On Monday night, the Boston Celtics took on their decade-long rivals—the Miami Heat. But this iteration of the Heat looks much different. They now live in a new, post-Jimmy Butler world. A world defined by Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro (though he was out on Monday) and complemented by Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell.
Through the first quarter of the game, the Adebayo-Wiggins-Mitchell trio was enough to give the Heat an edge. Boston’s offense was completely absent from the equation, and though Miami only mustered up 24 first-quarter points, they were in the driver’s seat. The second quarter saw a change in the script.
But not when it mattered most.
Joe Mazzulla's anger toward Celtics propelled Jayson Tatum's monster night vs. Heat
Closing games is crucial. It’s ‘clutch time’ in the NBA’s statistics (when the game is within five points under five minutes). But closing quarters is just as important. And the Celtics failed to do so on Monday night.
Boston surged ahead throughout the second quarter, allowing Sam Hauser’s shooting frenzy to propel them forward. But in the last 49 seconds of the half, they crumbled.
Miami went on a 7-0 run punctuated by an Adebayo buzzer-beating three-point heave over Kristaps Porzingis above the break.
“You lose the second quarter 7-0 because you don’t execute the two-for-one, you stab in the backcourt, and give up free plays,” Joe Mazzulla said after the game (H/t Noa Dalzell of SB Nation). “That stuff can cost you more than what happens in the fourth quarter, but when you win, no one wants to talk about them.”
Adebayo may have sunk the three in Porzingis’ face, but the Latvian big man wasn’t the root of the problem.
Immediately before Adebayo’s half-time heroics, Jayson Tatum missed a layup—one of Mazzulla’s biggest gripes. Everyone harps on missed threes, but scuffed layups are the real issue. ‘We missed like five layups that no one's going to ask about in the fourth quarter,” Mazzulla once said after a 2023 loss to the Indiana Pacers (H/t John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal). “They led to baskets at the other end. Kills your transition defense.”
That’s exactly what happened on Monday night in Miami, but there was a little added spice to the play. And not the type that appeased Mazzulla’s palette.
After Tatum missed his layup, instead of sprinting back on defense, he began stabbing at the ball, trying to poke it loose from Adebayo. He was behind the play, and Mazzulla let him know on the sidelines.
The Celtics coach was as animated as he was all evening, screaming at Tatum to stop lollygagging and to get back on defense. By then, it was too late. Adebayo’s shot was a wild heave, but it was almost as if the basketball Gods were punishing Tatum and the Celtics for their lack of gumption while running back on defense.
“We just have to have a heightened awareness in the details of closing out quarters,” Mazzulla said. “That, to me, is the biggest difference between winning and losing, and we got away with it today.”
Looks like Joe Mazzulla may not have been pleased with Jayson Tatum not getting back on defense here pic.twitter.com/NRf0MezXMd
— Jack Simone (@JackSimoneNBA) February 11, 2025
What once was a 13-point lead was cut to six in under two minutes.
“We had a big lead there, and they cut it to single digits there to end the half,” Sam Hauser said (H/t Jay King of The Athletic). “So I think it was just frustrating for him.”
A red-hot Mazzulla walked into the half-time locker room upset with his team, and a red-hot Tatum exited. But they embodied very different definitions of the phrase.
Mazzulla was ‘Anger’ from Inside Out. Tatum was a Monstar from Space Jam.
After shooting just 3-of-10 from the field and 1-of-6 from deep in the first half, Tatum exploded. He dropped a 20-point bombshell on the Heat, scoring 20 points in the third quarter on 8-of-11 shooting from the floor and 3-of-5 from deep.
“The way that we ended the first half, a lot of that was on me,” Tatum said (via Dalzell). “Just didn’t have much of an imprint on the game as I normally do in the first half. It was time for me to wake up in the second half.”
From there, it was cake. The Heat were buried. Boston cruised to an 18-point win on the back of Tatum’s incredible third-quarter performance. But they could have just as easily let go of the rope after his second-quarter slip-up.
That moment thrust Tatum forward into a blaze of fury the Heat were ill-prepared for. In this one instance, it worked in Boston’s favor. But more often than not, those are the moments that cause the inevitable downfall of the Celtics.
And Mazzulla wants more light to be shed on those junctures.
“That 7-0 run is why we sit here and talk about why we sit here and talk about what happens at the end of close games,” he said.