The Celtics Once Again Fall To The Dark Magic Of The Miami Heat And Choke Away Game 2

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This morning, I had a feeling

When you've had more than your fair share of MIA/BOS playoff games, you know there's always going to be a Heat black magic game. We saw it in the first two games of the ECF (and really throughout the whole thing) so the fact that it didn't happen in Game 1 had me on high alert. 

Guess what the fuck happened?

They walked into the Garden and hit the most 3s in their franchise's history. All in all, 23-43, good for 53.5%. It was the most 3s they've hit all season. Caleb Martin, you know the same Caleb Martin that was fueled by dark magic in the ECF finished with 21 points on 5-6 from deep. Everything about this game gave every Celtics fan watching PTSD because it unfolded EXACTLY like we saw in the ECF. The Heat shooting an insane percentage from 3, the Celtics dominating the paint points, but none of that mattering because of the three point differential. 

They were essentially out-Mazzulla Balled.

Consistently leaving guys open, not closing out strong enough, you simply cannot have a playoff game in which the three point shooting difference is 22-12. That's a 30 point fucking difference. Now, all the perks of homecourt are gone. The one thing the Celtics couldn't do, lose home playoff games to the Heat, they have once again done. Different roster, same result. Inexcusable given everything on the line. 

The two guys brought in to make sure this didn't happen, Porzingis and Jrue Holiday with their worst game as Celtics certainly doesn't help, and when I say both were brutal, boy were they brutal

What the fuck is that? A -32 with more TOs than FGM? This was the underlying fear with both of these guys. Jrue's reputation as an offensive playoff dropper (now 2 stinkers in a row) and KP's unknown playoff resume. He's too important of a player to be such a disaster on both ends like we saw today, and when you combine that with the Heat's shooting, that's how you drop playoff games.

The Celts once again did everything they could to play into the Heat's black magic. They were sloppy with the ball, they gave up a shit ton of points off TOs, they missed FTs, the ball didn't move, and they didn't guard the 3pt line. Every single thing we know you cannot do against the Heat is exactly what they did, which is why they ended up with the same result. A crushing playoff loss.

We'll go in more detail tomorrow once I have time to digest it all. As of now, the Celts blew all their advantage they built in Game 1, and now have to go on the road and split. The pressure is now all on them, so let's see how they handle it. We've already seen what can happen when you let one of these games happen, now the entire season relies on never letting it happen again