Boston Celtics: 1 stud and 1 dud from C’s demoralizing Game 3 loss
By Ryan Cinque
The Boston Celtics fumbled a golden opportunity to take command of the Eastern Conference Finals.They were hoping to ride the momentum from their 25-point win in Miami from just two nights prior.
Instead, they came out flat in Saturday’s Game 3 and fell behind immediately.
This exact thing had happened in both of the first two games of this series but things got out of hand quickly for Boston here. A hot start for Miami and an ice cold one for Boston allowed the Heat to jump out to a 24-7 lead after just six minutes, a lead they would never surrender.
This was the story for the first 22 minutes of action before the Celtics finally started to show some signs of life. They shrugged off the poor shooting and the early turnovers to close the half on a 10-0 run and cut Miami’s big lead down to 15.
The energy from the crowd was ramping up and the C’s players were ready to blow this game wide open.
Jimmy Butler was ruled out for the second half with a knee issue and, seemingly out if nowhere, this nightmare of a game became a golden opportunity for the Boston Celtics.
They had a chance to erase that horror show of a first half and fight their way back against a banged up team without their go-to guy.
They played the entire third quarter with lots of energy and heart but every time they had a chance to take over the game, they threw away those chances with costly turnovers.
They managed to cut into that deficit on a handful of occasions, but Miami answered each and every time and maintained their 15-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
With their backs against the wall, the Celtics have responded all year and the same held true in Game 3 as they finally began to make a push at the Heat in the fourth quarter.
They slowly chipped away at the Miami lead thanks to Jaylen Brown who single-handedly brought them to within one. It took them a while, but they seemed ready to take their first lead of the game and blow the roof off of TD Garden.
Unfortunately for the shamrocks, they seemed to have run out of gas in a sequence where they left Max Strus open to knock down a dagger trey, followed by a turnover, a Bam Adebayo prayer to beat the shot clock, and another turnover after that.
Turnovers were the story of the game and their inability to value the basketball cost them a prime opportunity to take a 2-1 series lead.
A tough pill to swallow for the Boston Celtics but there is still a lot to unpack from the game. Here are our picks for one stud and one dud from the contest: