Three Takeaways After Celtics Breeze Past Heat In Series-Clinching Win
BOSTON — The Celtics slammed the door shut once and for all on the Heat, eliminating their Eastern Conference foe with a lopsided 118-84 Game 5 victory on Wednesday night, securing a spot in the conference semifinal round.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the TD Garden collectively sang Steam’s “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” knowing Miami was leaving Boston for good. All hope was lost for the Heat, which meant they could get a head start on booking their offseason vacation flights while watching Boston’s season continue from their couches — leaving Jimmy Butler with even more free time to spend on social media.
The Celtics became the first team from the East to conclude their first-round series, and moving forward will await the winner of the Cavaliers-Magic Round 1 battle before continuing their hunt for Banner 18.
Here are three post-Game 5 takeaways:
1. Joe Mazzulla wasn’t worried about Boston getting off to a hot start, but Derrick White insisted on doing so anyway
The Celtics opened the series with the Heat by going on a 14-0 run in Game 1, attacking the scoreboard early and forcing Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra to call a stop-the-bleeding timeout less than two minutes into the game.
Mazzulla didn’t find it necessary to replicate that in Game 5.
“You can’t really go in with the expectation of, ‘If we get off to a good start, we’ll win,'” Mazzulla said pregame. “At the end of the day, we gotta play the whole game and we gotta compete at a high level the entire game, and that still might not be enough.”
Coming off a career-high 38-point masterclass in Game 4, White didn’t resonate with that message and made it abundantly clear once both teams met at center court for the opening tip. In fact, the fringe All-Star-caliber guard elected to punish Miami once the opportunity presented itself.
White scored 15 of Boston’s 41 first-quarter points, going 3-of-4 from 3-point territory to exploit the Heat defense. He attacked the basket and fired away from beyond the perimeter when necessary, helping maintain the offensive momentum before finishing the night with 25 points.
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2. No Kristaps Porzings? No problem. Celtics unleashed their killer instinct and Miami paid the ultimate price
Defensively, offensively, it didn’t matter. Even without Porzingis healthy and suited up, there wasn’t an advantage for the Heat to capitalize on.
By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, Miami had shot themselves way beyond contention, going 3-of-22 (13.6%) from three, which spoke volumes to Boston’s perimeter defense yet again. The ugly got even uglier once the Heat proved incapable of getting to the line, attempting seven free throws to 25 from the Celtics through the first three quarters. Miami showed minimal aggression, didn’t execute an effective game plan, and took desperation shot after desperation shot with nobody to run the floor.
“One of the things coming into the season it was we needed to win games (in) different ways, (with) different lineups,” Mazzulla said. “And even when KP was healthy, we still played small, we still did a bunch of stuff, we played all the bigs. So you just have to develop a bunch of different identities to be able to get into different playoff series when you have different matchups.”
The Celtics babied the Heat in the rebounding battle, collecting 56 to Miami’s 29 as Al Horford was inserted into the starting lineup while Luke Kornet slid up as Boston’s go-to big off the bench.
Granted, it was a severely undermanned Heat team, but Boston made an example of better teams — several times — in the regular season.
3. The Celtics finally showed they’ve learned their lesson
Sure, the same could be said in Games 3 and 4, but neither of those were closeout opportunities, which in previous years, didn’t urge the Celtics to put opposing opponents away as early as possible.
Last season, the Hawks pushed the Celtics to six games in the first round — and had no business doing so. Then the Sixers and Heat punked Boston, too, dragging their postseason series to six and seven games, respectively, which re-begged the question: What would it take for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to do themselves a favor and dominate a series?
“I think in the past that we’ve had opportunities to close them out, especially on our home court, and that failed,” Derrick White said. “To be able to close them out here tonight, and do it the way we did, it’s definitely big.”
White added: “We talked about it. We wanted to throw the first punch and I think we did that, pretty much, for the whole series.”
This go-around, with a 3-1 lead, the Celtics didn’t trap themselves by being content. Boston emphasized shutting the door in five games, and the energy was contagious throughout regulation — the strongest of signs that the 2024 Celtics are what they seemed during the regular season.