If you need any proof on what is and is not a championship-caliber team, go watch this game. The Miami Heat decided to show the world what a championship team actually looks like as they DESTROYED the Boston Celtics 128-102 in Game 3 to go up 3-0 in the series.
As a Celtics player, it really doesn’t get any worse than that. And vice versa for a Heat player.
The Miami Heat absolutely destroyed and gutted the championship hopes of the Boston Celtics by not only winning Game 3 and going up in the series with the insurmountable 3-0 lead, but they also did so in humbling fashion as they simply hammered the C’s to oblivion. And it wasn’t even a contest.
First off, let me praise the Miami Heat for showing a level of ruthlessness that many teams will never even dream of thinking, let alone achieving in a high-pressure playoff game.
Led by Gabe Vincent (29 PTS, 2 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK), Caleb Martin (18 PTS, 3 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL), Max Strus (10 PTS, 3 REB, 1 AST), and Duncan Robinson (22 PTS, 2 REB, 4 AST), the Miami Heat exploded from the field as they converted 46-81 FGs (56.8%), 19-35 3-point FGs (54.3%), 17-21 free throws (81.0%), scored at least 32 points in every single quarter (Q1: 30, Q2: 31, Q3: 32, Q4: 35), held a lead as large as 33 points in the game, and never lost a lead of more than 20 point after the 8-minute mark of the 3rd quarter.
Yes, Jimmy Butler (16 PTS, 8 REB, 6 AST, 2 STLs) and Bam Adebayo (13 PTS, 3 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK) had good games with both players scoring 13 points or more, but they weren’t needed to ball out and score 40+ points in this game.
In classic Heat basketball fashion, the stars were only needed to facilitate and get the rotation players, such as Martin, Vincent, Robinson, Kyle Lowry (7 PTS, 5 REB 4 AST, 1 STL), Cody Zeller (4 PTS, 4 REB, 0 AST, 2 BLKs), etc., involved and confident in their shot making to create a 5-headed offense.
As much as I despise watching Pat Riley succeeded at anything in the basketball world (he was the coach of the Showtime Lakers during the 1980’s and beat the Celtics twice in the finals for anyone who didn’t know), I can’t help but praise the work ethic, intensity, and intelligent basketball culture he and Eric Spoelstra have installed within this Heat franchise as it has risen even undrafted, unwanted players into 30-point players.
And it obviously worked to perfection last night as the Heat scored the team’s second most 3-pointers in franchise postseason history (19), they scored their second highest points tally in a game this postseason (128), they scored 14 more points than their postseason average (114.9), the Heat won with Jimmy Butler scoring his lowest points tally this postseason (16 PTS), four players made at least 2 3-pointersm and they shot at least 8 percentage points above both their FG average (48.0%) and 3-point FG average (38.8%).
Still, even with all of this praise for the Heat and their culture, the Celtics didn’t put up a fight to stop this onslaught.
As the great Magic Johnson said last night after the game, “In my 44 years of being associated with the NBA I never thought I’d see a Boston Celtics team, a franchise with 17 Championships, quit. I know Celtics fans all over the world must be disgusted and devastated. ” And he’s 1000% right as those cowardly Celtics players did quit on the franchise and the fanbase, and big changes have to be made now.
I’ve never seen a team with as much talent and expectation in Boston Celtics history ever (and I mean EVER) give up on a series against a rival (the Heat and the Celtics are most definitely rivals with the 21st century history behind these two teams), let alone in a playoff series that had an NBA Finals stake on the line.
There wasn’t a single Celtics player who scored more than 14 points last night, while the Celtics as a team collectively shot 39-98 from the field (39.8%) and 11-42 from beyond the arc (26.2%). Jayson Tatum (14 PTS, 10 REB, 2 AST, 2 STLs) and Jaylen Brown (12 PTS, 6 REB, 2 AST), or I should say the Choke Brothers, shot 12-38 from the field, 1-14 from the 3-point line, and scored 26 points combined.
That’s less than what Gabe Vincent had in every category except for the FGs stat (Vincent made 11 FGs) on his own!
Now, I’m going to take responsibility for prematurely and WRONGFULLY declaring Tatum, a guy who has now choked 5 quality championship opportunities in the early rounds and has choked 4 Conference Finals and/or NBA Finals appearances as a Celtic, as the “Heir to Larry Bird” with one 51-point game against the master choke artists (aka: the 76ers).
He doesn’t have an inch of the killer instinct that drives championship-caliber players, such as LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Durant, Kobe Byrant, Shaquielle O’Neal, Jimmy Butler, Giannis Antetokounmpo, etc. He just doesn’t….and I’m really sad I have to say that.
Tatum is one of my favorite players in the league and obviously my favorite on the Celtics, but there’s only a select few athletes who can step up and outshine the rest when the moment really matters. And, in six years of trying (including three failed Conference Finals and one failed NBA Finals appearance) on super teams, he has wilted under the spotlight.
Oh, and if I ever hear Jaylen Brown speak bad about the Celtics fans or calling them out in the media because they harp on this team’s infuriating inconsistency, I’ll personally kick his ass out of Boston.
How dare he call out the Celtics fans for rightfully booing this team’s inconsistent, poor play when he goes into a Conference Finals series as the overwhelming favorite and shoots 16.6 PPG, 37.7% (23-61) from the field, 10% from beyond the arc (2-20), and be one of 7 key starting players to quit on the franchise in a huge game.
There’re other players that quit on this team and deserve my (and the entire Celtics fanbase’s) wroth, but this article would be 10,000 words if I really got into it. So, to spare everyone of a slow death from over-reading, I’ll leave that to another article.
But as I said, make no mistake about it: this series is over!
There’s never been a team in NBA history to ever come back from a 0-3 deficit (0-149 all-time record), and there certainly hasn’t been a team to come back from quitting on the franchise, fans, and head coach. Yes, as HC Joe Mazzulla said in his postgame press conference, he wasn’t able to properly motivate the players to play in an Eastern Conference Finals game and he may have lost the locker room.
Obviously, Mazzulla has to go as the Celtics are not a franchise that babysits rookie head coaches, but a vast majority of the people in this organization have to follow him out the door. And I mean players and personnel.
I won’t get into who should leave in this article, but I’ll give a hint as to who I’m talking about: his names rhyme with Chad Evens.
Congratulations, Miami Heat, for unofficially making it out of the Conference Finals and reaching your second Finals appearance in the last four seasons. You have more than earned this honor.
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