered Miami’s second timeout of the game. The Celtics were already 15 points ahead at this point and the closest point the game would come to was 11 points in the second quarter.
Neither Bam Adebayo (16 points, eight rebounds) nor Jimmy Butler (14 points) played in the fourth quarter of that defeat. Miami turned to Haywood Highsmith for the first time of the series, who scored 15 points from the bench, as did Caleb Martin (14 points) and Duncan Robinson (18 points).
Lowry and Strus gave the heat little (eight points together on 3 shots out of 10). Miami was again a mess with turnovers (16 for 27 Celtics points) and giving up 17 second chance points. Continuing another current trend, the Celtics were hot again from 3-point range.
“Their activity levels have gone up in the last two games and that’s what you have to expect in a hard-fought playoff series,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. “And then we play in front of an audience quite a lot. Some good things can come out of this if we read the game, read the coverage, and make the appropriate plays.
“But you have to give them credit for the activity,” Spoelstra continued. “They jammed us in the paint several times with quick hands, they disassembled it and things like that. We have to secure that. That’s two games in a row. We have to be aggressive and then make the right plays with the right distances.”
Just one more win would bring that streak back to Boston for an unlikely game seven on Monday, with a lot of history at stake and a berth in the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets secured.
As you know, none of the 150 teams that fell 3-0 in a series came back to win. Only three teams have ever forced a Game 7. It wasn’t long since the Celtics were on the verge of being defeated and legitimate questions have been asked about Mazzula’s future in Boston and the future of the roster as it stands.
“Yeah, obviously Game 3 was a tough affair, but I mean, we bonded in the dressing room all year, had our backs on each other and I felt confident we were going to come back and just play each other,” White said. “We’ve done that in the last two games.”
On the other hand, the Heat are (still) trying to become the second No. 8 to ever reach a final and their first since 1999. They were down 2-0 in their first two tries, and they don’t want to either see how 0-3 feels.
“The last two games are not what we are,” said Butler. “It was just like that. We stopped defending halfway because we weren’t making the shots we wanted to make. But that is easily correctable. You just have to come out and play harder from the jump. As I always say, it will be just a smile and we will keep it very, very, very constant, knowing that we will win the next game.”
Celtics look like themselves
It wasn’t until halftime in Game 4 for the Celtics to figure things out, but they pulled off their absolute feat in Game 5, making the possibility of a 3-0 comeback terrifyingly real.
The Bostonians’ contested shootouts were unsustainably good, but their attention to detail and intensity in every aspect of their identities and plan on both sides has returned in full force. – White
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Tatum has finally solved Miami’s defenses and looks like he can pull doubles and find shooters. The team moves the ball with speed and determination and the defensive pressure was just right without overdoing it. Butler and Adebayo’s individual defense was incredible, and Boston manages to use their myriad deflections to increase their transition gap.
This is the pinnacle of Celtics basketball, and it looks like they could pull off their greatest comeback of all time if they just keep that focus. – White
Celtics play with intensity
The Celtics had the intensity from the start. On the first play, Smart batted the ball away from Adebayo and dived onto the field to grab the ball. From there, Boston forced 15 more turnovers, including five more from Adebayo.
Boston actually held a 20-5 lead after the game started with a 20-5 run, but maintained a comfortable lead through the end of the game. Tatum didn’t have a great scoring game but controlled everything with his offensive maneuvers. – king
Why Heat had problems
The Celtics don’t give Adebayo the opportunity to do anything offensively and that’s one of the reasons this series has changed. After attempting just seven shots with four losses in Game 4, Adebayo had six losses on Thursday. Boston rushes him and takes the ball away from him.
Adebayo doesn’t make his move fast enough or doesn’t find the open player when the doubles team comes; Partly because the Heat don’t move as much without the ball. On a night that Vincent was out and a season that Miami often used Adebayo to lighten offense, it was a recipe for disaster that unfolded because of his failure to get him going or find something to counter the Boston switch on defense. – Vardon
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(Photo: Winslow Townson / USA Today)