Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Celtics torched the understaffed Heat in Game 1

The hosting Celtics were up nine points within two minutes on the Heat, compelling coach Erik Spoelstra to call an emergency timeout. It didn’t get much prettier after the first frame as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown zoomed by Jaime Jaquez Jr. to the cup. Kristaps Porziņģis feasted at close and long range. And Derrick White plus Dan Houser poured in a glut of trays; while the Heat were stopped from getting into actions, misfired makable shots and failed to generate trips to the line.

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

But the 2-2-1 press, a stretch of stops in the 2-3 zone, and a stimulus from vintage Kevin Love cut the deficit to three points at the start of the second quarter. Yet, it was short-lived, and the Celtics converted its next 11 of 21 attempts. Gang Green’s leading man in the sequence was sharpshooter Sam Houser, who buried four jumpers.

Tatum successfully isolated Haywood Highsmith and JJJ for midrange buckets, scored on the break and made four freebies.

On the other side, Adebayo tried to drag the crew forward, logging seven of 19 field goals.

Jaquez nailed a fadeaway over White in the post, finished two layups and spun past Houser into the lane on the right side for two points.

But Tyler Herro didn’t produce. He was hounded by White and Payton Pritchard, scoring once in the first half while they were on him. And on defense, Herro was lost, giving up multiple 3-pointers.

At halftime, the Heat was below 45-60 and out-hustled on the glass by six. Additionally, the team had 24 paint points, four on the break, two via second chances, two after turnovers and 12 from the bench.

The Celtics had 16 interior points, four in the open court, eight on extra tries, 12 after turnovers and 22 from the reserves.

Later, Brown scored twice, racing by the Heatles in transition and swishing two outside jumpers. White downed two triples as well.

Yet the visitors came out of the half registering four of 12 ventures, credited to Nikola Jović, Jaquez and Adebayo. The group followed up with six straight misses as the Celtics contested perimeter shots cleanly and disrupted rim attacks.

Subsequently, the Heat supplied 14 of 19 baskets in the fourth quarter but never came closer than within 14 points. The Celtics were already in clock control, taking only six attempts in the first five minutes of the fourth.

The Heat was slaughtered 94-114 and allowed the Celtics 10 more rebounds. To boot, the squad had 44 paint points, 13 on the break, five via second chances, 17 after turnovers and 29 from the bench.

Adebayo totaled 24 points on 10 of 18 attempts, with six rebounds and three assists. Delon Wright put up 17 points on 85.7% accuracy, with one rebound, three assists and two steals. JJJ had 16 points on 16 tries and recovered four rebounds and four assists. And Herro logged 11 points, making four of 13 baskets, with four rebounds and four assists.

The Celtics had 24 interior points, six in the open court, 11 on extra tries, 18 after turnovers and 30 from the reserves.

Tatum (23), White (20), Porziņģis (18), Brown (17), Hauser (12), and Al Horford (10) were the six Celtics who scored in double digits.

At the postgame presser, Herro said the Celtics pressured the Heat on both sides. He also included that
the team didn’t “play with enough force and effort on the defensive end.”

Spoelstra said, “It’s clear, Boston controlled this game from the tip. The very first possession, offensive rebound and three. And from there, they controlled it.”

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