Old friend burns Celts
Olynyk (32) back to turn up Heat
No Hassan Whiteside, Goran Dragic, James Johnson or Justise Winslow.
What the Celtics instead faced last night was a Miami Heat team with its new star — one Kelly Olynyk.
The former Celtic, allowed to leave in free agency last summer to clear space for Gordon Hayward’s contract, strafed his former teammates with a 32-point performance in the Celtics’ 90-89 loss to the Heat at the Garden.
The Celtics came within a Kyrie Irving miss from the right elbow of stealing their second straight game, after Terry Rozier snatched a win in Indiana on Monday with a steal and dunk with 1.7 seconds left.
But the Celtics’ recent low energy trend caught up with them last night, and Olynyk, 20 pounds lighter than during his time as a Celtic, obliged.
This was the Game 7 Olynyk from last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals against Washington, when he essentially won the game with a 26 points. Last night he went for a career high including 6-for-8 from 3-point range.
An angered Marcus Smart, thinking back to how ex-Celtic Jonas Jerebko had helped Utah to a win at the Garden last Friday, put the blame on his team for not matching the alumni club’s energy.
“By this point we shouldn’t be surprised. It’s just the competitive nature in every last one of us,” Smart said. “You leave a team, and you want to prove to that team that you should still be there. That’s everybody. I don’t know why we should be surprised about it. Kelly kicked our ass. Jonas kicked our ass. We let those guys do that. If this isn’t a wakeup call, I don’t know what is.”
Smart believes the wakeup call should have been received at halftime, when the Celtics held a rickety 44-36 lead, made possible by a pair of Irving floaters in the last 40 seconds of the second quarter.
“It started in the first half. Coach came in the locker room and told us, ‘They should be up 10,’ ” Smart said. “Then starting the second half we give them a wide-open 3, and then we lose the jump ball and they come back and score. They got rhythm. This team, as we all know, is very relentless. They don’t give up. They outplayed us.”
Asked to pinpoint the problem, Smart said, “Effort. It’s effort. We’re not talking on the defensive end, coming down playing one-on-one ball. It’s really just effort. They beat us to a couple of loose balls, they wanted it more than us, and they got rewarded tonight.”
And then there was the matter of Miami’s stripped down lineup, with not only Olynyk, but former Celtic Jordan Mickey (eight points, eight rebounds) filling his time with quality plays.
“We’re in the NBA, every last person on that team is in the NBA,” Smart said. “They’re here for a reason. Just (because) they don’t have all their players, we still have to come out and play. This team has showed us that twice, they’ve beaten us twice.”
Despite 33 points from Irving, and five 3-pointers from Smart, the Celtics didn’t have enough for the end this time.
Jaylen Brown attempted to turn this one around at both ends, first altering a Wayne Ellington miss, and then finishing off the sequence with an up-top 3-pointer that cut the Miami lead to 87-84 with 1:33 left.
But Olynyk drew a foul, hit the first of two from the line, and though Irving answered with a drive, Olynyk dunked for a 90-86 Miami lead.
Brown was fouled, but only hit the second of two, leaving the Celtics three points behind.
But Ellington missed, Brown grabbed the rebound, and Brad Stevens called timeout with 37.1 seconds left and his team trailing, 90-87.
Irving drove from the key with 27.7 seconds left, cutting the Miami lead to a point. Josh Richardson missed badly from the baseline under pressure from Smart, Jayson Tatum grabbed the rebound, and Stevens called his last timeout with 6.2 seconds left.
Irving took Smart’s inbounds pass on the right elbow and missed off the back of the rim at the buzzer.