MIAMI — Everything went wrong in Miami.
Everything.
Within the first five minutes of the game, the Boston Celtics were already down by 14 points. And by the 5:11 mark in the first quarter, the deficit reached 19. A whirlwind of Miami Heat players sprinting in transition was too much for the Celtics, losers of two straight, to keep up with.
“Listen, they're number one in transition rate, so they get out fast and get shots early in the shot clock, which you're not going to be able to control sometimes,” Joe Mazzulla said post-game. So, I thought the first quarter was the best version of their transition offense. We also had nine turnovers in the first half and four live-ball turnovers in the first quarter that led to eight points.
“And so, I think it was just weathering that storm from that.”
First, it was offensive rebounds. Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, and Luka Garza altered the course of the game. Boston’s 22 second-chance points in the first half were the only reason they stayed within striking distance.
Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard combined to shoot just 3-of-16 in that time. Nothing was working. Shots were bouncing in and out, and Miami took the ball and ran down the other end for easy looks.
The Celtics, who had failed to crack the 100-point mark in their last two games, were spiraling toward another disastrous offensive performance. Not to mention, their first three-game skid since the first three games of the season.
Enter, Anfernee Simons.
“Make a couple shots, and then you start getting going,” Simons said. “As the game went on, and you see the ball go in a couple more times, and start feeling yourself.”
Anfernee Simons carried Celtics past Heat
It all started with a few threes. That’s all Simons had in the first half. Boston rolled into the locker room down 64-54, and Simons’ 13 points led the team.
He was 4-for-11 from the floor and 3-for-8 from three. But there was something different about the way he was moving.
As Brown, White, and Pritchard struggled to find their offensive rhythm, they looked to Simons. It wasn’t necessarily an efficient first half, but it was clear he was going to be their best shot at breaking free from the offensive doldrums they had settled into.
And that’s exactly what happened.
The third quarter was another step forward. Brown found his shot, scoring 15 points, but Simons was still there, hanging around.
With 1:12 remaining in the third, the Celtics were down by 15, having lost ground since the halftime break. Simons hit a tough floater in the lane against Andrew Wiggins. Celtics down by 13. The very next offensive possession, he drained a step-back triple over the outstretched arm of Nikola Jovic. Celtics down by 10.
Something was brewing. The whole arena could feel it.
“I've always said, figuring out what the game needs,” Simons said. “Each and every game is always gonna be different, and tonight it was more like, we need you to be aggressive and play how you know how to play. And so, it just happened. Be to be more aggressive, and scoring more points.”
Simons played 11:55 in the fourth quarter. He was the Celtics’ entire offense. Almost every possession, the ball was in his hands. Three, floater, layup. Bucket, bucket, bucket. There was nothing Miami could do to slow him down.
After two buckets from Neemias Queta and Hugo Gonzalez (the former of which was assisted by Simons) opened the fourth, it was all Simons.
Anfernee Simons took over fourth vs. Heat
He scored the Celtics’ next 11 points, and after a Sam Hauser three broke that streak, he drained another step-back three.
“That boy can play,” said Brown. “He's probably more talented than the role that he's placed in. I think that's kind of obvious, but I have hella respect for him to come out, play winning basketball, and do what the team needs to do on a night-in, night-out basis.
“Doesn't complain, just brings good energy and just contributes in a positive way. But tonight, like any night we've seen at times, he can just really fill it up. So, I think he's learning, he's growing, he's coming into his own, he's developing, but tonight was an example of that.”
What was once a 10-point Heat lead going into the fourth was quickly erased by the 5:21 mark, when the aforementioned Hauser three gave Boston its first lead in almost 40 minutes of game time (10:47 in the first quarter).
Isos against Tyler Herro. Step-backs over Kasparas Jakucionis. Step-throughs past Pelle Larsson in transition. There was nothing Miami could throw at Simons to halt the outburst.
He had reached flow state.
“I think he just played well,” said Mazzulla. “Played really, really well. I think he obviously saw a couple go in early. I think it's hard for him because of his role, but at times, I think he felt the fact that he was keeping us in it, and I think that gave him more confidence, and I think his teammates gave him more confidence. And I think, in that way, the game is connected.
It didn’t matter where he was shooting from—everything looked pure.
“Everything that you put up feels like it's going in or has a really good chance to, and I think he definitely had that mode, or he was in that mode tonight, where, 'Let's get him the ball and get out of the way and let him be special,'” Hauser said of what it feels like to get that hot from three-point-range.
“And he was.”
Anfernee Simons was special
Simons finished the fourth with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting from deep range, bringing his total to 39 points on the night.
The offense ran through Simons. Every time the Celtics brought the ball up the court, they found him. And he went to work. Even when Brown checked back into the game with 5:31 to go, he deferred to Simons. He knew what the game needed.
“We [were] just gonna keep riding him out,” Brown said. “Basketball, it'll tell you what needs to happen. So, Ant was hot, and we just kept going back to him. That's what the game called for. A couple of possessions that I got in the fourth quarter, I just wanted to give him a break because he wanted to catch his breath a little bit. But we were able to make enough plays down the stretch to pull it out, so that's a big-time win for us.”
Without Simons, the Celtics would have lost. They may have gotten blown out. Mazzulla could have been rolling out garbage-time lineups midway through the fourth quarter. But he wasn’t.
Simons stepped up. In the midst of the best stretch of basketball of his career, he went back to his scoring roots. Because at his core, that’s what he is: A scorer.
The defensive improvements he’s made have been impressive. “The scoring is what he's done most of his career, but to me, it's just the way he defended,” Mazzulla said. “He had a blindside block, had a couple in-traffic rebounds, was physical at the point of attack. Just a complete game.”
Simons is staying in front of players more consistently, fouling less, and navigating screens at a much higher level, improving on the side of the ball that he’s struggled with most throughout his career thus far.
“I'm happy to have the coaching staff believe in me, to bring that out of me,” Simons said. “It's been fun, them pushing me to be that each and every night, and so, I'm appreciative of them believing in me that I can do it, and pushing me to do it.”
All the while, he’s getting more and more comfortable within the flow of Boston’s offense.
“Just being coachable, having some humility on the things that you need to get better at it, and just accepting the role,” Simons said. “Try to be the best version at it. It's got its ups and downs, but I think for most part, learn each and every game and just going with the flow, and continue to try to improve each and every game.”
But at the end of the day, Simons has always been a score-first guy. He’s been a bucket since high school, and the Celtics witnessed a peak version of that on Thursday night.
It couldn’t have come at a better moment, and his teammates couldn’t have been happier.
“Everybody was pretty excited,” Simons said with a smile. “Just speaks to how together the team is and how much we want to see each other succeed. We know that any given night, it’s going to be somebody’s night, and tonight was mine.”