3 Celtics takeaways from Game 5 destruction of Heat

In recent years, the C’s have been somewhat haunted by losing leads. It was certainly a factor in the 2022 NBA Finals, which saw Boston give up a fourth-quarter lead in Game 4 before falling 107-97 to the Golden State Warriors. Following that collapse, the Celtics lost a 2-1 series lead and were promptly eliminated in six games.

During the 2023-24 regular season, Boston, for the most part, was much better at maintaining leads. Outside of a few mishaps against the Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Atlanta Hawks, the 64-18 Celtics were excellent through 82 games.

Against the Heat, the Celtics jumped out to huge advantages on multiple occasions. And in Games 1 and 4, they had sizable 34-point and 28-point leads but won by 20 and 14 points, respectively. This wasn’t enough to hit the panic button, yet it was still concerning to see Boston’s effort level waver.

On Wednesday evening, the Celtics led by 30 points early on but finished the first half with a 22-point lead after a quick Miami run. Rather than taking it easy in the second half, the Green Team came out firing.

The Celtics won the third quarter 30 to 20 and Miami looked just about ready for its next flight back to Florida. Boston then finished the Heat off in the fourth by outscoring them 20-18.

“It was a good team we just played, obviously well-coached and a lot of history there,” Celtics star Jayson Tatum said after the double-digit win. “We did our job. We took care of business and played the way we were supposed to. We got it done.”

Unlike past seasons, Tatum and company smothered the Heat and never gave them a flicker of hope. Although Miami was severely injured, losing Game 5 and having to travel back to South Beach would’ve been an added strain on the Celtics.

Instead, they never lost focus at home and learned from past letdowns.

“We should be learning from our mistakes and learning from things that we could have done better and applying it to the next season, which we are doing this year,” Tatum said. “Because we’re trying to have a different outcome from what we had last year.”

Kristaps Porzingis’ replacements all played well

The only disappointment for Boston in its first-round series was losing center Kristaps Porzingis. The Latvian big man exited the second quarter of Game 4 with a calf injury and could miss the entire second round.

With no Porzingis, another big man had to step up for the C’s. First off the bench was veteran Al Horford, who had a solid outing with eight points, six rebounds, and zero turnovers.

Next was center Luke Kornet, who played fresh despite missing the first two games of the series due to injury. He had two points and seven rebounds off the bench and, most importantly, guarded Heat star Bam Adebayo extremely well.

“There’s no difference between the regular season and the playoffs. They played the same way,” Celtic coach Joe Mazzulla said of his backup bigs. “Credit to Luke … started the series with an injury and came back and gave us great minutes. So, it’s important that he continues to do that for us. Every series kind of has a life of its own so there’ll be different matchups, different sub patterns, but their open-mindedness and ability to play, regardless of the circumstances, is important.”

Boston still doesn’t know who it will match up with next, yet it’ll need Horford, Kornet, and first-year Celtic Xavier Tillman to step up regardless. If they can rebound and defend like they did against Adebayo and the Heat, the Celtics will miss Porzingis a lot less.

The Celtics owned the glass

The Heat were severe underdogs in this series, and if they wanted to shock the world, they were going to have to crash the glass and connect from deep.

They did exactly that in Game 2, as Miami outrebounded Boston and drilled a whopping 23 triples en route to a 111-101 win. The C’s adjusted accordingly, winning the rebounding war 228-181 overall and 56-29 in Game 5.

With all these boards, the Celtics were limiting extra possessions for Miami and generating second-chance points for themselves on the offensive end. This disparity was definitely significant in the series-clincher, as the Heat went a horrific 3-for-29 from beyond the arc and could’ve used more than the two offensive rebounds they grabbed.

“I don’t know if they were crashing as much because I think they made an effort to focus on transition defense more,” Mazzulla pointed out. “But we were very intentional about making sure we had four or five guys in the paint and when they had a shot, go up to rebound.”

The Celtics will now closely monitor Game 6 between the Cavs and Magic on Friday night to see if Cleveland will earn the right to play them or if Orlando will push the series to its limit.