Celtics

Celtics right the ship, blow out Heat in Game 3: 10 takeaways

The Celtics defense was much improved from Game 2 on Wednesday to Game 3 Saturday.

By Tom Westerholm

April 28, 2024

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The Celtics got back on track with a 104-84 win over the Heat in Game 3, claiming a 2-1 lead in their first-round series.

Here are the takeaways. 

1. In Game 1, the Celtics crushed the Heat from behind the 3-point line. In Game 2, the Heat returned the favor. 

In Game 3, the Celtics couldn’t find the range from behind the arc, but it didn’t matter. Despite shooting 11-for-37 (29.7 percent) from deep, the Celtics defended the 3-point line (and frankly, the rest of the court) much better than in their Game 2 loss. When the Heat failed to knock down 20-plus 3-pointers on 50-plus percent shooting, the series looked a lot more like one would expect.

The next few games should be very simple: If the Celtics stop the Heat from making an outlier number of 3-pointers, they will move on in relatively short order. They are the better team, and the Heat need math to drastically work in their favor to have a chance. 

2. More math problems for Erik Spoelstra: The Heat scored just 12 points in the first quarter. The Celtics were slow to start as well, leading just 21-12 after the first, but when the Heat scored 27 points in the second quarter, it meant they went into the locker room for halftime with just 39 points. The Celtics held the Heat to just 22 and 23 points in the third and fourth quarters as well, which meant their one enormous quarter — 42 points in the second — was plenty to set the table for an easy win. 

3. Jaylen Brown finished 11-for-20 from the field with 22 points (he was 0-for-4 from three and missed his lone free-throw attempt). He made a mid-range jumper from the free-throw line in the first quarter and a tough turnaround in the fourth, but otherwise, every one of his baskets came in the paint near the restricted area. 

Brown did two things particularly well. The first was moving off the ball to score: He dunked home a put-back slam and finished off a layup in delayed transition in the first quarter, and he hit Jaime Jacquez with a nasty backcut early in the third, all of which led to easy offense in a game that devolved into rock fighting at times. 

The second thing Brown did well was punish the Heat for Tyler Herro’s presence on the court. That’s a tough conundrum for the Heat, who can’t win without Herro knocking down shots, but also can’t afford to have him guard any of the Celtics’ best scorers, and the Celtics are good at getting him switched onto one of Brown, Tatum or even Porzingis on occasion. 

Brown went 0-for-4 from three and may have hoisted a few too many mid-range jumpers in the first quarter, but he gave the Celtics some important production on a night when they couldn’t make 3s. 

4. After missing six free throws on Saturday to finish 15-for-21 from the field, the Celtics are now shooting 75.9 percent from the free-throw line in this series. During the regular season, the Celtics were seventh in free-throw percentage at 80.7. The Magic shot 75.9 percent and were 26th in the NBA. 

On Saturday, Tatum was the most notable culprit: 8-for-12 from the line, including two misses in a row near the start of the game, a 2-for-3 trip one of the two times he was fouled taking a 3-pointer, and a technical free throw that probably should have been shot by Derrick White (who is much better at them). 

5. Speaking of White, his performance (16 points, 7-for-14 shooting) won’t pop in the box score, but he scored 12 of his 16 points during the second-quarter stretch when the Celtics put the game away. That included two 3-pointers and this ridiculous play where he crashed on a missed free throw by Brown and converted a put-back layup that turned a failed three-point play into a successful four-point possession. 

6. Another major issue for the Heat: Their zone is designed to hide some of their weaker defenders, but it isn’t really an option against the Celtics, who have shot them out of it throughout the series. They can’t really double Tatum, which is unfortunate for Spoelstra, because they also can’t single-cover him with anyone. 

Once again, there seems to be precisely one way for the Heat to beat the Celtics, which is to make an inordinate amount of 3-pointers. 

7. Kristaps Porzingis didn’t have a huge game after his notably bad performance in Game 2, but he finished with 18 points on 5-for-9 shooting and made three of his five 3-pointers. He picked up two early fouls trying to slow down Adebayo, but he seemed to settle in against the Heat star and limited him when he got better at staying down on Adebayo’s pump fakes. 

The Celtics might still be due for a big Porzingis bounceback game, which would be very difficult for Miami to counter.

8. The Heat had the sixth-fewest turnovers of any team in the regular season, but they’ve been sloppy against the Celtics. On Saturday they finished with 12, but nine came in the first half, and the Celtics scored 19 points as a result. 

9. Things started to get a little spicy late in the third quarter when Herro attacked Hauser from the top of the key, and Hauser appeared to trip Herro as he went by. The two players both hit the deck, and Herro threw the ball lightly at Hauser’s feet in frustration. 

Herro picked up a technical as a result, and he and Payton Pritchard briefly yapped at each other in the aftermath. 

Like most altercations in the NBA, the big Pritchard-Herro showdown never felt particularly likely to escalate much. Still, playoff tensions run deep, especially between two teams with a lot of history. Adebayo and Porzingis appeared to be exchanging words at times as well. The series could get chippier. 

10. After an oddly spaced start to the series, with two days off between Games 1 and 2 as well as Games 2 and 3, things will now normalize with games every other day for as long as the series lasts. The tipoff time for Game 4 was previously TBD, but after the Lakers won Game 4 against the Nuggets and ensured a Game 5 in that series, the Celtics and Heat will now start at 7:30 p.m. on Monday.