1. Everyone knew the Miami HEAT, already down Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier and now with Jaime Jaquez Jr. also injured, were in a tough spot headed to Boston down 3-1. The Celtics knew that, too, of course, and they clearly weren’t interested in messing around.
This wasn’t a game for adjustments, Miami’s main change being to play Bam Adebayo and Caleb Martin the full 24 in the first half. It was just about an undermanned team struggling to score while the Celtics chugged along at their best scoring rate of the series, hitting 10 of their first 17 threes and not slowing down from there beyond missing a handful of free throws. Derrick White continued his torrid pace from Game 4, 15 points on his ledger before nine minutes were up in the first period, as Boston hunted their mismatched and found their open shots after a long sequence of dribble drives to open the night. By halftime Boston was 9-of-9 at the rim in a series where they’ve averaged 12 makes a night in the restricted area, White had combined with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for 49 points on 30 shots and they were running a 142.6 Offensive Rating. Down 22 at the break after trailing by as much as 30, if Miami was going to recapture the magic they had in Game 2 they were still looking for it.
Boston back up 30 a few minutes into the third, an 8-0 capped as White hit his fourth three. Adebayo was doing what he could to keep the offense moving, as aggressive as Miami’s situation needed him to be, but there wasn’t nearly enough else as the HEAT couldn’t keep up, their three-point shooting down to 10.3 percent – worst mark of the past five years – in the fourth as Adebayo finally rested. Not much of a playoff feel to the rest of the game, the mountain too steep for the HEAT to climb, as both sides played out the clock, most rotation players pulled. Boston take the game, 118-84, and the series, 4-1, as they advance to play the winner of Cleveland-Orlando.
Some seasons end in the NBA Finals after an incredible run from the No. 8 seed, others end quietly in five First Round games. Maybe this group had more in them had everyone been healthy. Maybe there was magic left in that well. We’ll never know. For now, a long season is over as a long offseason – longer than this group has had in a few years – looms.
2. Nobody will be able to say that Adebayo didn’t leave everything on the floor in this series. Miami practically couldn’t take him off the floor through the first four games, such were his plus-minus numbers, so tonight they decided not to take him of the floor at all as he played all 36 of the first 36 minutes. Adebayo defended Tatum full time – starting possessions on him, at least, as Miami switched more often than they had all regular season – since Game 2, but the Celtics had too many mismatches to chase, while planting Adebayo’s assignments in the corner, for him to cover every inch of the pitch, so to speak. Boston will finish this series as efficient in half court as they were during the regular season largely on the strength of everything they ran away from Adebayo.
Adebayo went out shooting, too, taking a career postseason high 26 shots on his way to 23 points, but Boston never changed their coverage of him for one moment all series long, electing to defend him one-on-one and live with his shot creation. Even with Adebayo shooting well in the paint all series before tonight, Boston’s choices effectively made him a make-or-miss player, all playmaking avenues cut off for one of the best playmaking centers in the league. He’s come a long way in terms of developing his isolation and post play, and his work in that area held off Boston in Miami’s Game 2 win, but if there’s a next step for a player who has taken so many steps each offseason, it will be finding a way to force teams into doubling him. During the regular season that was happening often enough, a real trend down the stretch, but postseason schemes are a different animal. This won’t be a series with much worth remembering outside of one win with historic shooting, but the history books will remember Adebayo doing all he could.
3. It’s understandable if some aren’t receptive to the idea that there was real value in youngsters like Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez Jr. getting on-court experience against one of the best teams in the league, but it matters. It matters that they felt the postseason, felt how the game changes, how the pace and physicality and general rhythm of the game is unlike anything you see in the first 82. It matters that they were key parts of a road postseason win, that they could see what success on that stage looks like. It matters that they felt a postseason scout, how an opponent zeroes in on all your strengths and weaknesses, trying to take away the former while forcing you to the latter. It won’t seem like much now, but when the next season and the next series comes along, and there’s always a next season and next series, this will mean something for them. It’s one thing for everyone to tell you what the playoffs are like. There’s no substitute for first-hand experience.
It doesn’t hurt that both, with starters minutes, handled themselves well. Jaquez Jr. was leading the entire series in drives before his Game 4 injury, and Jovic was shooting the leather off the ball in key stretches while holding up on switches. Now we get to see what they do with this overload of information now readily available.