Ranking the Top 10 players in the Celtics-Heat first round series
By Ben Grunert
No. 10: Caleb Martin
This final spot could have gone to multiple players. Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Duncan Robinson all made cases to round out the top ten. However, it would feel wrong to leave out Caleb Martin after he practically led the Heat past the Celtics in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals.
Martin played the series of his life against Boston, averaging 19.3 points on outlandish shooting splits. The undrafted forward shot 60.2% from the field and 48.9% from three across seven phenomenal performances.
One series later, Martin averaged just 7.4 points on 37.5% shooting from the field in the NBA Finals. Many Celtics fans were understandably bothered at just how much Martin’s level dropped against Denver.
While a player like Pritchard could heat up and outplay Martin in the first round, last year’s greatest Celtics-killer deserves a spot on this list ahead of his rematch with Boston.