Top Takeaways from Jimmy Butler, Heat vs. Jayson Tatum, Celtics
The Miami Heat got a much-needed win on Wednesday, topping the Boston Celtics 106-98. The victory clinched a playoff berth for Miami and gave the Heat a one-game lead over the Milwaukee Bucks at the top of the Eastern Conference.
With a two-game lead over Boston and the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami stands a reasonable chance of securing one of the top two seeds and battling a play-in team to open the postseason. It was Miami's second-consecutive win and a big result for a team that has lost five of its last 10.
The Celtics, meanwhile, have now lost two in a row and lost an opportunity to grab the No. 1 seed. Boston has five games left to play and a brutal three-game stretch—at the Chicago Bulls, at the Milwaukee Bucks and at the Memphis Grizzlies—to finish the season.
Playing without starting center Robert Williams III (meniscus surgery), Boston hung with Miami for most of the game. However, the Heat defense stiffened late, Marcus Smart was ejected in the closing seconds, and Miami capped the fourth quarter with a 27-15 run.
The good news for Boston is that it should avoid a slide into the play-n field. It has a four-and-a-half-game lead over the seventh-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.
Both Boston and Miami are headed to the postseason, and it wouldn't be a shock to see them meet there. Here are our biggest takeaways from Wednesday night's meeting in Boston.
Miami Is Regaining Chemistry at Exactly the Right Time
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A loss would have dropped Miami from the No. 1 seed, and it wouldn't have been a shock to see. The Heat had been on a slide and possibly experiencing serious chemistry issues. Last week, a heated exchange between Jimmy Butler, Udonis Haslem and coach Erik Spoelstra broke out during a loss to the Golden State Warriors.
The relationship between Butler and Miami appeared strained.
"I wonder, not only about this season, I wonder about Jimmy Butler long term in Miami, especially since he’s right on the edge there where his age and he's been banged up a little bit," ESPN's Brian Windhorst said on The Hoop Collective podcast (h/tI just, I wonder about that."
Locker-room friction can quickly derail a playoff push, but the Heat appear to have regained form at just the right time. Butler (24 points) and Kyle Lowry (23 points) led the charge on Wednesday, with Spoelstra orchestrating the right game plan against the red-hot Celtics—who had won six of seven coming in.
"We had our share of challenges going down the stretch. But what I love about this group is we come in the next day, work at it and really try to get better," Spoelstra said, per Shandel Richardson of FanNation. Those experiences make you stronger."
Things could always change in the coming days, but Miami's chemistry, drive and composure all seemed just fine in Wednesday's back-and-forth game its conference rival.
Williams' Absence Won't Derail Boston
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Losing Williams, who is a defensive centerpiece, hurts. According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the 24-year-old is expected to miss 4- weeks following meniscus surgery.
However, Boston proved against Miami that it can still be a strong defensive team with Williams out of the lineup. The Celtics didn't do enough to win, obviously, but they forced 15 turnovers and held Miami to just 34 points in the paint.
Having crafty veteran Al Horford back certainly helped. Horford had missed the previous two games for personal reasons but returned to snatch 15 rebounds and help lead Boston defensively. Horford will be a key to Boston's success down the stretch.
"Horford’s schematic impact is obvious as well—look no further than the Celtics' 48-point win over the Sixers earlier this season," Tom Westerholm of Boston.com wrote. "For years, nobody in the NBA guarded Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo better than Horford. Now, at 35, the Celtics hope he has more of the same magic left."
Meanwhile, the Celtics got solid efforts from stars Jayson Tatum (23 points, five rebounds, six assists) and Jaylen Brown (28 points, 10 rebounds, six assists). If not for some critical mistakes late—Boston had three straight empty possessions in the final minutes—the Celtics might have won.
They didn't, and that stings, but Boston can move forward confident in the fact that it can hang with the conference's best while awaiting Williams' return.
