The Rivalry May Be Dead, But The Celtics Beating The Heat On Their Own Floor Will Never Get Old
Issac Baldizon. Getty Images.6 straight wins vs the Heat, 4 straight wins IN Miami, and winners of 10 of the last 11.
The Heat/Celtics was once an incredible rivalry. Not one of those manufactured "rivalries" you see ESPN try to push like BOS/PHI or whatever, but real hatred. Real pain. Things are not a rivalry until you've battled for years in the playoffs with both sides having success, including each side winning a Game 7 of the ECF on the other's floor.
Since the Bubble, outside of one quick MIL run, these were the two teams you could bank on to come out of the Eastern Conference. In 2020, we saw the Heat make the Finals (by beating BOS), in 2022, it was the Celtics (by beating MIA), in 2023, it was the Heat (by beating BOS), and in 2024, it was the Celtics (by beating MIA along the way).
Shit, even dating back to the LeBron years, the winner or any MIA/BOS series at any point in a playoff run resulted in that team making the Finals. It's kind of crazy when you think about it.
Things are obviously different now. Jimmy Butler is gone. Heat Culture is in the gutter, Pat Riley doesn't seem to have a plan and Spo, who once dominated this matchup, can't seem to solve the Joe Mazzulla puzzle.
And sure, the easy way to cope is to talk about the talent difference, which is to be expected from very upset Heat fans. All I know is last night, the Heat played with 2 All Stars, one of which claims he's the DPOY, another guy who is an NBA champion and probably their best perimeter two way player, all while the Celtics were once again missing 40% of their starting lineup, including their second best player and starting center.
Did it matter? Nope. Because this is what the Hospital Celtics do. The standard of winning never changes. This is now the 5th or 6th straight Hospital Celtics appearance we've seen them come away with a win, and my guess is we're going to see a whole lot more of them over the final stretch of the season.
So while this rivalry may not have the juice it once did, it will always feel nice to watch the Celts bury the Heat, especially in their own building (again) which at this point has fully become TD Garden South. I mean there's a reason the Celts wore their home whites last night, they love that building.
Given this was the front end of a B2B, it's always nice to start off on the right foot. We'll see who plays tonight against BKN, but first let's talk about the latest South Beach ass whooping.
The Good
- The fun part of Hospital Celtics games is learning who is going to step up and elevate their game to make up for the difference of all the talent and production sitting on the bench in street clothes. The beauty is you never know where it's coming from. You assume if Tatum is playing he'll be his own dominant self, but that's not really what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the surprise performances that you may not have seen coming.
For example, Payton Pritchard and Derrick White combining for 83 points and 19 3PM in that Hospital Celtics win against POR.
Last night? There's no debate what was the most shocking thing we saw, nor is it a debate as to where we are starting today. That spot, belongs to Jrue Holiday
Jrue Holiday has played 120 regular season games as a Celtic. It does surprise me that he never had more than 25 in any other regular season game before last night, mostly because you'd think there'd be one or two games where he goes nuts from 3 off a shit ton of wide open looks. As we know, he did score 28 vs IND in Game 1 of the EF and 26 in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, but this was easily his best regular season performance as a Celtic, and it came at a great time. I love not wasting good performances from the older players, especially after the Celts just wasted that Horford masterclass against OKC.
And make no mistake, Holiday's 25 points were VERY important. He was basically the only guy who showed up to carry the offense early. His 10 points on 4-5 (2-3) shooting in the 1st quarter led the Celts while Tatum took a while to get going and Derrick hadn't really been all that aggressive yet.
Jrue then backed that up with another 4-5 (1-2) for 9 points in the 3rd quarter while playing all 12 minutes which I found to be a little surprising, and they needed every single point considering it was only a 78-77 lead after 3 quarters. Add in his 2 blocks, 1 steal and +12 in his 35 minutes and by pretty much every aspect this was easily one of Jrue's best games of the year.
Now of course, the natural thing to do is for your brain go to
"Well shit, where was this against OKC??"
And while it's true that everyone has to play better in that matchup, we also can't be comparing the defensive capabilities of MIA to OKC, especially on the perimeter. That's not fair.
But what this does do is give us confidence that Jrue is getting back to the form that the Celts are going to need him to be for their playoff run. For me, the biggest thing is the 3 point shooting. I'm not saying I need Jrue to be 5-8 every game, but he can't be a weakness. Teams are going to dare him to shoot and prove he can knock down open looks, which means I need him living at around 37-38% as opposed to the low 30s and an even worse high 20s from the corners.
I think we've all been hoping that this season, Jrue has spent the regular season in neutral and will ramp up for the games that matter, so seeing signs like this in games where the Celts are shorthanded and need his production was great to see.
- In a similar way that Jayson Tatum owns a franchise like the Sixers, Derrick White has to be one of the greatest Heat Killers to ever walk through Boston. What makes him special is he doesn't just bury MIA when they play in Boston, he goes into that arena time and time again and continues to do nothing but rip out the hearts of that entire fanbase.
How did the Celtics pull away in this game? Bald Derrick. What a 4th quarter (+11) from White while playing all 12 minutes to close the game. A massive 12 points on 4-7 (3-5), including two gigantic threes that if he doesn't make, I'm not sure the Celts pull this game out. Or at the very least, it certainly become a whole hell of a lot tougher.
The first came in the non-Tatum minutes to start the 4th. These are always tense moments that we as fans have to live through since the team is now set on Tatum's new rotation. All I'm looking for in those minutes are to just be even. Survive the Tatum rest and you put yourself in a great spot. The problem, is those minutes aren't always the greatest and if you go back and look are often a big contributing factor to the Celts having brutal 4th quarters. It's sometimes why I almost prefer the old Tatum rotation, so he can be there to start these 4ths that come in close games.
But thankfully, Derrick had us. With things down to 4 and momentum starting to shift, we saw Derrick do what he does best, which is make insane, massive momentum swing grenade 3PM. I mean this is flat out ridiculous
About as tough a shot as you can have in that spot. Clock is winding down, you're pushed to about 30ft and have Bam Adebayo right in your face……and you bury it. Just a massive, massive shot given the time and score.
Little did we know, Derrick wasn't done. This time with Tatum on the floor, the score was once again within 4, this time with under 4 minutes left. What did we get?
Another dagger right to the heart.
To anyone who has watched Derrick White this season, none of this should come as a surprise. This is a man that shoots 63% from the floor and 60% from deep in clutch time minutes. The crazy part is this roster is full of players who have been awesome in the clutch this season. Tatum, Brown, Al, Jrue, Payton etc have all been awesome in terms of their clutch time production.
And then there's Derrick
You can't really rely on much in life these days, but if I can rely on one thing it's that if the Celts find themselves in a high pressure moment that requires a big time bucket, I know Derrick White has me. It's why you live with the misses, because they rarely happen, and having the confidence to take those shots like we saw last night makes all the difference in the world. Think of the pressure that puts on the defense when everyone is healthy and on the floor. Who do you guard in these tight moments? You have to focus all your attention on the Jays, when in reality the best clutch time shooter is off the ball and probably going to be wide open once those two draw all the attention.
- I would just like it on record that in a game that included Bam Adebayo, 38 year old Al Horford was the best big man to play in this game. Stop me if you've heard that before.
It wasn't anything insane like we saw against OKC, just a nice little 9/9/5/0/1 and a team best +15 in his 31 minutes. Seeing as how he's going to sit today for the B2B, it was nice to see Al continue his extremely solid play when the team once again needed it.
He was great at keeping MIA off the offensive glass, was tied for the team lead in AST with Tatum, and I'm not sure about anyone else but when I watch Al play I see a guy who easily has 2-3 more years left and that's on the conservative side.
- Jayson Tatum had what I would call, a weird night. His first half was objectively disgusting, with a bunch of careless turnovers, a whole bunch of settling offensively, and a tough 3-11 (2-5) shooting half. It looked like the Miami nightlife may have caught up to him, as he wasn't really playing all that locked in.
But that my friends, is why games are 48 minutes long. In the 2nd half? Dominance
One of the true testiments to Tatum's greatness is that you could easily classify this game as a Tatum "stinker", and yet he ends the day with pretty much his season averages outside of the rebounding. Do you know how good you have to be for that to be considered a "meh" performance?
So why if he in this section? Because of how he played in the second half. 50/42% from the floor, led the team with 16 points, was tied for the lead in AST with 3, and his offense in the 3rd quarter (11 points) is what played a big role in keeping the Heat at arms length. Tatum dominated the 3rd, White dominated the 4th.
There's also the other end of the floor. You often hear "this guy guards 1-5" be thrown out a lot with different players, but the thing is those guys don't actually guard 1-5. They are not guarding both centers AND point guards.
Jayson Tatum? He actually does both.
We saw 10 combined possessions with Tatum guarding Bam/Ware. They scored 2 points. We saw him spend 8 possessions guarding point guard Davion Mitchell. He did not score. We saw him guard Wiggins for 26 possessions and Jacquez Jr for 9 possessions. Wiggins had 5 points and Jaquez Jr did not score. He guarded Tyler Herro for 6 possessions. He did not score.
THIS is what guarding 1-5 actually looks like.
So sure, his first half while he was probably hung over wasn't the best. But everything else?
- A rough start for Queta and some overall growing pains, but in the end I was happy with the performance from the Kornet/Queta duo. Kornet continues to be solid with whatever he's asked to do, and I thought Queta's ending was certainly much better than his start. You can see the potential, and when you're a developmental project, there are always going to be ups and downs, but credit where credit is due.
Queta was a +11 in the 4th quarter last night, playing all 12 minutes. 6 rebounds, a block and 2-2 from the FT was a great closing performance from him and shows you that he didn't let his early struggles get into his head. There were times early where his minutes were a disaster, turning the ball over and giving up OREBs, but that 4th quarter was perfect execution of his role. Rebound, contest shots, set good screens, and protect the rim. Good job.
The Bad
- Just something to monitor, but I do wonder if we're going to get a Payton Pritchard rest day soon. Over his last 4 games, Pritchard is shooting just 28/26% from the floor, and it wouldn't shock me if his legs are a little tired. The dude has played 66 of the 67 games on the season. I know he prides himself on playing every game, but a little rest day never hurt anyone. Especially when his 3 ball looks a little short.
He also had some issues blowing by guys last night, which to me just tells me it's time to give him a DNP-CD (rest). His 6MOY case won't take a hit, but the team needs his shooting to get back to a much higher level. This is the perfect time of the season to let him recharge.
A game and matchup like this is one you'd assume Pritchard would dominate, but he only finished 4-12 (3-9) with 0 AST and 2 TOs. Certainly not his best night.
- Give Andrew Wiggins his credit, he seems to be one of the few players in the league who can actually hold his own against Tatum. He held him to just 2-8 shooting in their matchups, and Wiggins has that unique combination of size, strength and length that Tatum for some reason struggles with.
Maybe struggle isn't the right word, but more so he settles against Wiggins. How many times did we see him in the post, unable to move Wiggins and then settle for a low percentage fall away? It's basically been that was since 2022.
Having said that, watching Wiggins in this game just made me mad all over again for what he did in 2022 offensively in those Finals. That was such bullshit.
- I'll truly never understand how it is possible that the Celtics are the worst entry pass throwing team in the history of basketball. We are now at the point where this shit happens every single game, to every single player. It now does not matter who throws the entry pass, I'd say there's only a 15% chance that these plays don't end up in a live ball turnover. I find that infuriating
Tatum struggles with it, Derrick struggles with it, Jrue struggles with it, none of it makes any goddamn sense. Sometimes they come via lazy passes, sometimes they come via a guy not having the best post position, but sometimes they come like the one above from Tatum, where there's just no logical explanation for throwing this pass. Herro is right there tracking it the whole way. It's a low percentage play that is not worth the risk.
If you want to get Al the ball in that mismatch. Just swing it around, bend the defense, and let Al re-establish position. Throwing a lazy over the head intry pass from the logo into a congested defense is not the way.
We know the Celts love to seal hunt and capitalize off their size, but part of that requires they not be complete assholes with the basketball. I watch a lot of NBA basketball, and I can't think of a team who turns it over on a more consistent basis throwing entry passes than our beloved Boston Celtics.
The Ugly
- Look, winning isn't always going to be pretty. Sometimes, it's going to look pretty fucking gross. That is how I would describe this win. An ugly win is still a win, they all count the same, but man. Woof.
Overall, the offense was rather dogshit. Only 103 points against that MIA team is a tad embarrassing, and for long stretches of this game the Celts had issues with the fact that outside of Jayson Tatum, nobody could really generate their own shot and get to the rim. They were missing that element to their offense, which is where Jaylen helps.
How many times did we see anyone not named Tatum be stonewalled by their defender when they tried to make a move? That resulted in them picking up their dribble, try to find an outlet, and now there's only 6 or 7 seconds on the shot clock which ended in a low quality shot.
I mean look at that shit. Just 55.6% at the rim? Against a team like MIA? The 42nd percentile in terms of points/possession? That's gross. Add that with not making a single long 2 and you really wonder why people cry for less 3PA and more contested 2pt FGA, specifically midrange.
Newsflash you bozos, that shot fucking sucks. It's a losing shot. Stop crying about the Celtics taking open 3s because it means they take less midrange. I don't know how much clearer it needs to be.
As we now turn to BKN, my guess is Jaylen plays, Tatum plays, and maybe KP gets some run (why else did he make the trip?). If Brad somehow gets Tatum to sit the B2B I'll be shocked, but what I do know is the Nets play everyone tough even though they're tanking. You can't sleepwalk through that game and think it'll be an easy win, so play the right way and handle your shit.