Boston Celtics collapse again in 3rd quarter, lose Game 2 to Miami Heat, trail 2-0 in Conference Finals: 3 things we learned

The Boston Celtics led by as many as 17 points in Game 2 and 15 in the third quarter, but they were outscored by 20 in that third period to eliminate all that work. They recovered to take a fourth quarter lead, but the Miami Heat turned up their defense and shut the Celtics down to win the game 106-101

Kemba Walker led the Celtics with 23 points. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum had 21 each.

Here’s how it went:

Miami was on fire to start the game, with Duncan Robinson hitting three 3-pointers to pace the Heat early. Kemba Walker started to bounce back, hitting early shots to help a balanced Celtics offense in a back-and-forth quarter. Neither team led by more than a couple of baskets. Brad Stevens threw a new wrinkle at Miami, subbing Enes Kanter and Romeo Langford into the game early, but Langford left with a groin strain after just 1:21 of play. The Celtics closed the quarter strong, outscoring Miami 8-2 over the last 2:09 to take a 31-28 lead after 1.

Kanter helped the Celtics to a 9-5 start to the second quarter by hitting a couple of layups. Miami only targeted him once in the first three minutes of the quarter, resulting in a Bam Adebayo missed layup. A pair of Brad Wanamaker 3′s gave Boston a 10 point lead, their biggest to that point of the game. It hit 11 on a sweet Walker drive and layup and then 13 on a Walker feed to Smart for a layup. Jaylen Brown’s jumper made it 17 with 2:30 left in the half. Miami was freezing cold in the quarter as the Celtics defense showed much more activity than it had at the end of Game 1. They did manage to hit a couple of late buckets, send the game into the half with the score 60-47 Celtics.

It stayed that way after the first few minutes but Miami cut the lead to 10 after another Robinson 3. Boston fell back into some of their bad habits, fouling and turning the ball over while missing defensive rotations, but they managed to hold their lead at 10 halfway through the quarter. A critical turning point came with 5:51 remaining in the quarter when it appeared they’d forced a 24 second violation but it was ruled a jump ball. Miami won the jump and Jae Crowder finished a 4-point play. That triggered an 11-0 run where Miami took a 72-71 lead. Kelly Olynyk banked in a 3 to beat the shotclock to put Miami up 5 and a Goran Dragic layup polished off a 37-17 3rd quarter for Miami to put the Heat up 7. Miami outscored Boston 23-6 over the last 6:19 of the quarter.

An ugly start to the fourth quarter gave way to some incremental progress by the Celtics as they cut the lead to 5 with 9:30 left. Kemba walker checked back in with less than eight minutes to go and immediately hit a 3 to cut it 2. A Jaylen Brown putback tied the game with 5:36 to go. A Tatum dunk gave them the lead back, 91-89. A Walker 3 capped a 15-2 run and gave Boston a 3 point lead. Miami countered with an 13-1 run and took a 7 point lead with about a minute and a half to go. A pair of Jaylen Brown 3′s made it a 3 point game, but they could get no closer.

What went right?

Kemba found his game. He bounced back with 23 points, looking good early and finishing strong in the fourth. Part of that might have been the reduced minutes (more on that momentarily).

Kanter gave them good minutes (at least in the first half). He was targeted in pick-and-rolls in the second half so he couldn’t play much

What went wrong?

The 3rd quarter was putrid, again, for the Celtics. Stop me if you’ve heard this before: They fouled too much, stopped moving the ball, and made a ton of defensive mistakes. It’s probably time to stop asking them to stop doing this and wonder when in the game it’s going to happen and hope it’s early enough for them to recover.

The Celtics turned the ball over 19 times leading to 26 Miami points. They were really sloppy in the third, turning it over 7 times. There were stretches where they looked like they couldn’t even make the simple passes. Butler made two huge steals late.

The Celtics didn’t give up a ton of offensive rebounds, but Miami got some timely ones that were crushing.

Things we learned:

Kemba Walker’s fatigue was clearly a concern for Stevens. After playing him 43+ minutes in the last three games, Stevens dropped Walker down to his regular season minutes, leaving him out there for about 34 minutes.
Boston needs Gordon Hayward. They need a calming force in the midst of those collapses. Just someone who can hit a mid-range shot or make any kind of play or draw a defender.
You can’t let down against Miami. The are more potent than the Raptors, and they’ll make teams pay for their mistakes. The sloppy turnovers, the lack of ball movement, and the missed shots will all lead to positive things for the Heat.

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