Stephen A. Smith didn't mince words as he assessed what went down between the Celtics and the Heat on Monday night.
Miami was absolutely dreadful in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, which Boston comfortably won by 20 points at TD Garden. The Celtics blitzed the top-seeded Heat in the opening frame, and Jimmy Butler and company didn't show much fight the rest of the way.
It was an unacceptable performance from Miami, quite frankly, and the ever-blunt Smith reflected as much in his postgame recap on ESPN.
"Other than being pathetic and moribund and absolutely god awful, I guess you could give Boston's defense credit for that," Smith said during a "SportsCenter" appearance. "But there is no excuse whatsoever for a No. 1 seed in a conference, a team that won 53 games this year, a team that is vying for a championship in the Eastern Conference finals -- your entire starting lineup combined for 18 points?
"I don't give a damn what kind of fouls the referees were calling in favor of Boston, who went to the free-throw line 26 times to Miami's nine in the first half. Five starters have no excuse for combining for 18 points in a 48-minute game. That is beyond pathetic. It's one of those things where they should literally seek permission to get back to South Beach for crying out loud. They shouldn't even be allowed being that damn awful."
FTX Arena has been kind to the Heat, who won all but one of their eight games in Miami in these NBA playoffs to date. But if the Heat are unable to take care of business in their own building Wednesday, their summer vacation very well could start as soon as the weekend.
Miami is a 1-point underdog at DraftKings Sportsbook for Game 4, which is scheduled to tip off at 8:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
