Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Heat were gutted by Gang Green and eliminated from the Playoffs

The Celtics destroyed the outgunned Heatles at TD Garden, eliminating the visitors from the Playoffs. The Celtics’ defense, the disparity on the glass, 56-29, in favor of the hosts, and the Heat’s lack of outside offense sums up this massacre.

The Heat was absent Jimmy Butler (knee) and Terry Rozier (neck).

Bam Adebayo scored off an inverted pick-and-roll set with Tyler Herro, successfully shooting thrice over Al Horford and dunking through the middle in the first quarter for the Heat. But it took them nowhere as the rest of the guests converted five of 13 baskets and they were down 23-41 at its end.

For the Celtics, Derrick White swished two freebies, finished in transition, drove from the left wing to the cup for a dunk and made three trays. Jaylen Brown produced four shots in the restricted area. And Jayson Tatum made two 3-pointers.

It was already a lost cause for the Heat in the second quarter.

Brown triumphantly shot over Herro, hooked at close range while covered by Adebayo, jammed from the dunker spot and supplied a 3-pointer. Jrue Holiday contributed seven points, and Tatum put up six more.

On the Heat side, Herro finally got on the board with three baskets after five fruitless ventures in the first. And Adebayo logged four shots, rim rolling and canning two jumpers.

The Heat was down 46-68. Additionally, the team had 30 paint points, three on the break, none via second chances, five off turnovers and six from the bench.

The Celtics had 26 interior points, zero in the open court, five on extra tries, two off turnovers and eight from the reserves.

Then the Heat were stuck in second gear coming out of the break, failing on all six 3-point attempts because the Celtics contested on time or let Adebayo shoot. Furthermore, Adebayo was off-target inside the arc, making one of seven baskets in the frame.

The only Heatles to record multiple field goals in the third quarter were Delon Wright and Herro. The former drove from the wing to the cup for a layup and cut up the baseline for a scoop shot. The latter got the hole twice and made a shot at the elbow over Horford to cut the deficit to 32 points.

For the hosts, Brown and White put up eight more points apiece. Horford overpowered Patty Mills and Wright near the rim to score. And Sam Hauser got by Nikola Jović on the baseline for a dunk and hit a right-side triple.

The Heat entered the fourth quarter down 66-98 and never got the deficit below 30 points the rest of the way. Adebayo didn’t play in the sequence and Herro was in fewer than three minutes.

The match was so out of hand and in garbage time that only two Celtics starters- Tatum and Holiday- played in the quarter and none longer than four minutes.

The Heat lost 84-118 and got beat on the glass by 27. To boot, the team had 58 paint points, three on the break, none via second chances, 15 off turnovers and 20 from the bench. On top of that, the group never had the lead in Game 5.

The Celtics put up 52 interior points, five in the open court, 11 on extra tries, 10 off turnovers and 34 from the reserves.

White (25), Brown (25), Hauser (17), Tatum (16) and Holiday (10) were Boston’s double-digit scorers.

At the postgame presser, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra credited the Celtics as a top-tier outfit and said, “We’re not going to put this on the fact that we had some injuries.”

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