Celtics lose game 1 of the ECF at TD Garden. Jimmy Butler is that dude, Tatum does a sneaky Tatum crumble with 3 straight turnovers down the stretch but still goes for 30 on greater than 50% FG pct. Let's break it down:
First Half: Lot of feeling out here at the beginning, as is normal in the first few rounds of a heavyweight fight. That tends to favor the Celtics, who in a weird turn of events feels like the lesser experienced team in this matchup. Heat feel like the alley cat toying with you about to pounce, which they did in second half.
Standouts: Robert Williams was awesome, love the timelord - throwing down dunks, grabbing boards, going toe to toe with Adebayo. 6/6 from the field for the game, outstanding.
Lowry was a muscle hamster pushing the pace for the Heat, and hit 3 threes while taking the pressure off some of the other contributors for Miami early. I learned who Caleb Martin was, another undrafted guy who can flat ball. Hitting mid range, and 3s. Marcus Smart stealing the show with his 10 assists and looking like a proper floor general. Tatum and Brown doing what they do, filling up the stat sheet and taking a 9 point lead into halftime.
Second Half: The alley cats pounce and kick it up a notch - Smart won the matchup in first half, but Strus and Gabe Vincent were balling when the teams changed sides. Vincent - Strus - Lowry - Martin all went for 15 in the ball game - that along with the stars showing out for Miami, and the Celtics do not win this series.
Quarter 4: Tatum nowhere to be found... Stan Van Gundy reminding us every 45 seconds... and 6 steals for Butler?! Unreal. That to go along with 35 points in 43 minutes and that massive rim out to back in 3 on the right wing, outstanding performance.
Bonus: Didn't write about him in pregame, but Malcolm Brogdon was super solid out there. Love his energy and contribution - will need him and Derek White to severely outperform the Heat supporting cast in game 2, but they need the support of Tatum. Look at the structure the Heat have with Jimmy, and look how it lacks when Tatum is not in flow. It's egregiously clear when he's checked in vs. when he's checked out. Jaylen Brown could use some love on the outside, Al Horford - Kevin Love was a bit of a push. Horford was going hard on D tonight, love that from him.
Belichick showing up was awesome too...
Do I see the Celtics losing 4 games against this team? No... but winning 4 sounds ambitious as well. After Game 7 against the Sixers, felt like a potential letdown was in place, but I thought it would be in Game 2. This series is gonna be a damn dog fight, Celtics in 6!
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Well written article. Liked the analysis and respect for the performance of Miami players, who got the job done away from home court. Gotta win game 2.