Keys to the Game: Celtics 104, Heat 84

Boston dominated Recreation 3 from begin to end, all whereas delivering a message to the Warmth that their surprising Recreation 2 victory had no probability of being repeated Saturday night time.

The Celtics scored the primary factors of the night time off a 3-pointer from Kristaps Porzingis and by no means appeared again from there. They ultimately pulled forward by as many as 29 factors, all whereas by no means trailing for a single second.

Bam Adebayo did reply Porzingis’ 3-pointer with a traditional three-point play of his personal to knot issues up at 3-3. Nevertheless, the Celtics had been off and working from there.

Boston scored the sport’s subsequent 9 factors to tug forward 12-3 and to take early management of the sport. All 9 of these factors had been scored by the dynamic duo of Cookies & Cream.

Cream, AKA Porzingis, jumpstarted the run with 5 straight factors, the primary two coming off an alley-oop slam from Jrue Vacation, and the following three arriving from past the arc off a dish from Jayson Tatum. Cookies, AKA Jaylen Brown, then bought into the combination with a driving layup and a tip-in off a missed 3-pointer from Derrick White.

Whereas Porzingis and Brown had been scoring 9 straight, Boston’s protection was placing the clamps down on Miami’s offense on the different finish of the ground. The Celtics compelled Miami into 9 consecutive misses and a turnover following Adebayo’s early bucket.

The sport may as properly have ended there, with the Celtics main 12-3 on the 6:20 mark. All Boston did was draw back from there earlier than coasting into the winner’s circle to take a 2-1 collection lead.

The Jays tied one another for Recreation 3’s prime scoring mark, so how will we break the tie? On this night time, it’s by effectivity and defensive numbers, so Jaylen Brown will get the nod.

Brown tied Jayson Tatum for the sport’s prime scoring mark with 22 factors. He scored these factors on 11-for-20 capturing from the sphere, good for a 55 % conversion fee. That discipline aim proportion was the best within the recreation among the many seven gamers who tried no less than 10 pictures. Brown additionally added in three assists on the offensive finish, whereas committing only one turnover.

The star wing put in work on the defensive finish, too. He grabbed six defensive boards and eight rebounds total to complete second on the group in that class, trailing solely Tatum’s 11 complete rebounds. Brown led the sport in steals with two and tied Miami’s group complete with that quantity. He additionally was certainly one of 4 Celtics to dam a shot in the course of the recreation, as he swatted away one shot.

“We had two days off, so any days off after a loss within the Playoffs is hard. So we had been simply prepared to come back out right here and play. We performed proper poise on each ends of the ground, and we gotta repeat it on Monday.”

– Jayson Tatum on bouncing again from Recreation 2