Early Takeaways from Celtics' 2024 NBA Playoff Performance
The Boston Celtics looked like the NBA's best team over the course of the 2023-24 campaign.
Their 20-point triumph over the Miami Heat in Game 1 did nothing to soften that perception.
Granted, the Heat have been roughed-up by the injury bug—Jimmy Butler has an MCL sprain, and Terry Rozier can't shake a nagging neck injury—but Miami seems to put a competitive (certainly feisty) five on the floor no matter who is available.
So, yes, there are some things we can already take away from the opening tilt between the top-seeded Celtics and eighth-seeded Heat.
Zero Rust Detected
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The Celtics had the East's top seed wrapped up before the month of March was finished. The league's best record was sewn up in early April.
In other words, it had been a minute since Boston played any kind of meaningful basketball. Yet, no one could have noticed by its play on Sunday when scored the contests first 14 points, took a 15-point lead into intermission and stretched that advantage to 32 points by the end of the third quarter.
"It was difficult for us to trick ourselves into maintaining this crazy mindset of winning every single regular-season game [after clinching the top seed]," Kristaps Porziņģis told reporters afterward. "But we knew we had the real one coming soon, and I'm glad we came out the way we did tonight. It sets the stage for the rest of our path."
Rust would have been understandable, but it could've given the Celtics a real headache in this series. The injury-riddled Heat should be disposed of pretty easily, but the last thing Boston wants to do would be to leave the door open for an Erik Spoelstra-coached club. If Game 1 was an indication, that won't be a worry for the Shamrocks.
Boston's Offensive Firepower Is Too Much for Miami
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A team like Miami wants to turn every series into a rock fight. The problem is Boston has bigger boulders to throw around.
The Celtics had this season's most efficient offense, per NBA.com, for a reason. Similarly, the Heat sat 20 spots back in those rankings for a reason, too.
Jayson Tatum wasn't super efficient in Game 1 (7-of-18 shooting, 1-of-8 from deep). Jaylen Brown wasn't super involved in the offense (12 shots and three assists in 34 minutes). And Boston still steamrolled Miami, thanks to a three-point barrage (22 made threes to the Heat's 12) and rock-solid support scoring (double-digit points on 50-percent shooting from Porziņģis, Derrick White, Sam Hauser and Al Horford).
Miami's offense looked undermanned (because it is) and overmatched (because it is). When defensive specialist Delon Wright is your second-leading scorer (thanks almost exclusively to an out-of-nowhere 5-of-5 showing from three), your options are extremely limited.
It Could Be a While Before Questions About the Late-Game Offense Are Answered
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Ask anyone to assess the Celtics' championship chances, and you'll inevitably hear talk—likely of the skeptical variety—about their late-game offense.
Boston's best players have stumbled under the bright lights too many times for folks to forget. And, no, the club's fourth-placed ranking this season in clutch efficiency isn't enough to eliminate that concern.
Converting skeptics to believers will require the Celtics—Tatum and Brown, in particular—to deliver massive makes in the highest-stakes situations possible. Between what we saw in Game 1 and what we can see from these rosters, it's pretty obvious Boston shouldn't have to sweat out too many (if any) crunch-time minutes in this series.
So, if you're still on the fence about the Shamrocks as championship juggernauts, you'll probably still be perched up there when this series ends, quite possibly in a sweep.
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