Celtics, Heat play tight series, but games are not even close
Huge leads. Lengthy scoring droughts. Blowouts.
The Eastern Conference finals between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics are as close as can be, heading back to Miami all tied up at two wins apiece. But the individual games have been anything but.
Boston scored 18 of the first 19 points on Monday night on the way to a 10282 victory in Game 4 of the best-of-seven series. The Celtics led by as many as 32 in the third quarter — a big gap, even for a series that has been full of them.
“Sometimes when you have two really competitive teams, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a one-point game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It means that it can be flammable, either way. Both teams are ignitable.”
And they seem to be taking turns catching fire: The team that has gotten blown out has won the next game each time.
“Whatever they have done to us, we can do to them,” Spoelstra said. “None of us are happy about what happened tonight. This is part of the playoffs. There are these extreme highs and lows, particularly when you have two teams that are pretty closely, evenly matched.”
And both pride themselves on their defense. And games dominated by defense don’t always make for entertaining television. The series shifts to Miami for Game 5 on Wednesday, with Boston guaranteed another game at home on Friday. The Heat would host the decisive seventh game on Sunday, if necessary.
“I think human nature plays a part in, when you win a game, you can relax a little bit,” said Celtics star Jayson Tatum, who had 31 points in Game 4 after scoring 10 on 3-for-14 shooting the previous game. “Obviously, when we lose a game, we feel like the next game is do or die, and then we come out and play like we did.
“I think we have to have that mindset going into Game 5 — that it is a mustwin game,” he said. “Everybody knew it. We could all feel it.”
It was the fourth straight game that has featured a 20-point lead, with two of them topping 30. There have been four lead changes in the entire series — just one in the second half and none in the fourth quarter.
“It’s wild,” said Miami guard Victor Oladipo, who came off the bench to score the Heat’s first basket more than eight minutes into the first quarter after they were already trailing 18-1.