Trailing the Miami Heat all game, the Boston Celtics were in desperate need of some momentum.
A promising 11-0 run in the third quarter, where the Celtics ultimately outscored the Heat 32-28, hit a few speed bumps with a plethora of foul calls.
So with a few main contributors on the bench in foul trouble, and with Kemba Walker’s minutes restriction quickly approaching, the point guard took it upon himself to make sure his time on the court count.
As the seconds ticked away in the third quarter, Walker caught an inbounded pass, dribbled it up a few feet and sunk it in from half court to beat the buzzer.
The momentum shifted back in their favor, kind of, as the Celtics cut their deficit to as few as three points late in the fourth. But it wasn’t enough to complete the comeback, as Boston fell 112-106 in an ugly loss as the Heat were without Jimmy Butler on the second game of a back-to-back.
Not great, but Walker was a bright spot.
Despite being limited to 27 minutes, he had 15 points and four assists. His playmaking and passing was a great indicator that his health may not be as big of a concern as we feared. He was even taking charges like his old self and playing hard, deep into the final quarter.
“It’s important,” head coach Brad Stevens said of Walker getting those late-game minutes. “I wasn’t planning on doing that but obviously when (Marcus) Smart fouled out I didn’t have much a choice. … He’s got to get as much reps as he can in that and obviously those are good things.”
Kemba will sit out Wednesday in the second game of Boston’s back-to-back as a means of load management to get him 100 percent for the playoffs.
More Celtics: Kemba Walker Won’t Play Vs. Nets; Brad Stevens Expresses Optimism In Recovery
Here are some other notes from Tuesday’s Celtics-Heat game:
— With the loss, Miami is just 1.5 games behind Boston.
The Heat must win two more games than the Celtics through the rest of the seeding games to steal the No. 3 seed in the East, but it still seems unlikely to happen based on the remainder of their respective schedules.
The Celtics have the Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, Memphis Grizzlies and Washington Wizards to close things out. The Heat, meanwhile, have a tougher road ahead with the Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns, Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers twice.
Long story short, it’s looking like the Celtics may have to go through the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round.
— So let’s get back to all those fouls, which certainly were one of the Celtics’ biggest downfalls.
Marcus Smart fouled out with more than three minutes to play in the third, and it got to the point where Jaylen Brown was asking the officials to stop picking on him. After all, Smart was fined after the Milwaukee Bucks loss for criticizing the refs.
lol I’m pretty sure I could hear Jaylen say “Don’t pick on Smart, man. We need him. Come on.”
— Tom Westerholm (@Tom_NBA) August 5, 2020
Jayson Tatum came close to the same fate around the same point in the game, and got a technical in garbage time for talking to himself out of frustration.
Jayson Tatum, after getting a tech: "I was talking to myself."
— Jay King (@ByJayKing) August 5, 2020
Even Gordon Hayward got a tech, the third of his career and his first as a Celtic, for a questionable charge.
Maybe it’s the mustache or the fact that he’s pent up at Disney, but the bubble has given Hayward some fire. But to be fair, it’s hard to blame him after that technical. Especially when he likely thought he’d drawn an and-1.
The 'stache is not happy.#Celtics pic.twitter.com/yfumNx4Bpj
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) August 5, 2020
The Heat ultimately had 39 free throw attempts on 26 Celtics fouls. Bam Adebayo in particular received 18 free throw attempts, and he bullied Boston all day.
Tatum couldn’t even get rid of him postgame.
https://twitter.com/Kungu_NBA/status/1290828162725797889?s=20
With a skilled big like Adebayo, Stevens said the issue was letting the ball get deep, and it’s something they’ll have to figure out.
“We’re fouling because they’re getting the ball so deep,” Stevens said. “I’ll have to go back and look at the perimeter fouls again … But if it gets down there we’re toast.”
— And between the foul trouble and Walker’s minutes restriction, the Celtics’ bench was exposed further.
Enes Kanter hit double-digit scoring with 10 points, but the rest of the bench combined for just 12. And only three of those points came from Smart.
— Even the Celtics starters weren’t getting shots to fall like they did against Portland, especially from beyond the arc. They shot just 30.3 percent from the 3, making 10 of 33 attempts to fall even further behind the Heat who shot well from long range to open the game. Boston, meanwhile, didn’t take enough chances to attack the rim.
Jaylen Brown’s performance was a good microcosm of that, as driving to the rim is one of the stronger points of his game. He was 0-for-5 from the 3-point range, but gave the Celtics a great spark once he started attacking the rim, powering through finishes and pulling down boards on both ends.
Brown finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and a block. And while six Celtics hit double-digits, led by Tatum’s 23-points, they felt off.
— Credit where credit is due, Miami played well. They went hard from the get-go, and had great ball movement which generated some good looks. Especially while attacking against Boston’s small lineup with Smart out there with the starters.
And Boston’s defense just couldn’t hang in a sloppy performance.
“They did a great job cutting,” Stevens said. “We weren’t solid and they exposed that. Our defense has to improve. Credit to Miami, they played with unbelievable intensity and togetherness tonight and I thought they were clearly the better team tonight.
“Miami was dictating how the game was played, they were great.”
— In his postgame Zoom interview, Tatum wore a mask with “8:46” screen-printed on it, as well as a T-shirt with the initials “GF” to symbolize George Floyd and the amount of time a police officer kneeled on his neck before killing him.
Jayson Tatum's mask tonight is for George Floyd: Eight minutes, 46 seconds, the amount of time the police were on Floyd's neck. Then the "GF" t-shirt with Floyd's initials. pic.twitter.com/QoQfhhWQvt
— Jay King (@ByJayKing) August 5, 2020
— The Celtics return to play Wednesday against the Brooklyn Nets at 9 p.m. ET.
