1. Incredible Scoring Night
Coming off a rough loss against the Atlanta Hawks, the Celtics were almost completely healthy in their matchup against the Miami Heat and they played arguably their best offensive game of the season. Boston scored 147 points on the Heat in this game, the second most points they’ve scored in a game this season and had 6 players finish with double digit points.
They shot 56-96 (58%) from the field which is the third highest percentage they’ve had this season and 21-44 (48%) from three which is the sixth
best mark this year. There were times in this game where the Celtics were playing some euphoric basketball. Even when the Heat cut the Celtics lead to 10 points at the end of the third quarter, Boston did not waiver just continued their onslaught on South Beach.
Some may say this is karmic retribution for the Heat stat-padding on the Washington Wizards to get Bam Adebayo his 83 point game earlier this season. I say the Celtics just put out a message to the rest of the teams in the Play-In Tournament of what they could expect in round one of the playoffs this year. We might see some teams try to do everything in their power to avoid Boston this year.
2. Historic First Quarter
When looking at the box score of this game, something stands out that is pretty hard to miss. The Celtics scored 53 Points in the first quarter!
That isn’t an April Fools prank, the Celtics really scored 53 points which is the highest scoring first quarter in franchise history and is tied for the second most first quarter points in NBA history. This is the second highest scoring quarter in Celtics history, only trailing Boston’s 54 point fourth quarter against the San Diego Clippers on February 25th, 1970.
Both Boston and Miami scored 7 straight baskets to open the game and by the first TV timeout, the score was 21-21 at the 6:41 mark of the first quarter. The Celtics took that breather and continued their dominance, finishing the first quarter on a 29-9 run. Boston shot 20-28 (71%) from the field and 11-15 (73%) from three, just an incredible display of basketball by the Celtics.
3. Brown Bully Ball
Jaylen Brown had a real off shooting game against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday so naturally he bounced back with his second highest scoring game of the season. Brown finished with 43 points and 7 assists on 17-29 shooting from the field and 4-10 from three point range.
Not only is this Brown’s 34th 30+ point game of the season which is the most in the Eastern Conference this year, but this performance also put him in some rarified air. Brown is now tied with Larry Bird in the 1989-90 season for the 5th most 40+ point games in a season with his 7th of 2025-26.
Brown was the main catalyst to the Celtics hot start, scoring the first 11 points of the game for Boston and finishing with 20 points on 8-11 shooting. Miami had no answers for Jaylen driving to the basket as he was able to match the break neck speed the Heat were playing with.
We saw Brown continue to dominate Miami with this brand of physical basketball throughout the game. Jaylen and the Celtics made it a priority to attack Tyler Herro on defense and once he got the switch, there was no stopping Brown from getting to his spots.
Brown had his jumper working in this game which is a massive difference from his tough game in Atlanta. His final two buckets of the game were good examples of the shot making that he was putting on display in this game.
4. Triple-Double Tatum
When Jayson Tatum scored 32 points against the Charlotte Hornets in his 11th game of the season, I thought there was no way he was going to top it. That was until his 12th game where he had his first triple-double of the season and 6th of his career including the playoffs. He finished with 25 points, 18 rebounds, and 11 assists on 9-21 shooting from the field and 4-13 from three.
In the first half Tatum was taking and making a ton of three pointers and mid range jumpers since Miami had no one who could match up with him.
Tatum’s shooting splits don’t look the best but those were inflated by a cold stretch in the third quarter but that was when he starting turn up his passing. He had 5 assists in the this quarter where it looked like he was just seeing the game at a different level.
His biggest impact came at the beginning of the fourth quarter after Miami cut Boston’s lead to 10 points at the end of the third. Tatum squashed all momentum that the Heat had with two assists and a long three that pushed the Celtics lead back up to 16 points, essentially icing the game.
5. HAUS3R
After being taken out of the starting lineup on Monday, Sam Hauser made his way back into it with both of the Jays healthy at the same time. There had been some conversation on if Hauser should be replaced in the starting five since he was shooting 31% from three in his prior 10 games but he put all of those conversations to bed in this game, finishing with 23 points on 9-11 shooting from the field and 5-7 shooting from three while being a +23 overall. Sam Hauser also now has the most games in Celtics history with 20+ PTS on 100% TS.
This was the best game Hauser has had in a while and it started with his explosion in the first quarter where he had a career high 17 points on 6-6 shooting from the field and tied a Celtics record with 5-5 shooting from three. We have seen countless times in his career when Hauser’s shot is falling, there is no one who is going to be able to slow him or the Celtics offense down.
6. Neem The Dream
Neemias Queta doesn’t get enough credit for all of the hard work that he has put in to being the Celtics starting center this season. He has always been a consistent rock for Boston and this game showed how important he is to this team, finishing with another double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds along with 3 blocks and a team high +28.
Queta’s impact was felt most in the fourth quarter where he and Jayson Tatum were making magic together on offense. Neemi was looking like Hakeem Olajuwon inside on the block, overpowering Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware while also showing off his touch with the floater.
7. White: Silent But Deadly
Derrick White didn’t necessarily light up the stat sheet tonight finishing with 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists on 3-4 shooting but he didn’t need to be loud to show his impact on this game.
The second quarter was where we saw how important Derrick White is to the Celtics. After making an incredible block and scoring two buckets, White was running the fast break with Jaylen Brown where he threw up an alley-oop for Brown to finish the layup. White then ran down all the way to the other side of the floor to stop Pelle Larsson from getting an easy shot at the buzzer.
White’s non-stop hustle and will to win is what makes him so impactful in Boston. Every team in the NBA would be lucky to have Derrick White on their roster and he would immediately elevate their ceiling. We are so lucky to have him.
8. Power of Pritchard
Payton Pritchard was on an incredible run over the last week when the Jays were out, even getting votes to be Eastern Conference Player of the Week. But now with both of them healthy, Pritchard was back to being the spark plug off the bench and he played his role to perfection.
Pritchard finished with 14 points and 4 assists on 5-9 shooting from the field and 4-7 shooting from three while having a +20 in 31 minutes. In this game, Payton was basically tasked as being a spot up shooter for most of his baskets. He was able to feast off of gravity that Brown and Tatum created and it felt like Miami was just fine living it with his shots.
9. Playoff Rotation
Something interesting with the way Joe Mazzulla managed his rotations was the fact that he only used 9 players tonight before garbage time. The top 6 guys being Tatum, Brown, White, Queta, Hauser, and Pritchard all played around 30+ minutes. The other guys that saw run were Baylor Scheierman who played 18 minutes and had 8 points, Luka Garza who had 12 points in 15 minutes, and Jordan Walsh who played 5 minutes.
It felt like Mazzulla was coaching this game like it was a playoff game and with 6 games to go in the regular season, we should continue see the ramp up of the top guys in the rotation while also maybe seeing the finalization of who Joe trusts off the bench.
I think Boston will cut down to an 8 man rotation with only Pritchard, Scheierman, and one of Nikola Vucevic or Garza getting run off the bench and guys like Ron Harper Jr, Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walsh used as “break glass in case of emergency” guys.
10. “They Always Easy”
The best part about playing the Miami Heat, is beating the Miami Heat. With their win today, the Boston Celtics have swept the Miami Heat in the season series with a 4-0 record. The Celtics have now won 17 of their last 20 games against the Heat including the playoffs. Boston has also won 10 games in a row on the road in Miami.
Every time the Celtics play the Heat I like to reflect on how much they have shaped this franchise. If Boston didn’t defeat them in the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals, Brown and Tatum wouldn’t have gotten that first experience in the NBA Finals. If Boston didn’t lose to them in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, we wouldn’t have seen Brown and Tatum elevate the weak points in their game and become better players. Even if Boston didn’t beat them in the 2024 First Round, we couldn’t truly appreciate the Celtics being immune to the mind games and go on to win the Championship.
So you see, for as much as the Miami Heat are rivals to the Boston Celtics, in way we should thank them for only making our two best players the best versions of themselves they possibly could be.
However, I like the way Jayson Tatum described playing the Miami Heat a little more at the 2024 Championship Parade Celebration: “They always easy.”
