Celtics-Heat Bigger Picture: What Series Meant For Boston, Miami

When the Boston Celtics wiped the floor with the Miami Heat with a close-out Game 5 victory, which ended their first-round playoff series, it spoke volumes about where both teams stand.

“(The goal) as a team is to develop a shared mental model, a shared approach toward what lens you want to look at the game of basketball through, and how you’re going to play the game on both ends of the floor,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “And develop a philosophy as to why you do what you do and how this impacts that and building the connections. It starts with the guys. They’re open-minded to it. They love understanding the game.”

Boston sat in the driver’s seat for most of the series, humbled Miami, and handled business. When Kristaps Porzingis suffered a calf injury that presumably will sideline him for multiple weeks, the Celtics didn’t use it as an excuse to feel sorry for themselves. They mustered up the motivation to deliver a mighty three-game-long knockout punch to send Miami packing.

Here’s what the series revealed about both the Celtics and the Heat:

1. Miami’s window might be sealed shut
Another year, another underdog run by Miami. What else is new?

During the offseason, the Heat allowed Max Strus and Gabe Vincent to walk away in free agency and didn’t replace either of them; both of whom were vital role players who showed up in the playoffs. It’s hard to keep a contention window open under that operation, and the Heat discovered that the hard way in Games 3, 4 and 5.

The Heat were fortunate to collide with the beneficial circumstances.

Last year, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a first-round injury that assisted Miami in eliminating Milwaukee. Removing a two-time league MVP drastically changes the outcome of any series, especially when it’s an underdog versus an Eastern Conference favorite.

Miami tried to lean on guard Tyler Herro to keep its desperate playoff bid alive against the Celtics, but it failed. Herro shot 6-of-26 from 3-point range and committed nine turnovers in the last three games of the series, having no answers for Boston’s suffocating defense.

2. Boston’s toughness is more mental than physical — and that’s fine
After the Celtics laid a goose egg in Game 2, the topic of Boston’s toughness, or lack thereof, reintroduced itself for yet another postseason run.

Miami didn’t fear testing the physical line throughout the entire series. In Game 1, Caleb Martin blindsided Jayson Tatum in the fourth quarter, which followed with no response from Boston. In Game 5, Bam Adebayo shoved Al Horford to the ground in the first quarter. Before the series began, the Celtics were well aware of the lengths the Heat were willing to go to bridge the gap amplified by the absence of Butler.

But it still wasn’t good enough.

“You can see how talented we are and I think it’s easy to say that teams can out-tough us,” Tatum said Wednesday night. “I never understood that. Like what’s the definition of tough? Having the louder guys on your team? That (expletive) don’t make you tough. Everybody has their own definition of what toughness is. Playing the right way, showing up every day to do your job without complaining, I think that’s being tough.”

Boston wasn’t fazed once the series headed for Miami. Entering the lion’s den, the Celtics buckled down and got to work, holding the Heat under 90 points for the final three games.

Jaylen Brown and Derrick White led the charge for the @celtics in Game 5 to advance to the East Semis ☘️

Brown: 25 PTS, 6 REB, 11-19 FGM
White: 25 PTS, 5 REB, 5 3PM#NBAPlayoffs presented by Google Pixel pic.twitter.com/rNNDC4gGsN

— NBA (@NBA) May 2, 2024

3. Erik Spoelstra needs to find Miami’s next No. 1
Miami hit the lottery when the front office acquired Butler from the Sixers in a 2019 offseason trade.

Butler was put through the wringer of divided locker rooms with the Timberwolves and Sixers, with expectations reaching their lowest in Miami. The Heat routinely proved themselves to be a fringe regular-season threat, that if able to sneak into the playoffs, can do damage. Last year, Miami was the No. 8 seed, snuck in through the play-in, and made a run to the NBA Finals, upsetting the Bucks and Celtics.

Moving forward, can Miami rely on a 35-year-old Butler to carry the Heat? At some point, it becomes meaningless to reach the Finals if that’s the end of the line and nobody can play Robin to Butler’s Batman.

“It’s disappointing the way it ended,” Spoelstra told reporters, per team-provided video. “There are disappointing moments of the season. There are moments where I really thought that we grew from a lot of the adversity, and we’ll have plenty of time to go over the autopsy on the regular season.”

Terry Rozier, who Miami acquired at February’s trade deadline, isn’t going to cut it either.

4. Jaylen Brown’s Miami demons are a thing of the past
Brown stood out for all the wrong reasons during last season’s conference finals against the Heat, and the 27-year-old knew it himself.

He averaged 19 points and 6.1 rebounds, committing 25 turnovers while shooting an abysmal 7-for-43 from three in the seven-game battle. When Tatum went down with an ankle injury in Game 7, Brown scored a modest 19 points while shooting 34.8% from the field to finish a minus-17.

“Obviously last year, I probably had one of my worst series in the playoffs, just in general, and that just has carried on from there,” Brown said, per CLNS Media. “Facing them in the first round this year, I still feel like I could’ve played a lot better and a lot more relaxed. Maybe put a little bit more attention on myself than I needed to, but still came out and was able to find ways to be aggressive and help my team win.”

Miami had Brown figured out last postseason, but couldn’t keep it up.

Brown averaged 22.8 points and seven rebounds, shooting 52.2% from the field with five steals and three blocks in five games. Miami’s toughness and trash talk were both present, but none of the non-basketball mind games held Brown, or the Celtics, back this time.