This series between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat can only be summed up in one word: astounding.
Trading blows back and forth whilst seeing neither team letting up consecutive wins, the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals has simply been a roller coaster ride of emotions for both the individual franchises as well as their fan bases and, in Monday’s Game 4, it was the C’s who wound up prevailing in a major way.
After letting up their first home game on Saturday and, in turn, going down 2-1 in this best-of-seven series, Ime Udoka’s squad stormed back in a big way just 24-hours later, seeing an 18-1 run through the first eight minutes of action, making Miami the first team in 25 years to go this duration of time with such a lackluster score.
While they did end up breaking this cold spell at the 3:22 mark in the first, unfortunately for them, the point differential didn’t stop at 17, as Boston went on to hold a 24-point advantage going into the half (each game has seen at least 20-point lead in it thus far, which is just wild) and even saw their lead balloon to 32 during the latter portion of the third period.
A wire-to-wire win, the shamrocks went on to down the top-seeded Heat 102-82 and have now guaranteed themselves a Game 6 back at TD Garden after tying this series up at two games apiece.
Now, what makes this win all the more impressive–besides the obvious–is the fact that they went on to do this without their heart and soul and defensive anchor in Marcus Smart, who, only hours before tip-off, was ruled out for the contest as he continues to nurse a nagging ankle injury.
In the end, his absence, though missed, proved to have little to no impact on how the Boston Celtics produced on the floor, as they were truly a two-way nightmare for Erik Spoelstra’s ball club, as they surpassed the century mark for their tenth consecutive outing while holding the Heat to their worst offensive showing of this year’s postseason (shot just 33 percent on the night).
For the C’s, all but one active player saw on-court action while seven saw extensive playing time on the night.
Monday’s exhibition was quite impressive from an overall team standpoint, but, this is not to say that there weren’t a few areas and, more specifically, a few players that could have produced a bit more efficiently.
With this in mind, we at HH present to you 1 stud and 1 dud from Boston’s blowout Game 4 win over the Heat: