Yours, mine… Heat and Celtics continue to alternate between victory and defeat in these Eastern Conference finals: for its second game of the series at home, Boston rebounded well by crushing its opponents, beaten by 20 points, 102-82. Carried by a very good Jayson Tatum (31 points at 8/16 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks), they quickly led 26-4 and had no trouble getting the 2-2 equalizer. Payton Pritchard added 14 points off the bench and 3 other players passed the 10 point mark in the absence of Marcus Smart (right ankle), including Robert Williams (12 points at 4/5, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks).
On the Heat side, we never recovered from a catastrophic start to the match where the team missed 15 of its first 16 shots. They took 27 points behind in the 2nd, then 32 in the 3rd. Each of the 4 games in the series so far has seen one of the two teams take a lead of at least 20 points during the meeting in question. Miami’s starting five was particularly unproductive (7/36 on combined shots) between the 9 points of Bam Adebayothe 6 points of Jimmy Butlerthe 3 points of Kyle Lowry and a duet P.J. Tucker – Max Strus at 0 points. None played in the last quarter, the only period won by Miami, without Herro, touched in the groin. Victor Oladipo finished as the team’s top scorer with 23 points (7/16, 4 rebounds, 6 assists).
Holder instead of Smart, Derrick White scored the first 7 points of the game and Boston (32/38 in shots vs. 8/14 for the visitors) took an 8-0 lead. The run quickly turned into 18-1 and Miami had to wait until 7’56 remained to score their first points on a throw from Adebayo. For the first basket, we had to wait until there were 3’22 left to play: a 3-pointer from Oladipo. The Heat finished the first period at 3/20, and Boston took full advantage of it, going from 29-11 following one quarter to 57-33 at the break. Miami, dominated 20-8 on a rebound in the first quarter and 60-39 on the game, scored 1 point over the first 8 minutes, the lowest point total in a playoff quarter in 25 years. For the first time in NBA playoff history, an entire major 5 scored fewer points than a player from the same team off the bench (starters were only counted starting in the season 1970-71).
