The Boston Celtics entered game three Sunday night in a hole unlike any they’ve faced in the past two seasons. After giving up consecutive home games to Jimmy Butler and Miami HeatThe Celtics took the field tonight to fend off a touch of death for any playoff team – a 0-3 series deficit. With their backs against the wall, the Celtics eventually collapsed. They fell to the Heat in a blowout, 128-102, and now they’ll have to become the first team in NBA history to come back from an 0-3 deficit if they want to return to the NBA Finals for a second straight season.
Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 26 points, and they didn’t show up tonight. Miami, meanwhile, has been firing on all cylinders the way they seem to do every postseason. Gabe Vincent single-handedly edged out Tatum and Brown, scoring 29 and scoring six. Six Heat players scored double-doubles and, as a team, shot the net with 54% on three-point shooting. It was a team effort, and they outclassed the Celtics on both ends of the floor.
After suffering in one of the worst games of his season in Game 3, the Browns made an impact early in this game. He scored eight points in the first few minutes, finding his rhythm with the jumper midrange and bringing his usual juice to Boston’s offense. His teammates, however, did not follow suit. The Celtics struggled to maintain control of the ball (six turnovers in the first quarter) and the Heat once again enjoyed hot shooting from deep (five times), and Miami led by eight going into the second, 30-22.
Midway through the first quarter, Miami’s Kevin Love appeared to be suffering from an injury and asked Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra to take him out of the game. Love left for the locker room after the next timeout and was diagnosed with a left ankle injury. He was described as dubious to return to the game, and ultimately did not.
The Celtics’ expectations worsened in the opening minutes of the second quarter. They looked a bit listless, and the Heat’s scoring streak showed no signs of slowing. Miami splashed three times and dominated the inside, including a pair of standout volleys from Adebayo, and extended their lead to 21 points. A 9-2 lead late in the fourth quarter helped the Celtics avoid absolute disaster, but they nonetheless went into the halftime break with plenty of questions to answer, trailing 61-46.
If anything positive happened about that late run, it wasn’t clear as play resumed in the third quarter. The Heat took a 13-2 lead early in the quarter, extending their lead to 23 points. The only way to describe Miami’s play against her was “unfazed.” They simply didn’t care about anything the Celtics tried to do on either end of the court, and the Celtics seemed increasingly hopeless. They allowed the Heat to get past the 30-point mark for the third straight quarter, and trailed by 30 points, 93-63, heading into what looked like a very long fourth quarter.
After that, the series will remain in Miami, with another one-day layoff before game four, Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. on TNT.