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Boston Celtics: 3 takeaways from C’s hot victory against the Miami Heat

By Dallas Malloy

MIAMI, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 04: Bam Adebayo #13 of the Miami Heat and Romeo Langford #9 of the Boston Celtics battle for a rebound during the first half at FTX Arena on November 04, 2021 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
MIAMI, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 04: Bam Adebayo #13 of the Miami Heat and Romeo Langford #9 of the Boston Celtics battle for a rebound during the first half at FTX Arena on November 04, 2021 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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The Boston Celtics were nothing short of dominant against the league-best Miami Heat, as they came away victorious with a 95-78 blowout win.

Despite just a combined 27 points on 27 shots from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Cs found a way to get it done. The win was largely predicated on defensive effort and bench production.

Holding this Heat team, with the number two offense in the NBA, to 78 points is not something many other teams will likely replicate.

A 25 point bench advantage largely proved to be the difference in this game, as the C’s second unit outscored the Heat’s 45-20 which is a great thing to see as Boston’s ranked 26th in bench points per game this season.

There were plenty of things to take away from this dominant win versus a top team, but 3 should suffice:

Boston Celtics takeaway No. 1) Miami came back and the C’s defense responded

The Boston Celtics largely dominated the first half, and early in the third quarter had a 62-42 lead.

By the 2:30 mark in the third, the Heat had cut the lead to eight, and it felt like another one of those games that the Cs would let slip away.

However, they responded and got the lead back up to 18 less than two minutes later.

This team had yet to show that grit, as all we had seen is them blowing leads, losing confidence, and spiraling out of control.

Undoubtedly, this is an amazing sight to see, and a positive direction for the squad to be heading in.

Jayson Tatum struggled and Jaylen Brown didn’t play the entire fourth quarter, yet this team still held strong, played exceptional defense, and kept the lead. The bench scored 45 out of the team’s 95 total points, headlined by Aaron Nesmith, Romeo Langford, and Dennis Schroder making up 39 of those 45.

As had been alluded to, this game was not one to commend the offense, but rather the defense.

This is the second game in a row the Boston Celtics have held their opponents to under 80 points.

This was the first time they have done this since January 18th and 20th of the 2011-12 season, nearly 10 years ago.

I’m going to say this with a grain of salt, but I think this team might be finding its defensive identity.

They have too many talented defenders to be as bad as they were on defense. It needs to be consistently good, but as Aaron Nesmith said post-game: “We want to be the number one defensive team.”

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