The Heat/Celtics was once an incredible rivalry.
It’s kind of crazy when you think about it.
Things are obviously different now.
Jimmy Butler is gone.
Because this is what the Hospital Celtics do.
The standard of winning never changes.
I mean there’s a reason the Celts wore their home whites last night, they love that building.
The beauty is you never know where it’s coming from.
I’m talking about the surprise performances that you may not have seen coming.
That spot, belongs to Jrue Holiday
Jrue Holiday has played 120 regular season games as a Celtic.
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.
That’s not fair.
For me, the biggest thing is the 3 point shooting.
How did the Celtics pull away in this game?
What a 4th quarter (+11) from White while playing all 12 minutes to kill the game.
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.
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.
But thankfully, Derrick had us.
I mean this is flat out ridiculous
About as tough a shot as you could have in that spot.
Just a massive, massive shot given the time and score.
Little did we know, Derrick wasn’t done.
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.
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?
Stop me if you’ve heard that before.
- Jayson Tatum had what I would call, a weird night.
But that my friends, is why games are 48 minutes long.
In the 2nd half?
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.
Tatum dominated the 3rd, White dominated the 4th.
There’s also the other end of the floor.
They are not guarding both centers AND point guards.
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.
Queta was a +11 in the 4th quarter last night, playing all 12 minutes.
Rebound, contest shots, set good screens, and protect the rim.
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.
This is the perfect time of the season to let him recharge.
Certainly not his best night.
Maybe struggle isn’t the right word, but more so he settles against Wiggins.
It’s basically been that was since 2022.
That was such bullshit.
We are now at the point where this shit happens every single game, to every single player.
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.
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.
Overall, the offense was rather dogshit.
They were missing that element to their offense, which is where Jaylen helps.
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?
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.
