Every time the Miami Heat win Game 1, they go on to win the collection.
What’s been true for the Heat in every of their earlier two playoff collection ought to be equally regarding for a Boston Celtics staff that forfeited home-court benefit with a 123-116 loss at TD Garden within the series-opener on Wednesday.
The Heat are going to stroll onto your own home flooring, and in case your staff isn’t prepared for a dogfight, Miami goes to beat you.
It’s what they did of their first-round stunner at Milwaukee’s FiServ Forum earlier than eliminating the conference-favorite Bucks in 5 video games. And it’s how the Heat superior previous the Knicks in six video games within the second spherical, first by stealing home-court benefit with a Game 1 victory at Madison Square Garden.
There’s one thing nearly emasculating about an underdog profitable Game 1 on the highway. Just ask the Celtics followers who booed their house staff off the court docket after an embarrassing efficiency with a visit to the NBA Finals on the road.
History favors the staff that wins the series-opener. Seventy-eight p.c of the groups that take a 1-0 collection lead go on to win their playoff collection.
Those numbers favor the Heat greater than another staff in current reminiscence. The Heat gained Game 1 as an underdog every spherical as a fifth seed within the 2020 NBA Playoffs on their strategy to the NBA Finals, the place they finally misplaced to LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Now, the Heat are at it once more. Head coach Erik Spoelstra advised a reporter “you’re getting way too ahead of yourself,” however the imaginative and prescient of his staff’s journey to the NBA Finals is as clear because it’s been all season.
Especially if Jimmy Butler continues to play like this.
Butler put the league again on discover when he hung 56 factors on the purported league-best Milwaukee Bucks protection. He performed on a foul ankle and nonetheless had his approach with Tom Thibodeau’s vaunted Knicks protection, and in Game 1 in opposition to the Celtics on Wednesday, he hung 35 factors on 48% taking pictures from the sector and got here up with six steals, together with the game-sealing interception with lower than a minute left within the fourth quarter.
Butler is averaging 31.5 factors per sport by means of 11 playoff video games. The larger affect, Spoelstra says, is the impact the All-Star wing has on his teammates, significantly when video games start to get shaky.
The Celtics constructed a 13-point first-half lead, however the Heat labored to forestall the deficit from ballooning getting into halftime. They then outscored the Celtics, 46-25, within the third quarter alone.
And for each bucket Butler scored, three extra got here from his teammates. Bam Adebayo scored 20 factors, and Gabe Vincent, Kyle Lowry, Max Struss and Caleb Martin every scored 15 apiece.
Spoelstra stated it’s the idea in Butler’s skills that brings ease to the remainder of the staff.
“You can’t quantify it. There’s no analytic to it. Just the feeling of stability in the locker room,” he stated. “Even when you’re down nine in the first half, we played poorly, but we have to credit Boston because they made us play poorly. There’s just a settling effect that’s impossible to quantify. We’re in striking distance. Let’s just settle into our games. Jimmy’ll make a bunch of plays, Bam will make a bunch of plays and we’ll settle into our roles. But that’s just what the great players do.”
And after Wednesday evening, the idea in Jayson Tatum has wavered.
No participant seemed extra misplaced within the closing minutes of Game 1 than Tatum, who completed with 30 factors on 9-of-17 taking pictures from the sector and an ideal 11-of-11 from the foul line however choked the sport away within the ultimate closing possessions.
Tatum turned the ball over 4 occasions in Game 1, however three of these giveaways got here within the sport’s ultimate 3:19. The Celtics’ MVP candidate forgot the right way to play basketball, touring on back-to-back possessions. He disappeared from the sport within the fourth quarter and solely scored on a pair of free throws within the sport’s ultimate 5 minutes.
This is identical famous person in Tatum who buried the Philadelphia 76ers with a 51-point efficiency in Game 7 of the second spherical.
The Celtics trailed that collection, 3-2, earlier than coming again to win in seven.
If Tatum could be that particular in opposition to the Heat, the Celtics may have an opportunity to flip the collection again into their favor in an try and make a second consecutive NBA Finals look.
One factor is for sure: These Heat aren’t the 76ers. These Heat are perennial playoff hunters.
And after Game 1, the Celtics appear to be the hunted.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com