The Miami Heat should have come out juiced up for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. With the chance to take a firm grasp on the series and go up 3-1, a lead that would all but promise victory over the Celtics, the Miami Heat came out to play one of their worst games of the season.
Starting the game something like 0-14 from the field, the Miami Heat found themselves down 20 points before they knew what had hit them. It was never close.
The Boston Celtics started off more engaged, ready to take it to the Miami Heat, and that’s exactly what they did. If you look at the first seven points of the game, all seven scored by Boston Celtics guard, Derrick White, who is traditionally not a scorer, it screams that the Miami Heat weren’t ready to play at the tip of Monday’s contest.
There is also this. When you look at the Miami Heat’s starters, they would only get 18 combined points from the group.
The Miami Heat were defeated in Boston in Game 4 of the ECF. The offense failed them big time, however, they had major help in their ineptitude.
Bam Adebayo would score nine points, while Kyle Lowry would score three points. Jimmy Butler would only score 6 points.
With that being the 18 points already, that inevitably means that, neither, P.J. Tucker nor Max Strus scored. You can’t win regular season games like that, nonetheless games in the postseason.
But wait, there’s always more. It’s hard to develop any kind of rhythm when the game flows as Monday’s did.
The Miami Heat were whistled for nearly twice the amount of fouls as Boston, 26 to 15, while they would also shoot almost three times the free throws. That tally was 38 to 14 in Boston’s favor.
No matter which way you slice it, you can’t win a game like that. The Miami Heat did nothing to help themselves though.
This defeat is, of course, on them. In the playoffs and especially in their circumstances, you have to come out engaged and ready to deliver a blow.
On Monday, they were the lowly punching bag. They did, however, win Game 3, meaning all things are, again, equal.
They must go home to win game 5 on Wednesday though because as seen across the last two games and though they barely won Game 3, winning in Boston might just mean playing “5 on 8”.