Can the Miami Heat beat Boston being that they haven’t this year?
The Miami Heat dropped their second consecutive game at home to familiar foe the Boston Celtics. Yet to beat them this year, they may meet in the playoffs.
While the Miami Heat have thrived under the bright lights of the American Airlines Arena this season, the rocks are beginning to fill the road after losing two straight on their home floor against the Clippers and Celtics. It may not be time for Pat Riley to smash the panic button just yet, but injuries are piling up with the home stretch of the season rapidly approaching, and more importantly, playoff basketball.
If you combine Miami’s record against the other top four teams in the Eastern Conference — Milwaukee, Toronto, Philadelphia, and Boston — Miami comes out with a decent win-loss record of 5-3.
If we remove Boston from that equation — only leaving Milwaukee, Toronto, and Philadelphia — Miami lands with a strong record of 5-1. Their only loss was once to Philadelphia in a November game, also known as Josh Richardson‘s revenge game.
So, do the math. Miami is winless (0-2) against the Boston Celtics this season.
Sure, the Miami Heat have been missing important guards in each matchup thus far, Kendrick Nunn and Goran Dragic in each of the two matchups versus the Celtics, but the C’s were also missing a key cog to their machine. Jayson Tatum sat out on Tuesday night and Goran Hayward sat in the early December matchup — a game in which Boston won by 19 points.
Clearly, Miami has no answer for Boston’s wingman trio and they haven’t faced all three at once, yet. In the two matchups against Miami, C’s wingman Jaylen Brown has flourished while boasting a stat line of 28 points per game on 55% shooting from the field, including 52% from behind the arc.
In Tuesday night’s loss, the Heat gave up 29 points to Goran Hayward. During the December loss, Miami gave up 19 points to Jayson Tatum, who also controlled the game on the defensive end, He finished that game with three blocks — more than the entire Heat team.
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Sorry Heat fans, I didn’t want to write this either, but the facts are the facts.
Another fact — sadly — Miami hasn’t beaten the Celtics in over an entire calendar year. After Tuesday night’s loss, Miami has now dropped the last five matchups with the C’s, extending back to last season. The last time Miami beat Boston was on January 10th, 2019.
Like it or not, Boston has owned Miami this season. The two squads are set to face off two more times during the regular season.
Can Miami end the lingering losing streak against their Eastern Conference foe?