Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. We are in the conference finals!
The Celtics kept their playoff hopes alive after a Game 5 win.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Mark J. Terrill/AP.)
The Boston Celtics made sure they were going to stay a couple more days in the bubble at the minimum. They staved off elimination as they beat the Miami Heat in Game 5.
It wasn’t easy to start with when the Celtics only made ONE out of their first dozen shots. Duncan Robinson was big early as he helped the Heat get off to a 17-5 start. He even made three lay-ups!
The Celtics decided to put in Enes Kanter. He did score 8 points in the second quarter. It dented the Heat’s lead a bit but it was all the Celtics needed as they went into the second half.
Boston’s defense did their work and then their offense woke up. They went on a 13-0 run to take the lead. And they never relinquished it after that. Jayson Tatum scored 17 of his 31 points in the third. The Celtics scored 41 points overall in that period.
We all know that if you let Miami hang around, they can steal the game from you. Jaylen Brown made sure to make a bigger gap by scoring back-to-back threes and raise the lead to 14. We’re going to go see a Game 6 on Sunday.
The Celtics were led by Tatum; he had a 31-10-6 line. Brown went for 28 points and 8 boards. Daniel Theis made some big plays as he’s done most of the postseason; he went for 15 points and 13 rebounds. As for Miami, they were led by Goran Dragic (23 points) and Duncan Robinson (17 of his 19 were scored in the first half). Tyler Herro scored a decent 14 points; far from his 37-point explosion in the previous game.
Now it is Miami’s turn to adjust. One game can change everything. And you know that we’ve already seen 3-1 series comebacks this postseason. Can it happen again?
Bullet Passes
Miami led by as many as 12 in this game. Maybe it was best for them to be down early.
Kemba Walker scored 15 points and went 4 for 11. We’re still waiting for him to have that breakout game.
So Jimmy Butler went for 17-8-8 but didn’t have the impactful game that he usually does. I expect him to come out firing in Game 6.
This is fun. 88 percent of Duncan Robinson’s shots in the regular season were three-pointers. That’s why it’s so funny to see him shoot something INSIDE the arc.
NBA Playoff Scoreboard
Game 5: #3 BOS 121 vs #5 MIA 108 (MIA leads series, 3-2)
Watch This Play
Jaylen finishes this with two hands. (We really didn’t have too many “fancy” or “game-changing” plays here.)
.@FCHWPO ‼️ pic.twitter.com/8u26mixgM8
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) September 26, 2020
Let’s see what happens in the West.
Please take care, everyone.
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
TNLP on FaceBook.